A thought on men and women
Sep. 21st, 2015 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdAmanda Marcotte has a post about sex robots here.
"..they are attracted to specific people whose looks and personality just does it for them. They feel affection, even love. But what happens is that gets distorted through their misogynist lens. Instead of being happy to just be with the woman they love, they instead develop an obsession to own, control and possibly consume (not literally, to be clear) her. That’s why domestic violence happens in the first place. The abuser falls for a very specific woman, but as soon as he gets her, he starts trying to contain and control and eventually squash her so that can possess her more thoroughly."
This sums up the situation in Hard Reboot PERFECTLY.
We have three men all desiring the same woman, Caitlin. All of them want her, but they all want different things from her. And at some level, they all hate her. (The fourth, Erik Ezekiel, hates her too, but purely for business reasons. She's cost him millions, if not billions. He just wants her dead.)
Ariel was first. He coveted her. His brother took her virginity, but he was the one who wanted her. He did what he could to make her his through legitimate pathways. She rebuffed him, because he was not his brother, because he could not be what she needed. So he hired Sean.
For Sean, she was an assignment. He couriered for her. On Ariel's orders, he courted her, until the clinically paranoid, pathologically shy woman let him into her life. He even married her. And somewhere in there, he fell in love with her. Until the day Zaran stole her. Then he turned obsessive, exhausting every route to find her, spending years looking for her. (My comment while writing him was "Sean, you're a fool. there are 7 billion other women in the world, many of them redheads. when you have this much power blocking you, walk away.") But he couldn't let her go, not even when it nearly cost him his life.
For Zaran she was an irritant. She not only stole from him, preferring him over other targets, but she was a woman who dared steal from him. His agents kidnapped her from her apartment. He put her through months of brainwashing and slave training. In the end, she was nothing but a sex-bot like all the others, trained into silent obedience, into mental numbness and physical wantonness.
Ariel bought her from him. But the mindless slave did not satisfy him. He could not dominate one he loved, not even if that was exactly what she needed and all she could understand. He only was obsessed with her, unable to love her as she needed to be loved and treated in that time and place. He returned her, over Zaran's protests.
“I can remake her into anything you want. I was already bored of her when you took her last time. What do you want me to do to make sure you are a satisfied customer?”
Master Ariel sighed. “I have paid you. Sell her and be done with it. You don’t want her either, since you destroyed everything that interested you about her.”
Zaran is pleased enough to sell her to Sean (who is financed by Ariel). Destroying her mentally meant she would no longer cause problems for his business. He didn't give her another thought once she was led out on a leash.
And Sean, who actually loves her, is, in the end, the one who can be what she needs as he gives her the tools to rebuild her personality and life. Her training makes him furious. The mindless obedience and programmed sexual responses enrage him. But he holds his temper, he controls himself and does what is best for her.
"..they are attracted to specific people whose looks and personality just does it for them. They feel affection, even love. But what happens is that gets distorted through their misogynist lens. Instead of being happy to just be with the woman they love, they instead develop an obsession to own, control and possibly consume (not literally, to be clear) her. That’s why domestic violence happens in the first place. The abuser falls for a very specific woman, but as soon as he gets her, he starts trying to contain and control and eventually squash her so that can possess her more thoroughly."
This sums up the situation in Hard Reboot PERFECTLY.
We have three men all desiring the same woman, Caitlin. All of them want her, but they all want different things from her. And at some level, they all hate her. (The fourth, Erik Ezekiel, hates her too, but purely for business reasons. She's cost him millions, if not billions. He just wants her dead.)
Ariel was first. He coveted her. His brother took her virginity, but he was the one who wanted her. He did what he could to make her his through legitimate pathways. She rebuffed him, because he was not his brother, because he could not be what she needed. So he hired Sean.
For Sean, she was an assignment. He couriered for her. On Ariel's orders, he courted her, until the clinically paranoid, pathologically shy woman let him into her life. He even married her. And somewhere in there, he fell in love with her. Until the day Zaran stole her. Then he turned obsessive, exhausting every route to find her, spending years looking for her. (My comment while writing him was "Sean, you're a fool. there are 7 billion other women in the world, many of them redheads. when you have this much power blocking you, walk away.") But he couldn't let her go, not even when it nearly cost him his life.
For Zaran she was an irritant. She not only stole from him, preferring him over other targets, but she was a woman who dared steal from him. His agents kidnapped her from her apartment. He put her through months of brainwashing and slave training. In the end, she was nothing but a sex-bot like all the others, trained into silent obedience, into mental numbness and physical wantonness.
Ariel bought her from him. But the mindless slave did not satisfy him. He could not dominate one he loved, not even if that was exactly what she needed and all she could understand. He only was obsessed with her, unable to love her as she needed to be loved and treated in that time and place. He returned her, over Zaran's protests.
“I can remake her into anything you want. I was already bored of her when you took her last time. What do you want me to do to make sure you are a satisfied customer?”
Master Ariel sighed. “I have paid you. Sell her and be done with it. You don’t want her either, since you destroyed everything that interested you about her.”
Zaran is pleased enough to sell her to Sean (who is financed by Ariel). Destroying her mentally meant she would no longer cause problems for his business. He didn't give her another thought once she was led out on a leash.
And Sean, who actually loves her, is, in the end, the one who can be what she needs as he gives her the tools to rebuild her personality and life. Her training makes him furious. The mindless obedience and programmed sexual responses enrage him. But he holds his temper, he controls himself and does what is best for her.
