Part 4: Release and relief
After they returned to the living room with their cups full, Dr. Winderly sat back in the wingback chair. "I was a first-year grad student and thought I wanted to be an archaeologist. I had a class with Dr. Heidler in Anthro 651 and he was fascinating. I went to his office hours one day and he was working on a paper about sexual practices in a tribal setting. I could read the pages even though they were upside down."
"So, I asked him if he was taking any G.A.s and, turns out, he had an opening. I don't know what came over me. Being an over-achiever, I threw myself into it. And over the next year I edited a lot of his work. It was very explicit and I got embarrassed often. When it came time for me to take up a thesis, I naturally followed my professor's line of inquiry.
"You know that I am a practical anthropologist and that I am more interested in learning by doing than in theory. I got that from Alec. So, I learned how to build thatch roofs, to weave dresses. You see the work there (pointing to the photo that had been the focus of their exchange). I stripped the inner bark, kneaded it and wove it in traditional fashion. That photo was taken on our last night in the field. I wore it for the presentation of the virgins. I did it all. I napped flints, dried corn and milled it with a stone, and just about anything that our subject groups did, I learned to do as well."
Going on, she explained the images in her dissertation. "Alec, uh, Dr. Heidler drew those. He was an old-school field guy who wrote with a fountain pen in all his journals and did pen and ink drawings because there were no cameras useful for field work when he was coming on.
"Each time I would complete an assignment he'd have me pose for him to draw. It's not fun being a model. My legs cramped. My body got tired. But he did such great work, so I was committed to helping him succeed."
Jim interrupted. He picked up the book with the image of the man in it. "So this is your advisor?" She nodded and was about to say more, but he went on. "How did you get these pictures?" He realized it a moment later. "You took them. You took pictures of your advisor's boner and kept taking pictures of him as he started dripping pre-cum? Was that for science too?"
"Yes and no." She fumbled for words. "Yes, because it was part of my training to be able to respond calmly to sexual situations. Dr. Heidler had made me, uh, encouraged me to be more specific in my masturbation rituals. And I used to masturbate with these pictures to prompt my fantasy. It is after all a beautiful cock." Jim nodded in agreement and then caught himself.
"Eventually, he had me masturbate in front of him and the other G.A.s as proof that I was completely comfortable with my own sexuality. If I couldn't, how would I be able to engage with our subject culture? They would all be there in the field, so I was going to have to be naked and active in front of him anyway. Being the youngest of the GAs I had to go through the same rituals as the others did. The pictures are a celebration ceremony of my achievement. And I was honored to be able to complete the work with him."
"Don't look at me that way. Nothing happened between us."
"Ha! That's rich. You've got pictures of this guy's big dick and he's dripping like a quart of pre-cum and, wait a second..." He flipped through the thin book. "And here he is actually cumming a bucket load. You've got pictures from all kinds of angles. And these pics must be your naked G.A.s. These three people you just told me you fingered yourself in front of. But nothing happened?" His eyes bored into her.
She remained steadfast. "Yes, absolutely nothing improper. It's true we were all able to be free and open with each other. We created our own masturbatory rituals so we could understand our subjects' customs."
Of course so had Jim in his summer circle jerks with his buddies. He was slow to see the similarity yet.
"And I might add so will we if you stay with it. But we none of us ever had sex with each other. We were professional researchers. And you and I won't have sex either." She said this in a way that attempted to be scolding.
"In the Bill Clinton way, you mean? Did he stuff you with a cigar and lick off your pussy juices in the name of science, but could say you never had sex?"
"Okay, that's vulgar. Don't be juvenile, Dummy. Can't you see what I am saying? Didn't you ever hear of guys in a circle jerk? Or your old man and his buddies watching stag films together. Don't you think those were rituals and bonding ceremonies? You really are a dummy." She had an incredulous look on her face. Would she ever get through to him?
"You continue to confuse nudity and sex. Think about a nude beach, say. You see people there with no clothes on. They talk, play games, eat together and the whole time they are looking at each other completely naked. Yeah, it might be arousing, but they contain their emotions and get on with life. They don't have to "do it" as you think."
He considered that for a moment. "Okay, I get it. But let me ask you something else. How in the heck did he not get fired for this stuff? I mean it wasn't the dark ages when professors could fuck their students and nothing happened."
"Jesus Christ, Dummy, we never fucked!" She was pleading. He was not being polite. This was the true Jim coming out from the aw-shucks, South Dakota cowboy. She was encouraged that he was being direct enough to ask questions.
"Well, yes that was a problem. A new G.A. came into his office one day when he was showing me pictures of himself masturbating outdoors. She was not taking well to the readjustment training or was jealous of the rest of us. Anyway, she went to the provost and all hell broke loose. They interviewed me and were worried I was being taken advantage of. I wasn't. So, I just said it was a personal matter and it died down, sort of.
"Sort of?"
"Yes, the following year, he took a visiting position at Raynor and I had to find another chair for my committee. Luckily I got Dr. Maines. He was an old field researcher too. Alec stayed on as a reader and we got someone else who had researched on sexual customs from another school. But it was complicated."
"Yeah, I guess...Well for the record I am not going to the provost about our research!" He went on hesitantly. "And you got over your embarrassment about being naked and about your sexual thoughts and all? And about performing in front of people?"
"It takes a while. You have to work at it and allow yourself to let go of your own inhibitions. It wasn't the others telling me not to take my clothes off and not to have sexual thoughts and not to masturbate. It was ME telling me that stuff.
"Look, Dummy we all have sex on the mind and we all have some shame. We need to be able to get through that cloud of shame to be able to see clearly what is going on. Are you ever going to loosen up and let go?