Plot Idea - Chose Your Own Misery
You know those internet hypertext stories? When, reading through Pandagon, about what the Bush and Cronies are doing to women, the latest of which is blaming abortions for the shortage of canon fodder for the Iraq War...I thought about having a Chose Your Own Misery hypertext, where every path eventually leads to misery no matter what the protagonist chose, if Bush Co have their way. Remember Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale? Christ, Canada, is ahead in terms of keeping abortion rights and gay marriage, but in terms of the social safety net, we are taking rapid steps backwards with the continued funding cuts in spite of the inflation. I worry about the post-uni debt, and I worry about not being able to afford having kids before I'm old and not having enough time to spend with them because outside of Quebec, work hours are increasing. ...and sexual assault is still a major problem in Canada, especially among youths (at least those cases are prominent right now, there was a gangrape of a teenager by her peers who was caught on camphone and the photos passed around, this is in Toronto). I hate how I couldn't walk home after dark without constantly looking over my shoulders.
I hate how women of North America, are once again, being backed into a no-win situation.
It'll start with, 'Kimberly', in high school.
Possibilities During High School:
1. Go to a party, get sexually assaulted, be branded a slut, with a possibility of getting pregnant after being denied Plan B.
2. Not go to the party, get sexually assaulted in the after hours after having been targeted, this being the final result of someone posting her contact information and daily routine online and betting on who will get to assault her first.
3. Start hanging with a quiet study group.
3a) Join in political peace protest, gets blacklisted, maybe fall in love with someone who'll get disappeared.
3b) Fall in love with a girl in her study group
3b-1 Gay bashing
3b-2 Joins a program and gets 'cured', she also likes men anyways, but she'll end up getting married to someone she's not in love with and conforming to the expected role of housewife devoted only to other people.
4. Go to the party, lied that she couldn't drink because of dental work, met a really charming guy who couldn't accept no.
4a) She turns him down, (see after high school because the story isn't over)
4b) They date, they have sex, he hated using condoms so he didn't use it property, she couldn't afford the $15/month pills and her doctor had made the moral decision not to proscribe it for her anyways. She gets pregnant.
4b1) He runs out on her, she quits school, the government denies and denies her need for the little welfare there is out there.
4b1a) The baby gets sick, she gets in debt, they wouldn't give the baby treatment and the bank wouldn't give her a loan because she has nothing to mortgage, between the paperwork the baby dies.
4b2) He couldn't run, fought tooth and battle before forking over child support, resents her, eventually kills her and the child. Or he doesn't, but sometimes they'll almost wish he had.
Okay, have to figure out where to put this, but there is the possibility of her dying from a back alley abortion, or, being caught, being sent to jail along with the doctor, being forced to give birth while tied down, no say over whether or not she gets cut open. Her baby then taken away from her to be dumped in an orphanage or shuffled between WASP homes that won't be checked and where sexual abuse and neglect and hate-preaching is common.
Survives high school, couldn't afford university or even college. Marries and/or get struck in a minimum wage job, gets called lazy by people born with silver spoons in their mouths. Or, joins the army, and well, that ain't pretty either.
Suppose she gets into university, there is still the drunken frat boys and their sexist bullying culture, there is still that she can graduate with high marks but she still have less of a chance in engineering or business outside of the Old Boys'Club.
When she's finally old enough to want to have a baby, if she does, she will find that she still couldn't afford it. Maybe, due to the crap world she lives in, she couldn't even find someone that she is in love with to marry, even if she does want to marry, someone who she is in love with and not anyone who'll say yes provided she cooks and cleans and swallows. Or maybe she'll fall in love with someone who happens to be a woman, can't marry, can't adopt, or did and have their child confiscated after the latest Protection of Traditional Family bill.
I hate how women of North America, are once again, being backed into a no-win situation.
It'll start with, 'Kimberly', in high school.
Possibilities During High School:
1. Go to a party, get sexually assaulted, be branded a slut, with a possibility of getting pregnant after being denied Plan B.
2. Not go to the party, get sexually assaulted in the after hours after having been targeted, this being the final result of someone posting her contact information and daily routine online and betting on who will get to assault her first.
3. Start hanging with a quiet study group.
3a) Join in political peace protest, gets blacklisted, maybe fall in love with someone who'll get disappeared.
3b) Fall in love with a girl in her study group
3b-1 Gay bashing
3b-2 Joins a program and gets 'cured', she also likes men anyways, but she'll end up getting married to someone she's not in love with and conforming to the expected role of housewife devoted only to other people.
4. Go to the party, lied that she couldn't drink because of dental work, met a really charming guy who couldn't accept no.
4a) She turns him down, (see after high school because the story isn't over)
4b) They date, they have sex, he hated using condoms so he didn't use it property, she couldn't afford the $15/month pills and her doctor had made the moral decision not to proscribe it for her anyways. She gets pregnant.
4b1) He runs out on her, she quits school, the government denies and denies her need for the little welfare there is out there.
4b1a) The baby gets sick, she gets in debt, they wouldn't give the baby treatment and the bank wouldn't give her a loan because she has nothing to mortgage, between the paperwork the baby dies.
4b2) He couldn't run, fought tooth and battle before forking over child support, resents her, eventually kills her and the child. Or he doesn't, but sometimes they'll almost wish he had.
Okay, have to figure out where to put this, but there is the possibility of her dying from a back alley abortion, or, being caught, being sent to jail along with the doctor, being forced to give birth while tied down, no say over whether or not she gets cut open. Her baby then taken away from her to be dumped in an orphanage or shuffled between WASP homes that won't be checked and where sexual abuse and neglect and hate-preaching is common.
Survives high school, couldn't afford university or even college. Marries and/or get struck in a minimum wage job, gets called lazy by people born with silver spoons in their mouths. Or, joins the army, and well, that ain't pretty either.
Suppose she gets into university, there is still the drunken frat boys and their sexist bullying culture, there is still that she can graduate with high marks but she still have less of a chance in engineering or business outside of the Old Boys'Club.
When she's finally old enough to want to have a baby, if she does, she will find that she still couldn't afford it. Maybe, due to the crap world she lives in, she couldn't even find someone that she is in love with to marry, even if she does want to marry, someone who she is in love with and not anyone who'll say yes provided she cooks and cleans and swallows. Or maybe she'll fall in love with someone who happens to be a woman, can't marry, can't adopt, or did and have their child confiscated after the latest Protection of Traditional Family bill.