#femmeworld

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Source The intro page to the Aristasian Femmeworld Elektraspace page.

[msfenriss]

Rayati, honored readers

When I was a baby lesbian in the 80s I frequented the legendary bookstore Lambda Rising, which was located in the rather upscale gayborhood of DuPont Circle in DC. My favorite part of that store was the rack of zines made by queers of all kinds for various queer niches. I picked one up called Artemis, which purported to be for women who like women who look like women. I thought “that kind of sounds like me,” and I avidly read and reread it. It was clear that the community who made this zine were UK-based, and I was a pretty miserable teenager on the east coast of the US, struggling with more than my own share of stuff, so nothing more came of it.

About 10 years later, it was the mid-90s and I was using gopher to read Usenet. I kid you not! That is how ancient I am. I confess that I was poking around a number of groups at that time that fell into the “alt.sex” category. One day there appeared a message on the femdom group about a Feminine Empire where only girls were allowed, and that I must jump through the “shimmering portal” quickly as it would close in short order. There was a URL, which was a thing of which I had only become aware within a year or so of that fateful afternoon.

The site was called Femmeworld, and it was an absolute delight! I won’t go into any detail here about that site, as several very intelligent and competent blogesses here on Tumblr have done that. I learned about blondes and brunettes, and I was struck with a bolt of revelation that I was a brunette, and that explained me! I made sense! Of course I understood that this was all within a fantasy world and that there was no such thing as an Aristasian brunette, but it revealed to me that other women had these feelings and experiences, and had thought about and discussed it enough to invent a fictional designation.

To cut to the chase, here were these women, some of whom were enby, but also female essentialist. They were anti-patriarchal, but anti-feminist. Advocates of complete state welfare (see the “colleges” that girls can choose to live in) but entirely anti-socialist, and in fact monarchical. And of course one can’t hear about “blondes and brunettes” without immediately detecting at least a bit of racism. When questioned about that, they always insisted that in lands where girls were dark-skinned, the blondes simply had hair of silver or white, and honestly it’s a trivial point, and could I please drop the subject?

I won’t go into an extensive discussion of the implications here, but I am sensitive to them. I was raised in an actively anti-racist white family. I always strive to be aware of racism and white supremacy wherever I go in the real world and the virtual. I can only tell you that because all of my interactions were virtual, it would be hard for me to absolve the Aristasians of any such allegations, but I can say that the welcoming, vulnerable, friendly nature of these ladies suggests that hate of any kind would be quite alien to them. There were a couple of girls in Second Life whose avatars appeared to be Black, and they were accepted with as much joy and enthusiasm as all other girls present. More than that I can’t say.

For another 10 years, I popped in and out of Aristasian spaces. I contributed to forums, and even took part for a short time in an online schoolgirl RP by email. Some time in the mid aughts, it was announced that an Aristasian Embassy would be established in the virtual world of Second Life. I immediately started an SL account so I could go there (and how I spent the next 15 or so years in SL is a whoooole other narrative that isn’t particularly relevant.) I attended a couple of balls at the Embassy, and was very graciously complimented on my gown. I was present for Operation Bridgehead, but was privy to very little inside information about the disagreements that ensued. If I knew anything about that, I would not share it here. Despite any philosophical differences with these ladies, I have great respect and affection for them, and would be unwilling to air their dirty laundry, so to speak.

I was privileged to get to know Sushuri Madonna, who was at that time the undisputed leader, at least of the contingent that could be found in SL. She was entirely delightful, intelligent, and kind, and had an extremely delicate nature. Despite my best efforts not to offend, I am sure my most carefully curated speech had to seem terribly coarse to her. We exchanged some email, and she was kind enough to offer editorial assistance with a few bits of Aristasian fiction I was toying with. What little I learned about her personally, I will of course not disclose, but I felt that we were friends, and I cared for her very much. I hope she is still alive and well, and that the demise of the persona called Cure Dolly does not indicate her real life death.

Thank you for reading, and I would very much welcome discussion on the topic from anyone interested.

[iyashikeivixen]

VIK 02.20.03’344 IE NH // TUE 05.07.12’024 HE GD

Sai Furthe (my homeworld) is an all-female planet of anthropomorphi — there’re a *bare minimum* of 21 intemorphic types (blonde / brunette / redhead for Column A, plus any of the 7+ janyati for Column B).

I myself am a lilac / white vixen and a Rhavic blonde. My fur is *suuuper* floofy, and I really like to keep my headfur up in a loose low ponytail. I paint my claws baby blue, and I also wear glasses that are honestly a lot like goggles (Furthelan glasses feature a strap that goes around the backa the head to help them stay on).

