Equals Extras: The Question of Love
A/N: This is, as promised, just a bit of worldbuilding I wrote for Equals. Includes my commentary in which I point out some things that came to mind while writing. Hopefully you find it interesting. A/N: I really need to write something happy for Equals. Any requests? Context: In Equals, male kitsune make up a small percentage of the species' population. Over time, they (referred to as "dogs"; female kitsune are "vixens") were reduced to little more than precious slaves. This text describes a part of the ideology behind this enslavement - vulpinism. CW: No direct descriptions, but animalisation, heavy misandry, institutionalised abuse, rationalisation of violence, implied sexual assault. The usual Equals stuff.
The acknowledgement of sexual dimorphism between dogs and vixens is one of the main areas of interest for vulpinism; between biology and psychology, it extends the differences to the very concept of love.
Romantic feelings are an aspect of highly intelligent creatures, motivating them to do things completely unrelated to basic survival. While natural tendencies and desires for emotional and sexual fulfillment bring vixens together, they are only the most shallow aspect of their feelings for each other. Love is a complex web of ideas, feelings and desires, one that can build up or bring down, create or destroy, bring joy or sorrow. To experience it, one needs certain mental capabilities.
Male foxes do not have said mental capabilities.
Vulpinists believe that, due to being the evolutionarily inferior sex as per their broader pseudo-scientific claims, dogs do not have the emotional intelligence required to experience love. Instead, kitsune scholars propose, their ‘love’ is identical in nature to the affection of cats, horses or pet canines. While their behaviour clearly shows positive attachment, it stems from and depends on pragmatic survival benefits: the cat ‘loves’ her mistress because she feeds it, gives it treats and cleans up after it. Remove these, and the ‘love’ will fade over time, proving there is no metaphysical element to it.
Dogs may declare love for their mistresses, but no one should make the mistake of equating it to the feelings two vixens share. This is where the idiom “dog love” finds its origin: to be in “dog love” is to appear romantically involved, but in reality focused on material and emotional benefits; in other words, it is a purely transactional relationship.
Our language reflects this state of things.
The word ‘love’ means two different things depending on its application - between two female kitsune it is a beautiful, almost paranormal sensation of selfless attachment. When speaking of love between a dog and his mistress, we infer a wholly separate kind of feeling - as previously described, a simple positive reaction tied strictly to what means of survival and instinct fulfillment she provides him.
The overarching feelings between partners significantly affect the character of sexual intercourse. To acknowledge this, we refer to it as ‘sex’ when occurring between two vixens; the physical act is, ultimately, the topmost union of bodies possible that romance strives for. Similarly, the existence of euphemisms like ‘making love’ or ‘going to bed’ in vixen vocabulary is clear proof of the underlying non-physical value of sex, or at the very least a discomfort with the frankly unsophisticated act. The latter should not be indulged as true; while we are superior in intellect to our counterparts, we are creatures of nature nonetheless, and there is no shame to be found in enjoying what is natural, provided it doesn't override reason.
Intercourse involving males is - in their minds - oriented purely on the intent. Personal affections of either side are secondary and often unimportant, as dogs do not have the self control to prioritise the emotional over the physical. They are creatures of instinct, after all. As such, ‘breeding’, where the male and the vixen intend to achieve pregnancy, is the most fulfilling kind of intercourse a dog may possibly have. Researchers found that trying for a litter invokes the same parts of the male brain that are active when a vixen has sex with her significant other. The reason for this is simple - for the male, there is nothing more important than carrying out the procreational imperative central to their psychology.
Recreational heterosexual encounters meanwhile bear the name of ‘coitus’. As with breeding, it does not focus on the dog’s mate: while her vocal demonstrations of enjoyment certainly encourage the creature, the male lacks brain development required to be selfless. Instead, the male benefits from - requires, in truth - coitus to regulate himself emotionally and physically. It provides him with satisfaction, yet again from satisfying evolutionary objectives (mating, in this case), and allows his body to expel a significant portion of male hormones produced daily. These two benefits lead to a significant reduction in male aggression and malevolence, as well as a lifting of mood. It also plays a crucial part in dog love. If his mistress does not regularly allow the male to mate with her, he lacks the most fundamental element necessary for him to be loyal and obedient. That said, encouragement is not necessary: regular heterosexual interaction is equally beneficial to the vixen, allowing her mind to “silence” the more primal voices and focus on important matters. Logically, the immense pleasure unique to intercourse with males cannot be overstated. Besides entertainment, it is a noticeable boost to self esteem and confidence.
As the smaller, more primitive male brain does not have the means to attribute any romantic character to the encounter, it cannot in any sense be considered cheating, but that goes without saying. If it weren't the case, mutual coitus wouldn't be as popular a date activity for couples as it presently is.
An often undervalued type of male interaction is, as recent studies found, intensely beneficial - ‘sparring'. In the wild, non-sapient males frequently fight between themselves in competition over a female, aiming to subjugate the rival and display to the vixen his value as a partner, capable of defending her and the litter. It has been observed to be crucial to the health of wild foxes. As our awakened dogs are too valuable to be exposed to potentially lethal fights for domination, veterinarians and behaviourists have been trying to discover a replacement. Evidence has been acquired to prove that intercourse between two males is a perfect substitute. The only downside is that, since it is not a behaviour found in nature, it needs to be arranged; regardless of the benefits, dogs do not understand it and have to be coerced into sparring with aphrodisiacs, agitating pheromones and performance improving supplements.
The benefits are clear. Allowing natural order to take its shape gives the dominant male - the buck - an outlet for his male aggression, increases testosterone, which in turn increases virility, and gives him a feeling of self accomplishment beneficial to his mental health. The submissive male, the runt, is disciplined in a powerful way that no artificial punishment can invoke - sparring speaks to the most primal part of his brain. Runts are observed to be significantly more compliant and settled after sparring sessions with dominant males.
