Explore the novel The Willing by Lindsay Lees:
In the country of Ovoidia, the Head Gajes, made up over time of several generations of female leaders, had determined that in order to live in a crime-free society, certain sacrifices had to be made. These totalitarian-style leaders—always females—envisioned that women’s bodies were the only sacrifice compelling enough to impact an entire society in the ways they required. With the help of their faithful army of Crusaders—male keepers-of-the-law—women were forced to relinquish their sexual agency, creating the world’s first successful utopia.
Ovoidia was divided into two districts—the Communities and the City. As a notable—and as it happens, useful—side effect, it only took a couple of generations for women to completely lose their ability to experience sexual pleasure. The Head Gajes protocol is to elect three female members of the family to run the country every ten years, and Diam and Isis are the current Heads in charge. The third member, Arika, has gone missing and is presumed to have escaped. But then, in a utopia, who would need to escape?
After all, within the Communities the “Mamas” and their children live in government-provided housing where they receive free healthcare, are driven in chauffeured vehicles, and are provided generous living stipends. While all women are obliged to be “approached” and provide sex for any man interested, only the women who have children are eligible to live within the Communities, and enjoy the extra, and even luxurious, side benefits.
The City is where the men live and work. Considerably fewer women live in the City, but the men are provided Gaje Clubs where select childless women devote their work to satisfying the sexual and emotional needs of men. And another thing—keep in mind that all the men who live in the city can also approach any woman they see for sexual favors and the woman is obliged to follow through, normally, right on the spot.
All the while, the two leaders are beautiful, themselves quite sexual, a little on the pop-art side, including Isis and her lollipops, their fun, girly outfits, and the breathtaking, absurdist skyline of Ovoidia, replete with skyscrapers that twist loopily into the sky, and other odd images, like Gaudi on acid. And every home in the communities comes with a bubbling Jacuzzi tub, and a shiny red popcorn machine.
This works for everyone; it’s a utopia, right? But is it? The people are human beings, both the women and the men, and some have deeper needs, including a special relationship wherein the exchange has depth, including sex that is more than simple recreation. And many women long for the same, and the chance to express themselves individually, too, beyond sex and rearing children for the future of Ovoida.
In The Willing, we get to experience and truly “see” Ovoidia through the eyes of certain of these sensitive, creative, and mindful individuals, including protagonist Gypsy, and her sister Sadie, who moves to the city and becomes a “Gaje”—treated like the rarest of positions, and works in one of the sanctioned “clubs.” There she learns that men are people, too. And Doctor Gino, who practices medicine, but as a member of his own silent opposition, tries to help secretly whenever he can, and pays the price. And Miles, the intended sexual plaything of the ladies-in-charge, who is privately a recreant, and devoted to another man.