As of 22.05 CDT TUE 05.07.02’024 CE GD, I’m more or less the core and host of our system (the Orchards). There’re currently about 90 or so of us in Aethyrcadia, and new walk-ins still move in on a fairly regular basis.

Despite my Picrew as of the time of writing this post, my legs are actually *digitigrade*. Furthelani proudly produce an amazing selection of digitigrade footwear in my source material [1], each specifically tailored to the myriad rainbows of Furthelan types and species.

I understand that my identity might… *conflict* (to say the very least) with what the greater Feminine Empire has stood for historically and still stands for today, but all… “this” ↑ is just me doing my own thing. I realize that mixing these two subcultures together is *the* definition of unorthodox — if not utterly unwelcome, based on OG Femmeworld’s apotheosis of all things ���up-to-date” (vintage, from a West Tellurian POV) [2].

Regardless, I’ve identified as an anthro vixen since *at least* late 2002 CE GD, and Aristasia is literally *the* reason I figured out I’m trans (MTF) in Shared Reality. Both Furrydom and Aristasia constitute a great part of who I am in this world, and both have brought the most *amazing* beings into my life — both *on* and *off*line.

〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜　〜

[1] My source material’s an anthro AU of “Aristasia”.

[2] In the OG Aristasian story “The Adventure of the Crystal Staff” by Author Unknown, a talking rabbitlike creature known as a chenkireet makes an appearance. If talking animals can exist in canon, it’s not much of a stretch for anthro intemorphi to *also* exist in an AU.

[sexandbicycles]

#Toasting with ladies who grabbed life by the horns 😈 One is a structural engineer, one is a sous chef at the biggest resort in AZ, one is a lawyer, and the other is a sommelier in NYC. I met these girls before I started my career, and we've watched each other grow. I never even realized how badass we'd turned out until I look back at these moments captured by @theapartmentphoto! . . . #femmeworld #bridesmaids #raylexis2019 #raylexiswedding2019 #forestwedding #sunwolf #canadawedding #bridesmaidsrobes #thefutureisfemale (at Sunwolf) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_sbcaMHVLv/?igshid=1jgywvh9dq6ch

[diamondmind]

saw it, felt it, made it

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

The splash page for Femmeworld, one of the first Aristasian sites in elektraspace. So perhaps from 1996 or so. You can view it archived here.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

“Femmeworld” was an early Aristasian website that was a bit like an old eZine. This does a pretty good job of laying out what Aristasia was about at the time.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

I had to download tumblr for the first time in years to ask this but I was looking through the femmeworld timeline and I just had a question about the “Mushrooms go to America” entry in Feb 2006. What was the source of that and what does it mean exactly? Thanks!!

Hello there! Sorry if the Femmeworld Timeline is a bit vague and full of mysterious words. I swear it all made sense when I was adding to it! I can see how "Mushrooms go to America" is a bit of a head scratcher, but it is a reference to this post in "The Morning Letter", titled "Mushrooms in America". It's a bit perplexing if you don't know the ins and outs of who's who of Aristasia, but "Princess Mushroom" was presumably the modern era name for Miss Priscilla Langridge, or one of the foundresses of Aristasia (who was also involved going all the way back to Lux Madriana). She lived with a handful of other Aristasian girls and their household appeared to be referred to as "The Mushroom Kingdom" and, therefore, while she was the Mushroom Princess (or often just "The Shroom"), her housepettes were also referred to collectively as mushrooms. It's not a vacation for the history books, but it's a page in the Aristasian history books that's remembered fondly, perhaps because it reminded people that Aristasia was made up of real girls, doing real things, in the real world. Or at least the Tellurian real world, it wasn't their real world. But with the "Mushrooms in America" people saw that this wasn't just an anonymous forum of people faking something, but an actual way of life for some people. When I originally added it to the Femmeworld Timeline, I estimated it happened in Feb 2006, presumably because of an archived page I saw, but the Wayback Machine actually has it archived first in June 2005.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

A Traveller's Guide to Aristasia

The Great Feminine Empire Explained for Beginners

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

Source

IF YOU are to understand Femmeworld, you must also understand our Mother Country, Aristasia. Aristasia, exists on another plane of being, accessible only through certain magical doorways and through the magico-electronic "shimmer-field" through which Cyberspace passes into Elektraspace.

Aristasia is a vast Empire of seven Provinces. each province is a nation in its own right, ruled over by its own Queen; and each of these Queens owes allegiance to the High Empress herself who lives in Ladyton, the capital of the Empire. Far in the East are ancient lands, some with their own Empresses, who owe but doubtful allegiance or none to the High Empress Celestia, but of these lands we need say little, for they are hard to reach, being outside the range of technics. No aeroplane can fly there nor motor carriage run there, and many are the ancient mysteries hidden in those lands.

