Inside the Planet of the Women | 1, 2, 3

Process

Although certain variables may affect the process and the way in which it unfolds, I have been able to divine the basic steps inherent in the cultural acquisition system.

Step One: Foraging

The first step in the basic pattern involved a female foraging in search of a particular Avatar. Why a given female selected a specific Avatar was unclear. Considering that the denim lower-body garment seemed to transcend the caste system, I wondered if the caste system was ingrained in the females to the degree that they already knew which subset of shoes was appropriate for their caste.

Further, some of the females could be seen raising the fabric of their lower-body garments, apparently to evaluate shoes against their bare skin. This display also seemed to transcend caste, and must have served some other social purpose.

Steps Two and Three: Commanding a Service Male and Acquiring Territory

The next two steps were interchangeable, and pursuing either one first had its merits and drawbacks for the females. A female, having selected an Avatar, next commanded a Primary to find a version suited to her foot size, and acquired a territory, in the form of a Chair, to serve as a base while evaluating the selected shoes.

I noted that females were often successful, at least initially, in commanding a Primary if they did so prior to acquiring a Chair. These females were free to seek out Primaries wherever they roamed. However, the Primaries often had difficulty in locating these females after returning from the Den with their selections, especially in overcrowding conditions, and as such were easy prey for other females in the area.

Meanwhile, females who secured a Chair were limited in their opportunities to subsequently command a Primary. This was due to the fact that, in order to defend the Chair, the female often could not stray far from it. A Primary would have to pass within her sphere of influence in order for her to effectively command him. However, with the female's territory already established, once contact with a Primary was made, the Primary tended to return from the Den to the female with her selections quickly.

Step Four: Evaluation

An evaluation phase followed. First, the Primary applied a disposable covering to each female foot. The covering seemed to be used prophylactically. But was it to protect the females, the shoes, or both? I was unable to tell, but allow me to suggest a logical argument. If a shoe was tried on by a number of females, a case could be made for keeping the shoe in as pristine a condition as possible. Thus protected, a female could feel assured that the shoe had not been unduly affected by another female.

The Primaries also carried silver wedge-shaped blades, which they used to assist the women in applying the shoes onto their feet. This seems to indicate a precision with which the shoes must be made and fitted. I noted that females often requested multiple copies of the same shoe from the Den, which must be proof of the difficulty in finding the exact correct size.

The females then tested out the shoes by moving about the area in them. Each female seemed to take unique paths, leading me to wonder whether the trial pattern was instinctually ingrained. The one thing each female seemed to have in common was that all eventually sought to evaluate the shoe in a pane of reflective glass. These "Mirrors" were tall enough to display the whole of their bodies, which would seem to allow a female to evaluate the shoe in relation to the whole; that is to say, perhaps, in terms of an image of the self. Indeed, some females could even be observed squinting into these Mirrors - perhaps using the imaginative capacity I postulated earlier.

Eventually, a decision was made regarding the shoes. If selected, the female might take the shoes to the service station herself, or the Primary might offer to do so. If not selected, the cycle might be repeated, or the disappointed female might depart, and the Secondary would then come through to return the discarded shoes to the Den.

Territory

The nature of territory and possession was confusing. Personal boundaries changed and territorial zones overlapped or segmented throughout the process. However, I will try to summarize what I observed.

The females appeared, at the initial foraging stage, to lack boundaries of personal space. I watched as they jostled against each other frequently during this stage, without incident.

Once it became necessary for a female to acquire a Chair territory, though, the rules changed. Females defended their Chairs until they decided to go to the special station to complete a shoe acquisition, or decided to leave unsatisfied. Females, who brought their offspring or their personal service males with them, often used them to mark off a Chair territory for later use. These persons were often looked upon with disdain or outright scorn by other females attempting to acquire territory, but care was taken not to disturb them, so as not to raise the ire of the owning female. When overcrowding situations were present, though, some daring females opted to challenge the interlopers. The consequences were serious, involving direct confrontation between females, and causing great alarm amongst the natives in the area.

Females, allowed the space to do so, would not select a Chair directly next to another female. Instead, they tried to ensure there was an empty Chair on either side of their selected Chair. Eventually, overcrowding required females to select Chairs exactly next to each other. When this happened, the females became much more conscious of personal space. Most moved within a very narrow bodily range - tucking in elbows, bending over to adjust shoes rather than raising them to the opposite knee, holding shoes straight out for evaluation, rather than crossing them over the knee.

And yet there appeared to be overlapping territorial zones for test-walking in shoes. Even more interestingly, the females tended to be aware of the acquisition stage in which other females were. Test-walking females were careful to avoid entering the physical space of females in Chairs, but not so careful with the personal space of females investigating the display Avatars.

Next page | The relation between the sexes seemed quite impenetrable at first blush.
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