The Life of Riley

The Life of Riley

 By Susan Riley

Former Area Manager

 Part One: How my life changed

My name is Susan Riley. At least, it used to be. Now they just call me Riley, or cunt, or bitch, or slut, or bimbo, or other equally charming insults. Once upon a time I was what they used to call a liberated woman. I earned good money as an area manager for a large company, in charge of a dozen stores. I was making around fifty thousand a year, drove a top of the range BMW, and owned a large five-bedroom house in an exclusive area. Then, one day, my world changed for ever.

It came almost out of the blue. You couldn't say that there was no warning, just that we didn't take the warning signs seriously. The foundation of the League for Male Supremacy ten years ago was widely regarded by everyone in politics, the media, and even society in general, as a complete joke. No one thought they would even get a single local councillor elected. Yet in ten short years they managed to become the government of the country. Their programme was simple and straightforward. At least you couldn't accuse the bastards of not saying what they really meant. They told us all that women were second-class citizens, indeed, should not even be considered as citizens at all. Their election promises included a promise to strip us of the vote and the right to stand for election, the right to serve on juries, the right to hold any position of responsibility over a man, the right to own property or money, even the right to sue men for breach of contract or other financial irregularities. They promised to take away the children of single mothers by force for adoption by married couples, to forbid women to attend universities or other institutions of higher learning, and to stay at school later than the age of fourteen. All these promises came true when, just two short years ago, to the amazement of almost everybody - certainly of most women - the League of Male Supremacy actually won the election with a majority of fifty-one. Once in power, other changes soon followed, even worse than those already promised. There was a group within the League called the Fembashers who wanted much tougher action against women. They were so extreme in their views that even some of the League's MPs considered them completely out of touch with reality. Yet, within thirteen months of taking power, the leader of the Fembashers had led a successful revolt within the party and taken over the leadership. He was now in charge of the country.

If it wasn't all so horribly real, what the Fembashers did to us would seem like either a sick joke or a surreal nightmare. Yet, believe me, it was real enough. Until Mark de Sade, the Fembashers leader, became leader of the country the position of women had been difficult but not intolerable. Under his rule, it became hell on earth for women.

To begin with, he rushed through new laws that took everything away from us overnight. At least the League had promised that existing arrangements about jobs and property would be honoured, just that no future ones that involved women would be allowed. He pushed through a ten-minute bill that stripped us of all our status and assets from the moment the bill passed. In ten short minutes I lost my house, my car, my credit cards, my bank account, and my job as Area Manager.

Some of the women tried to protest, and four thousand of them turned out in force to demonstrate against the new law. The police were publicly ordered by Sade to make an example of them. They steamed in, brandishing their nightsticks, without any provocation. The TV showed the horrific pictures of eight hundred police deliberately beating up unarmed women. Apparently acting on instructions from Sade himself, they concentrated on beating the women's heads, faces, tits, arses, bellies and cunts. Blood poured out everywhere and when they'd finished beating them up they arrested all the women for "behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace!" What a fucking joke.

Another new law was promptly rushed in the very next day, allegedly as a response to the "unprovoked violence of extreme feminists." Under this new regulation, a woman accused of a crime was not allowed to have the services of a defence lawyer. Unlike men, they would also be presumed guilty unless proved innocent. They were not allowed to hear the "evidence" against them before the trial, nor were they allowed to cross-examine witnesses while they were on trial. They were also not even allowed to call any witnesses on their behalf. They were also forbidden to refuse to answer any question, however irrelevant, even on the grounds that it might incriminate them. The prosecution lawyers (all men by now, of course) were allowed to harass, interrupt and generally intimidate the female defendants pretty much as they liked. Even the mildest protest by a woman on trial would earn her an automatic five years in prison with hard labour on top of whatever sentence she was given for her alleged crimes. If she refused to enter a plea, the court was instructed to automatically enter a plea of guilty. As you can imagine, no woman has ever been acquitted since the new trial system was brought in.

The police were also instructed to treat all women being arrested as if they were resisting arrest unless it could be proved otherwise. This gave them carte blanche to use habitual and even extreme violence against women. The result was a surge in applications from men to join the police force. Before long, any woman on the streets looked on the police force as a threat to themselves rather than a protection for them.

Within a week, again on the pretext of "extremist feminist activity," a new law was passed that allowed the police to keep female suspects in custody without giving any reason for their actions for up to eight months before either charging or releasing them. Naturally, no woman was ever released under the new system. And, of course, since the police could hold females in custody for up to eight months, they did so. For the whole eight months. As you can imagine, they were not allowed any access to their own family and friends during this time, still less a lawyer.

As you can also imagine, with females held helpless and incommunicado for eight months by the police, abuse of the women in custody began to occur. At first the government simply denied that it took place, then they tried to avoid the issue, and then they began to make excuses. It was four months after the new custody laws had been introduced before the government openly announced that prisoner abuse had taken place. However, far from apologising for it, they decided to legalise it retrospectively, claiming that the women concerned were criminals anyway and that human rights laws did not apply to them. From that moment all it was a complete free for all in the police stations. Anything went with a female suspect.

