A scientist travels to a world where males are second class citizens. They are used for slave labor or feminised household servents.

After my last trip, my team had made some improvements. We had been funded by the military. I could not see how it would be of value to them, as I could not bring anything back. It would simply stay in the universe it was created in. The major I was reporting to explained they were looking for technology. I was to take pictures of anything that may be of interest and if possible find out how it worked. When I told him the world I visited looked like it was at least 20 years behind, he told me to keep trying , or our funding would be cut.

The money had allowed for improvements in the wrist band. There was no longer a return button, now there was a sliding touch screen. On setting one, I was as solid as anything in the dimension I was visiting. On setting nine, I was practically invisible. I could not move anything or interact at this setting. We called it ghost mode. It should be useful for observing. Setting ten shut the band down and returned me home. The band worked by gradually removing me from the alternate universe

We had been sending out drones for a few days on several frequencies. Some returned showing dead worlds , many did not return at all. Surprisingly there were many frozen and volcanic realities. Life seemed a lot rarer than I anticipated.

After a morning of searching and re-aligning the gate we found an earth with the same appearance as ours. I got ready. I carried my phone to take pictures, a bottle of water and an energy bar. I was probably only going to be there for a few hours, so I didn’t need much else. If it rained I could go to level nine and the rain would pass trough me.

Standing before the gate I mused that I could eat anything there, but as soon as I returned my stomach would be empty. Then again, if I were shot, I would return bleeding, but there would be no bullet to remove.

I got the green light from my team and stepped through. I was in a large muddy field, In the distance I could see a large town. I set my band to eight, to avoid sinking in the mud and headed for the road. If anyone was watching I would appear as a distortion in the air. It would ripple slightly like a heat haze.

The sign on the road said Haven 2 miles. Off to Haven it is them. I dialled down to setting five, to give me more traction on the road. After walking for twenty minutes I was half way there. I stopped to rest and heard the rattle of a diesel engine behind me. I dialled to nine so I could not be seen, and stepped back from the road.

And old bus rattled by. The driver was an angry looking woman, who was yelling at her passengers. Through her open window I heard.

“All of you! Shut your filthy male mouths. Davidson two weeks locked.”

The passengers were all glum looking men in grey overalls. Probably a work party from a local prison. I continued walking after it passed. Looking at the condition of the bus, I held out little hope of finding useful technology. The bus looked like something from the 1950’s.

I kept my band set at nine as I entered the town. I saw the bus parked on the edge of town. The men were pushing brooms, and picking up litter while being insulted and intimidated by two female guards.

“Well then Davidson, no playing with that little toy of yours for two weeks. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I’m sorry miss, I won’t do it again.”

“If only that was true, but you know your simple monkey brain will forget once you get unlocked. Bloody men, hardly worth the bother .You keep this up and you’ll end up serving in block X. ”

“No please miss, not that, I’ll be a good boy.”

The guard, had an evil smirk. She seemed satisfied she had terrified the poor prisoner.

I carried on walking towards a row of shops. Other people were about looking around and shopping. I noticed it straight away. There were men dressed as women. There were happy confident looking women and scared unhappy looking me dressed as 1950’s housewives. Unlike the last world though, these men had short hair and no makeup. They were tidier than the bearded scruffy men on the work gang. They looked like well groomed modern men.

Some were alone shopping, but most were following women around carrying bags. It’s one of those worlds, I thought. Curiosity got the better of me. I was here to learn after all. On the corner of the street I saw a library. The was a sign outside.

“Males and Mals Strictly Prohibited.”

What the hell was a mal? There were several of the crossdressed men waiting outside. The door opened, as a short fat woman appeared with some books. I darted inside. I could not open the door as I was intangible. As the door shut I heard.

“Come on Cecil, Put those books in your bag and follow me, don’t dawdle.”

The library was almost empty. It reminded me of the old stuffy library of my childhood. There was an index system on the librarian’s desk. No computers. I wandered around looking for the modern history section.

I eventually found it upstairs with the encyclopaedias. The upstairs room was sectioned off with a rope. The sign said entry only with librarian’s permission. I should be safe up here for a little while to do some fact finding.

After setting my band to level 1, I scanned the history section. I found a book that looked like it may have the answers.

P.E.G. 100 years. The making of utopia.

P.E.G. apparently stood for Pan European Gynocracy . I took the book to an unlocked closet that contained cleaning equipment, sat down on a wooden box and started to read.

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It was world war one that caused this bizarre world. In our world it lasted from 1914-1918. Around 20 million men died. In this world the war started in 1910 and lasted until 1929. Over 18 years of war two thirds of the male population perished.

Women got the vote in 1905 and were stating to make inroads into traditional male roles before the war. With the almost the whole of Europe’s men conscripted, women were having to learn to do all the jobs the men did.

When elections were due, anti war parties promised to end the killing, to save their fathers, brothers and sons. With the electorate now being overwhelmingly female, they won with a landslide.

What no one knew at the time, was the core of these parties were run by what my universe would call radical feminists. Gradually the men in the party were sidelined. When the feminist’s knew their position was unassailable they passed a law preventing men from voting.

This was not well received, after all, most women aren’t monsters . They love their men and saw it as unfair. The politicians were masters of spin, though. They published pictures and stories of dead and dying men, crying mothers and mass graves. Men need to be protected from themselves they espoused.

Gradually laws against men were brought in. Men’s property right were reduced. Higher education was banned for boys. There were always good reasons given for this. Like the confession poem though,

There were highly publicised rape cases. Men were condemned as out of control animals. Laws were passed that males could not stay in towns and cities after sunset. This led to the building of men’s camps outside all major towns and cities. Men were bused in and out of towns every day. This upset a huge amount of women and demonstrations ensued.

