Slave Girl Challenge, Part One
by brooksie (brooksie@pacificcoast.net)
Two young women fight for the right to serve.

Author's Note: This story is a bit of a departure for me. A lot of it is
told through dialogue and there are no male characters. Any resemblance
to persons living, and associated with this web site, is purely
intentional.


Katherine felt fantastic!

Her workout was intense, and left her feeling vibrant, strong and
alive.  Pushing herself beyond previous limits, she surpassed her
previous best in both biceps curls and bench press. She'd been working
with weights of 185-205 pounds and had barely managed one rep with 215 a
few weeks ago. Today she felt particularly potent and thought she'd give
it another try. This time the 215 went straight up without struggle and
she knew she could do more. She added another ten pounds. With her
spotter at the ready, Katherine prepared herself, gripped the bar and
lifted it off the supports. She lowered the weight to her chest and
pressed it up. The bar stalled on the second try but before the spotter
could assist, Katherine grunted and, with a deep, guttural yell, pushed
it up. A third try was a total non-starter. Her spotter caught the bar
and helped Katherine rack it. She sat up, beaming, as she accepted the
congratulations of a few of the onlookers. Katherine especially got off
on the reaction of the men in the gym. They tried to act nonchalant, but
Katherine could see most had stopped their own workouts and were
watching to see if she was going to be able to handle a 225 lb. bench.
Most simply stared in amazement while one guy pantomimed bowing to her
in worship.

Katherine chuckled to herself at that. If he only knew, she thought. Men
were fun to impress in the weight room. It was a thrill lifting more
than most of them could and she was amused by the expressions on their
faces as they tried not to stare. The vast majority of women in the gym
did react the same way at all. Generally, they appeared not to notice
her or, if they did, exhibited a sort of hostile indifference. The
rumour was, she was a bull-dyke. It was only half true. Katherine's
sexual interest was in women, but she was no dyke. Lesbian subculture
held little interest. Katherine considered herself a lady - no hairy
armpits or unshaven legs for her. She had no desire to emulate men.

A best selling author of a series of self-empowerment books for women,
Katherine embraced her femininity, while espousing the belief that women
should not willingly give up their physical power. She encouraged women,
through her books, videos, magazine articles and speaking engagements,
to acquire muscular strength, rejecting the idea it was unfeminine to do
so. At 5'10, with a natural bodyweight of around 140-145, Katherine had
no trouble adding another 10 lbs. of pure muscle and, by the time she
became a public figure with the success of her first book, she
definitely looked the part of a strong, powerful woman.

With her statuesque height, over six feet in heels, cascading blonde (at
the time) hair, broad shoulders and penchant for very short skirts that
showed off her legs to great advantage, Katherine was made for the TV
talk show circuit. Katherine had a natural media savvy and a keen grasp
of marketing herself. She didn't shy away from the idea that a woman's
physical appearance had a lot to do with her sense of empowerment.

     "By relying strictly on facial standards of beauty, women get the
short end of the stick. Let's be blunt, extraordinarily beautiful
people, from the neck up, are not that common. Most of us have average
to good looks and are flawed in come way. But an average looking man can
make himself feel more attractive by having a strong, muscular, fit
body. It's not as easy for women to gain a sense of confidence from
their physiques unless they happen to be thin and have large breasts.
These are generalizations, but a generalization is something that's
true, in most cases.
     That's why very muscular women, bodybuilders for example, present
such a challenge to many people's sensibilities. Based on how hard they
have to work and the sacrifices they make to build their bodies, it's
clear they experience a sense of satisfaction from attaining their
physiques. That challenges the dominant idea that all a woman needs is
to be pretty. The fashion and cosmetics industries are the ones that
have the most invested in maintaining these traditional ideas of beauty.
They've made room for the fitness industry, but only up to a point. A
little "toning" is ok but they're afraid of what happens when women
start to experience a sense of strength and physical power. They begin
to see through a lot of the silliness and puffery that makes up the
beauty myth.
     A good experiment would be to take two women, one with average
looks who had an athletic, muscular physique an put her beside a skinny
model-type in full makeup then get a cross section of men to vote
anonymously for which one they'd prefer to be marooned on a desert
island with. I think the results would be surprising."

"Why anonymous?"

"Because a lot of men wouldn't choose the muscular woman for fear of
being ridiculed or otherwise judged negatively. They'd be embarrassed
about making that choice. The beauty myth works just as effectively on
men as it does on women."

"But I've heard a lot of men say they don't find female bodybuilders
attractive, that they're too masculine looking."

"Well, the business of how muscles came to have a strictly masculine
association is a whole other discussion. Every human body, male or
female, has the same muscle groups. But, to take the example of female
bodybuilders, sure they're not going to be appealing to a lot of people
because they're pushing their bodies to an extreme. The thing is, it's
exactly the same with male bodybuilders. Most women don't find that look
attractive on men either. When we talk about a guy being well built or
muscular, we're thinking of a swimmer, gymnast, maybe a boxer or some
other type of athlete, more than a bodybuilder. That's what I mean by a
double standard. There's a lot of irrational fear around the idea of
women gaining muscular size and the physical strength that goes with
it."

This was a typical excerpt from the type of interview Katherine would
give when the show and it's host (usually female) were taking a
journalistic approach. In a lot of other public appearances, the focus
was more on Katherine's body than her mind. She did a lot of shows where
the fact she'd written a best-seller was mostly a pretext for having her
on so the host (usually male) would get her to flex her arm and leg
muscles or arm wrestle with himself or another guest.

Katherine accepted these types of requests happily. She understood that
even journalism was primarily entertainment in this day and age. Rather
than feeling exploited, Katherine relished every opportunity to show off
her strength and physique. She knew the shows were using her. She was
using them; it's the way the game worked. Her ability to  play it well,
her striking physical appearance, natural beauty, articulate manner of
speech, plus the slightly controversial nature of her thesis made
Katherine into a popular celebrity, a status that followed her through
two more best sellers, as well as a few small movie roles and an offer
to host her own TV show, which she turned down. Shortly after that,
Katherine began to enact her ultimate plan.

One day her literary agent received a card, flowers and a glass figurine
of a female bodybuilder. The card thanked her for a job well done,
giving her great advice and being such a big part of her success.
Katherine closed by wishing her now former agent a rich and rewarding
life. Upon reading it, the agent immediately tried calling Katherine at
home. The number was no longer in service, same with her cell phone.
More than curious, she cancelled the rest of her afternoon appointments
and took a cab to Katherine's apartment building. Getting no answer to
the intercom button, and with a sinking feeling, she buzzed the manager,
who confirmed that Katherine had indeed moved out without leaving any
contact information. The agent sighed. Katherine had disappeared!