The next step was to change the system of punishments in existence. Up to that time there was no death penalty, and physical punishment of any kind had long been outlawed, along with hard labour in prisons. Sade brought back capital and corporal punishment, as well as hard labour, but of course these punishments only applied to women.

A minimum sentence for any alleged offence by a female was laid down, of two years imprisonment with hard labour. The average sentence for a woman soon became five to ten years with hard labour. Hard labour meant exactly what it said, too. It wasn't just sewing mailbags, washing laundry or floors, or gardening. Women in prison were set to really hard physical labour. Females regularly collapsed of exhaustion or even died under the strain of breaking stones and rocks, lifting or pulling heavy loads, and other punishments of that nature.

Capital punishments were carried out in public. The following methods of execution were brought back into use: hanging (using the slow drop method, naturally); the electric chair; the gas chamber; the guillotine; the firing squad; beheading by axe; crucifixion; burial alive ; burning at the stake; stoning; and flaying alive. Corporal punishments were also carried out in public, ranging from caning, birching, whipping, and even mutilation. Public humiliation methods were also used, and the dunces' cap, the scold's bridle, the ducking stool, the barrel, the cangue, the stocks and the pillory all made an unwelcome reappearance. Unwelcome to the poor helpless unfortunate women who endured them, anyway.

New criminal offences were also laid down, outlawing lesbianism, adultery (only for women, naturally), feminism and "aggravated feminism," whatever that was. In a typical example of the hypocrisy that motivated the Fembashers, prostitution was legalised but it was forbidden for women to live off "immoral earnings." They could fuck and be fucked by men, and tout for custom in public without any penalty, as long as only their pimps benefited financially.

The marriage laws were the next things to be changed. It was now absolutely forbidden for a woman to choose or even have any say in whether or not she got married, still less who she married. Only the men had the right to decide her marital future. If she did get married, she had to swear to love, honour, and obey her husband in all things. She had to promise to be faithful to him sexually unless he directed her to fuck other men for his pleasure or financial gain. Naturally, she had no right to divorce or even separate from him under any circumstances. He, on the other hand, could divorce her whenever he felt like it, and had no need to give any reason for wanting a divorce. All he had to do under the new law was to turn to his wife and say the words " Fuck off, cunt, I'm divorcing you."

Custody of the children following a divorce was also naturally always given to the man. The law specifically prohibited women from ever having any custodial rights. As for the "financial settlement" following a divorce under the new laws, the wife, and only the wife, was solely responsible for the payment of alimony. She had to pay her husband money for the children that had been taken away from her. Under the new laws, she was even denied any right of access to her children. Only the husband decided when, where and even if she could see her own children. Even if she was paying fantastic amounts of alimony to him, she still had no right to see them, only a privilege at his discretion.

Ex-husbands often used this power to extort higher amounts of alimony from the luckless wife. Others simply took the money and still refused, out of sheer spite, to let the woman have any access to her own children.

The next law to be brought in was the so-called Morality Act. It began by laying down the principle that a husband could never be guilty of raping his wife whatever the circumstances. The law then argued that the same thing must also be true of partners, ex-partners, boyfriends, and ex-boyfriends. Any attempt by a woman to file a charge of rape against a man who came into any of those categories was now a criminal offence, known under the new laws as "sexual defamation of character." The penalty for such a "false" charge was laid down as a minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment with hard labour, together with a public flogging and a day in the pillory. It was also laid down in the "Morality Act" that a woman had no right to refuse her husband or any of the men covered by the rape exclusion clauses their "absolute and unqualified right to use her body for their sexual gratification, whenever, wherever, or however they wished to do so."

The second section of the Morality Act laid down strict rules as to how women should behave under the new order. In the first place, they were absolutely forbidden to wear trousers, jeans, or any other garment that covered up their legs. Only skirts or dresses could be worn, and neither garment was allowed to have a hemline lower than the knee. It was also forbidden for a woman's arms to be covered below the elbow, or for her to cover up her head or neck. Wearing tights or stockings was also highly regulated. Only prostitutes were allowed to wear fishnets, at least in public. In the same way, only they could now wear boots, which had to be thigh-high. Other women had to wear six-inch heels in public at all times. Any form of covering for the head was also forbidden to women.

This last provision brought out one last burst of resistance, from the Muslim girls who tried in vain to insist on wearing their garments that covered the head and even face completely. The police, enforcing the law, steamed into the women with extreme violence. The girls were stripped naked in the street, beaten viciously and sentenced to a day in the pillory and ten years imprisonment with hard labour. After that even Muslim resistance went underground. Since then the occasional terrorist attack has been mounted by Muslims but, with the penalty for such attacks always being death, only the most committed have dared to take on this repressive regime. The League has almost smashed opposition in the country.