As a compromise the government said that men could stay with their partners, they would not use the word wives, under the condition they were castrated. This was a first rejected out of hand, until the propaganda machine started espousing the benefits of castration.

Removes sexual urges makes your man less inclined to 'roam'
Reduces or prevents certain forms of aggressiveness.
Prevents testicular cancer.
Reduces the risk of prostatic disease in later life.
It can help to control hormone diseases such as tumours

After castration men would still be able to make love, but would need testosterone pills, which would only be give on prescription to women. Many women liked the idea of being in control of their lovemaking. There were used to being bothered by their men whenever they had the urge. Now they would be in control of when and where.

Around 10% of the female population fled the European countries, this was a step too far.Most of the world still ran on the old patriarchal system. Women that preferred the traditional ways went out of Europe. Men were prevented from leaving, as they were classed as a protected minority. Soon forms were sent to all men and their nearest female relations. These were known by the public as the chop forms. Men had the choice . Life in a work camp, or castration and life as mals.

Men were only allowed near women when supervised. Any lone male in a town after dark could be shot. While working in a town or city males genitals were to be caged. Approximately 20% of men chose to be mals. The irony was not lost on the feminist’s, the men signed away their right to their own testicles. Before they were operated on all males had to donate seven samples of sperm. This was frozen for use by present or future partners.

Running the camps proved difficult. There were riots in many of the camps. Even though they were unarmed, many of the men were experienced soldiers. These were put down with a great loss of male and female lives. The governments called in experts to solve this problem. They came up with a program to ease the tensions in the camps.

Sports were encouraged in camps. Camps played against other camps in sports like Football, Cricket and basketball. These were televised on the grainy black and white television sets that seemed to still be the only ones available in this universe. Betting was allowed, the men were paid in camp currency that they could spend money on luxury items such as sweets and cigarettes. There were a limited range of films shown. These were usually feminist approved ones and had little to no interest for the men.

Recreational drugs that mellowed your mood like narcotics, marijuana or tranquilizers were available to buy at the camp shops. Alongside the weak beer, this gave the men something to look forward to.

Sex was the next thing that needed addressing. Every camp had a “milking clinic”. Every man was expected to provide one specimen a week. They were paid a small amount of camp currency for each donation. To address the sexual tension that builds up with so many men confined in one place, homosexual sex was encouraged. This helped a little, but they knew it was not the answer.

Volunteers were sought to undergo sex change operations and work in camp brothels. Not surprisingly this yielded almost no results. The law was then changed so that any male that struck a woman, or was caught out after dark would be sent for a sex change and forced to work in the camp brothels. Any woman that committed murder or aided a man to commit a crime was also sentenced to this fate. These poor drugged up creatures provided the men with a sexual outlet.

The measures gave the women a partially contented workforce. Women were being encouraged to enjoy lesbian sex or to use sex toys. The propaganda told them there was less risk of ovarian cancer with these methods. Those women that still had their now docile castrated partners would often lend then out. The mals had little choice but to go along with their partners wishes.

The mals were entirely under the authority of their partners. They had the same rights as children. The government decided that all mals should dress as females. They reasoned that this would make them easier to distinguish between their dangerous and un-castrated brothers. Mals were not allowed facial hair, long hair or makeup. At home the mal could dress as his partner wished. Some women still preferred a man to look like a man, and what they did behind closed doors was no business of the government.

The book was around twenty year old. I wanted to know what else had happened since then. I carefully replaced it and searched for something more modern. After a few minutes I gave up and thought it better to observe first hand.

In a way this was worse than the last world. At least in that one the women were bigger and stronger, You could understand how they dominated their men. This world was almost my own, only our war had ended much earlier. I think WW2 had forced us to advance more. Radars, computers, better engines and faster planes were just some of the advances. The loss of male inventors and innovators could not of helped. This world seemed stuck in the 1960's. I had no way of finding out what the rest of the world was like. Men here had only two choices a pet or a slave.

The sky was darkening when the librarian locked up. I followed her out to the street. Many of the shops were now locking up. I passed a hardware shop with gardening equipment and a section in the window called mal training aids. There were chains, locks hoods and things that looked like small chastity cages.

One had a slogan on a small poster, that showed a woman holding a cage that read.

“He can only be used by you, fitted with cage from Steel true.”

Disturbing.

I followed a young looking mal that was trying hard to keep up with a stern looking woman with a blue rinse. He was carrying four bags of shopping and looked like he was having problems walking in his black shinny stiletto heels.

“Keep up Timmy dear, you don’t want the police to catch you out after dark again. You know what happened last time.”

“But I’m with you mummy, they won’t arrest me again will they?”

“Well my sweetie, let’s not find out. I’m feeling quite frisky. When we get home I shall give you your pill. I’ll have a nice hot bath, while you put the shopping away. When you ‘re finished, go upstairs and put on your white Y-front, those nice stripped pyjamas and splash on some of the aftershave I got you for Christmas. I want you to wait for me on the bed. You're in for a treat."

Well I thought, I am here to find out as much as I can about this place. It does not look like they have any technology my universe would be interested in though. I may as well find out how their domestic arrangements work.

I followed them home.

TBC?

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Notes

I am not sure whether to continue this story. As a general sci-fi story you could use the gateway to create any number if different worlds.
This was my feeble attempt at a story in a universe similar to Torry Grovers Educating Special Boys in the Feminist Republic and Beverly Taff's The Feminine Queendom.

I tried to explain how the world got the way it did in a semi believable manner. I always wonder with alternate world stories, "how did that happen then."