Standard safety shock collars are advised, as with any male-on-male interaction. Dogs are prone to violence and such measures make it possible to intervene if the sparring becomes life-threatening.
Sparring is also an excellent addition to social events as the main attraction. In many cases these therapeutic experiences have been an occasion for spectating vixens to place bets and really engage with the thrilling spectacle taking place.
A handwritten note on the margin of the book’s page: Signing Factorial up for sparring was an excellent decision. He has never been so quiet and obedient. Do it weekly?
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There are some things I’d like to talk about now in relation to ‘sparring’. If you’d stay and read my commentary, I would be really honored.
First note I will make is that, at least to me, its inclusion - and the inclusion of other sexual abuse instances in the universe of Equals - is entirely natural: the core division in place is, after all, along the sexes. I feel that it's completely logical that sexuality would be a major obsession of vulpinism, just like other disgusting ideologies had their own. For example, newcomers to wild areas of the world searched for cannibalism amongst the local people and often fabricated evidence to support it.
When I first conceptualised it for Equals, I literally paused. I took my fingers off the keyboard, took a deep breath, and thought: “Wow. this is the most evil thing I have ever come up with”. Indeed, brutally speaking, it’s making the victims rape each other. But that reality alone I did not find particularly evil by itself - of course, when compared to everything else. That’s when I thought some more about it and realised why.
It is supremely evil because it destroys any solidarity within the abused group. In this specific instance, it is even more horrid than anything I have personally heard of (as in: used institutionally, enforced by the abuser group) due to how complete the annihilation is.
See, the abused group usually considers the abuser group their enemy, and other abused as their friends, allies, maybe rivals at worst. In any case, the identity of Abuser and the Abused is entirely separated. They have different goals, different characteristics, different desires, different pains and sorrows. Different clothes, immutable characteristics, ways of speaking even. A large variety of traits separates the victim from the perpetrator. But when the Abusers intertwine some of the Abused into the system of cruelty, this distinction falls apart.
Now some victims share the same behaviors and objectives with the perpetrators. The rest, victims doubly so, are in the darkest place anyone can end up. The very bottom of the Abyss. While in large victim groups there is a big pool of those in the same situation that the Abused Victim can relate to, that is fellow Abused Victims, in Equals, the men are kept in isolation of each other for ninety percent of the time. They do not know there are others who suffer like them.
There are no allies. There are no friends. Everybody despises them. Everybody hurts them. There is no person they can feel safe with. The vixens are and always were the oppressors, and now, every other guy is also a torturer, simply waiting for their chance to make their life miserable. Encounters with the latter are even more horrid, an eternal reminder that the fox is despised even by his biological fellows.
The only kindness and safety Factorial can expect from, the only thing he can turn to for comfort… Is an inanimate object…
I honestly teared up when I wrote the above sentence. If Factorial weren’t a fictional character, I’d hug him and never let go. He deserved none of this. Why is my brain wired this way? Why do I make characters that I feel really terrible for? And why do I enjoy being sad and upset about their fate? Ugh… *sniff*
The situation on the other side of the fence is not good either. Because of how belonging is processed in our minds, the Abuser Victim has lost the barrier between themselves and their torturers, and now ends up on the same side with them. They now, just like the vixens, inflict unimaginable suffering on the helpless. Of course they resist at first, they refuse, they need to be forced with drugs and cruelty to turn on an innocent. But…
But eventually this changes. Eventually, they accept what they need to do to avoid pain. Eventually, when the stress, agony and misery of their own slavery weigh too heavily on their souls, they find genuine comfort in abusing other foxes. It’s the only time they are in charge, the only time they are not constantly fearful for their safety, the only time they can pay back for what they went through, for what they experienced! It doesn’t matter that the victim has nothing to do with their pain. What matters is that he, the ‘runt’ is there, he is weaker, and the ‘buck’ can vent his anger without consequence.
This is a classic case of what is known in psychology as displacement, or the “kick the dog” effect (how grimly fitting). The stressed, unable to deal with their stress or prevent it, offloads it on a weaker party that cannot fight back. The weaker party then finds their own “dog” to kick. And then the “dog” finds a “cat” to bite. And then the “cat” tortures a “mouse”. And so it goes. Those above in the hierarchy of strength reclaim their sense of agency, sense of dignity or repair their ego by harming those below.
I have never, to my memory, been abusive to anybody around me. However, I can imagine that this is very addictive. If not, there wouldn’t be so many easy-to-spot cases of it. It is ever present in most workplaces, and is particularly brutal in prisons. This is also why, I think, it can be misidentified as ‘satisfaction from existing in a natural hierarchy of dominance’, as in vulpinism.
There is, finally, yet another aspect to being the ‘kicker’. The muddling of responsibility. After all, the ‘kicker’ is now responsible for sins of their own. They can no longer consider themselves pure. In a situation where they have a frame of reference in the form of “normal morality” from outside the hellish circumstance, this - and it can be easily proven with real life examples - makes them often hesitant to share their story in fear of being considered “in leagues” with the abuser. The outside observer almost never has the full story, or the empathy to give the Abuser Victim some space to explain, or just the ability to understand that people in bestial conditions become beasts themselves.
In Equals, the enslaved kitsune men have no frame of reference to their deeds. They consider it normal, even if the action - screams, whimpers, crying, pleading for mercy, the scent of blood - may be upsetting to them at first. For all the imagination that I (hopefully) demonstrated over my few years here on Tumblr, I cannot for the life of me imagine the absolute avalanche of guilt that would crush the Abuser Victim once he gets the chance to look at his abuse from the outside.
What do you think?
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Thanks for reading!