From Quirinelle in the West, and the curious Isle of Infraquirinelle in the Golden Sea beyond, to the Holy city of Rayapurh, far in the East whence but few travellers have returned; from the silver Art-Neo light-planes of Novaria (ruled over by young brunette Viktoria) to the horse-carriages of Arcadia (ruled over by the mature blonde Victoria); from the bustling streets and the bright lights of Ladyton to the gentle rural serenity of Marywater or the intelectual fervour of the ancient University of Milchford, Aristasia is a land of many moods and many changes; far greater than those of your world, for it is rather as if modern New York, Pericleian Athens and ancient Byzantium were all on the same globe at the same time.Yet for all the vast distances of the Empire and for all the many varieties of civilisation found therein; certain things, when compared to the world of Telluria, unite all its peoples and places. To speak simply, there are three great differences that divide the lands and peoples of Aristasia from the world you, dear reader, may know.

The first difference is that in Aristasia there are no men. All the inhabitants are feminine. There are nevertheless two sexes in Aristasia: blondes and brunettes.

Aristasian brunettes are about as feminine as a normal human woman--that is to say, about twice as feminine as a human woman in the last quarter of the 20th century. Aristasian blondes, on the other hand, are ultra-feminine. Those who incline to the belief that "feminine" is merely a synonym for "weak" will, we trust, learn in the course of her sojourn in Femmeworld to amend that notion.

What exactly constitutes the magical quality of femininity is too great and too mysterious a matter for us to enter into here. Suffice it to say that much of what makes Aristasia what it is--that gives it its special character and flavour--lies in its nature as an all-feminine world.

As we have said, however, there are three qualities which distinguishAristasia from the world with which we imagine our reader to be more familiar. The second of these is that many of the qualities that, in your world, belong to the dimension of time belong in Aristasia to the dimensions of space. Thus the seven Provinces of Aristasia shown on our map have many of the properties which, in your world, belong to historical periods. The Province of Quirinelle, for example, is in many respects equivalent to your 1950s, the Province of Trent to your 1930s, the Province of Arcadia (in its more Westerly parts) to your Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the province of Amazonia to the pre-historic matriarchal civilisations of your world. The Province of Novaria corresponds to the 2020s and 2030s which in your world (atthe time of writing) we do not believe to have come about yet.

You will notice also that, while both your past and your future havecorrespondences among the Aristasian provinces, your present does not. This brings us to the third and perhaps the most important distinction between Aristasia and your world.

Aristasia is still sane. It did not suffer any equivalent to the culturalEclipse which took place in your 1960s, leaving all values inverted, replacing the love of beauty with the love of ugliness, the love of order with the love of chaos and giving over all normal human loyalties, decencies and truths to vilification or to mockery. This is why there is not and could not be any Province which bears any relation to the decades of darkness following your Eclipse.

This third distinction is, as we have said, the most significant between your world and Aristasia. The all-feminine constitution of Aristasia and thetransposition of time and space are great differences, to be sure; but compared to this third matter they are relatively minor. They are such distinctions as may exist in the boundless universe between sane and normal worlds, made up of people fundamentally human, and sharing the affections and sensibilities of rational creatures everywhere. Only in this last particular are the two peoples set apart one from another as complete aliens.

The first and third of the three distinctions are more closely related than may initially be apparent. The fundamental symptom of your Eclipse was the almost complete annihilation of the feminine principle in your world brought about by a number of causes but led by the extreme masculinist movement (sometimes misknown by the outlandishly inverted name of "feminism", although there is another and higher feminism which seeks to serve and restore the feminine rather than destroy it) whose aim was to annihilate the feminine in its last place of refuge--the hearts of women themselves. While to your materialist philosophy, this may seem like a mere incidental, can you not see that the elements of form and beauty, of harmony (and therefore of order and right relations with nature), of homeliness (and therefore of loyalty) belong to the feminine pole of existence: that all the things you have lost, all the diseases that corrode your world, are but symptoms of your primary rejection of the feminine. The problem did not begin with your Eclipse, but there it reached its dark consummation: there it turned from a congenital weakness to a dark, consuming fever.

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Just some circa 2001 stats for the old Aristasia forums. I just find this interesting. A lot of people would frequently visit the forums to watch, but only a limited few were interacting and commenting. It's hard to say what the lurkers were thinking. Were they aching to make contact with the femmeworld? Were they simply bemused at what they were seeing?