Down The Rabbit Hole Pt. 02

Julia got the point but felt sympathy for Henry. It wasn't his fault how he responded.

"So," Melanie went on, "for those of you that like to tease or just if you just like to have a bit more leverage over the man in your life, then having one of these," she lifted up a key that she was wearing on a chain around her neck, "is a really good idea." She let the key go, allowing it to fall back into her cleavage.

Julia saw Suzanne Trench, one of the girls working on the Women Entrepreneurs programme, lean forward and whisper something in the ear of the man sitting at her feet. He shook his head but she just laughed in response. From what Julia knew of Suzanne the man would find himself trying out a similar device quite soon.

Raven took the microphone back. "So this is just one example of how a Government initiative can have wider application provided that there is support from professionals -- like us - who understand not only the political dimension of the policy but how it plays in practice with many men. Let me give you another example." She turned to the rear of the room. "Jane, could you join us, please?" she called.

Henry allowed himself a quick glance up as Jane came in but diverted his eyes again when he saw her in an attempt to avoid the effects of his cage. At first sight, she was wearing the uniform of an officer in the Male Control Force; white shirt with red epaulettes, black tie, black leather belt and straight black skirt. On closer inspection it was clear that she had edited it to maximise the potential for fetishistic impact on the course attendees. The belt was rather tighter than might be the norm, her shirt was tailored so as to emphasise the swell of her breasts, the skirt was tighter than could possibly be practical for any police officer and the heels on her shoes would certainly not have allowed her to pursue any curfew breaker should she encounter one. Though impractical as the uniform of a member of the Male Control Force, Jane's outfit certainly had an impact on more than one of the men that had been brought along. For Henry their open-mouthed response was a revelation because although he had always thought of Jane as attractive, she had always been very much in Raven's shadow, assisting at sessions, looking after Raven's appointments and the like. He could see now that she was every bit as able to project an aura of dominance as Raven was. At the same time, Julia was fascinated. She hadn't imagined that such simple changes to appearance could have such an impact.

"You will note, ladies," Raven explained, "that the combination of fetishistic attributes with the appearance of an authority figure -- in this case an MCF officer -- has an immediate effect on some men. In many cases within a sponsorship arrangement this can be used as a way of reinforcing the expected power dynamics of the relationship. But of course it can also provide a way of distracting men from their situation." Raven paused for a moment. "Can't it, Sir Henry?"

Henry jerked his attention back from staring at the way in which Jane's skirt stretched tightly across her buttocks. "I'm sorry, Mistress Raven," he apologised. "What was the question?"

The women in the room all laughed. Raven's point had been well made. She was sympathetic towards Henry though. "Don't worry about it," she said. "It doesn't matter."

The session was quite changing Julia's mind about the whole idea of dominance in relationships. Previously she had seen it as a form of bullying but the way that Melanie, Jane and Raven related to men seemed more based on understanding their weaknesses. And while they might use that to their advantage they certainly had a concern to treat the men fairly. There wasn't any of the violence or cruelty that she had imagined would be needed, although of course, when she thought about it, she didn't need either of those things to get her own way around the office. The thing that impressed her most though was the devoted attention that Melanie, Jane and Raven seemed to inspire in Henry and the other men in the room. Even the man that Suzanne had been teasing with the suggestion he might be caged like Henry was looking as though he could think of nothing else than trying to please her. Julia began to think that she might enjoy being the focus of attention like that. And, she began to think, maybe Henry's response wasn't as she had thought wimpish and weak at all. It took a lot of courage to be kneeling in front of all these people that he worked with, exposing his desires as much as he was exposing his buttocks. There wasn't anything weak about that. In fact she quite admired him for it.