A further section of the "Morality Act" laid down that women were forbidden under any circumstances to seek advice on or be allowed to use any form of contraception, except where it had been specifically requested on their behalf by their husbands or " other lawful lords." Only men could decide whether or not birth control was to be used; only they could decide, if it was used at all, what form it would take. Most men simply refused to use any at all, relying on oral and anal sex as their preferred methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies.

In the same way, women lost the right to decide on the question of abortion. Only the men could decide if or when she had one. She might want the baby, but her husband insisted on an abortion; or she might want an abortion, but her husband insisted that she go through the pregnancy. Only the decision of the man mattered. Women officially had no say whatsoever in the matter.

The government used the protests and subsequent terrorist acts by Muslim women as an excuse for further repression. They rushed out a new Civil Constitution, under which what remaining rights women still possessed were ruthlessly stripped away from them. They were forbidden to drive cars, to receive education at school later than the age of fourteen, to own a credit card, chequebook or cashcard. In addition, they were required to carry an identity card with them at all times, which had to include a full-size nude picture of themselves. Police officers were legally entitled to stop and search any woman at random and check her physical characteristics against those of her body as shown on the identity card. The legal status of women was also fully defined for the first time since the League came to power. In the first article of the new constitution, the following "principles" were laid down:

" A woman is not and cannot be a citizen of the community. Only human beings can be full citizens, and since women are not human, they cannot be citizens. In the same way, since only human beings can own property, women cannot own property. Indeed, they are the property, and property cannot own anything. Each female from the moment of her birth is legally the property of her father, or, failing him, a male family member, or, failing him, a ward of the state. Only on marriage, or on being sold into slavery to another man, can her state of ownership change. Even then, it is only a change of owner, not a change of status. For the duration of her life, a woman is and will remain the owned property of a man."

That really sealed our fate. Other sections of the constitution made it a criminal offence for any political party or any other organisation to seek to introduce changes in the law with regard to the status of females. The existing opposition parties - the Reform Party, the Socialist Alliance and Liberal Action - hastily dropped all their female candidates and banned women from membership. They took good care to change their propaganda so that, whatever else they might promise at the next election, it would most certainly not lead to any improvement in women's lives.

Other measures followed soon after. The new Criminal Justice Act legalised sexual harassment at work and in public places; licensed the date-rape drug Rohypnol and made its use legal, extending the already generous rape exemption clauses to those men who used it to drug girls and women in order to rape them; virtually legalised domestic violence by allowing the husband or other " lawful male guardian " almost complete freedom in how he chose to " chastise " or " discipline " his " errant wife " or " domestic slut ." This last term of abuse was now the official designation for an unmarried woman who lived with a man.

A new Labour Relations Act gave employers a free hand to " chastise " and " discipline " their "disobedient, disrespectful, ungrateful or unruly female employees." The prohibitions against displaying nude pictures or images of women in their place of work were also repealed, and naturally they sprang up everywhere. New contracts of employment were drawn up for women workers, which stated explicitly that no female could ever be placed in any position of authority or responsibility over any male employee. The highest position they could ever attain was that of a supervisory position over other women. A woman's pay was officially fixed at a maximum of one-quarter of a man's wage. The minimum working day for a woman was also fixed at twelve hours. No maximum was set. Overtime was of course compulsory, at the discretion of the employer. The rate of pay for overtime was also fixed at exactly half of the standard rate, on the grounds that after a twelve-hour shift, women could not possibly work as well during the overtime period as during the standard hours! Female employees were also now officially required to be " attentive to the needs and requirements of their superiors at work," which basically meant, at least in practice, that bosses, for the first time since the abolition of slavery, were legally entitled to sexually abuse, fuck, prostitute and even torture - sorry, " chastise " - their female employees at will. Lunch breaks and tea and coffee breaks were also forbidden to women workers. They had to continue working non-stop throughout their entire shift.

Women were allowed to join trade unions, but they were forbidden to vote in union elections or to hold any office of responsibility. They were also specifically exempted from any improvements in wages or terms and conditions obtained for the male members of the union by the shop stewards or other negotiators. The main reason for allowing women to join unions was because the male leadership of the unions saw an opportunity to enrich their own coffers at the expense of the women workers. It cost the employers nothing to allow them to join, and the exclusion of females from any working benefits that the unions might be able to negotiate with the employer meant that it was a purely anti-feminist measure, not an anti-employer's one.

On-the-spot fines were also laid down for the slightest transgression by women workers. A female employee turning up one minute late for work would be fined an hour's wages, being further punished by receiving six strokes of the cane on her bare arse and made to carry out her duties for the remainder of the day completely naked. As you can imagine, women left for work ridiculously early to avoid even the faintest possibility of turning up late and facing these dire "penalties."

I will tell you about my working life in the next instalment of my diary.