He was really looking forward to seeing this man-hating bitch degraded and humiliated. He smiled broadly.
"I have!" David said excitedly. "But let me get you your coffee first!" and he bounced up to order it and then he fumbled a bit putting the top on the cup.
"They didn't stir it very well," he grumbled when he sat down and gave the coffee to her.
"Thanks," she said coolly. "So, I'd like to hear about your 'epiphany'?" She wore a look like she was speaking to Satan. Probably, David reflected, she was.
"Oh, well," he began. "I wanted to share this with you because I realized just how wrong I've been all my life..." he began the speech he'd written and rehearsed last night. To the best of his abilities it hit all the right points — male privilege, white privilege, white male privilege, his own contributions to the patriarchy, ways he'd oppressed her and other women, how her comments and complaints had been spot on, things he should have done if he really believed in gender quality, abuses in which he was complicit because he stood idly by, how he saw now that their divorce a year ago had been entirely his fault — basically, it agreed with her worldview in every possible way.
His speech could have been summarized as "You were absolutely right and I was absolutely wrong" but David didn't summarize. He went into great detail about his supposed transgressions, especially as they related to her. He kept talking for well over ten minutes and, as expected, she ate it all up. She didn't interrupt him once (which must surely have been a record) and she hung on every word. His speech was the kind of vindication that would make her toes curl. As he spoke, she wished she was recording him so she could replay it over and over. In fact, as he went on, his words took on a hypnotic quality and she felt that she was slipping into something like a happy daydream.
David recognized the signs and switched gears. It had hurt a bit to deliver that bullshit, but his suggestions would work best if she were cooperative and his speech was tailored to win her over to "his side" and he was confident that he'd been successful.
Speaking quickly and quietly, he implanted the suggestions he'd planned. Yes, he thought "her plan" to get more hands-on about sex-work and porn was a great idea. Her idea to completely "walk a mile" in the fuck-me heels of a porn starlet made perfect sense and was academically brilliant. He was so proud of her courage. He didn't know much about make-up and pedicures, but he'd just gotten married to a very stereotypically feminine woman and of course he would help her in any way that he could. Yes, "her" idea about going into the bathroom and giving him a blowjob was a good idea. She should start experiencing the sex-worker lifestyle as soon as possible. Yes, later that day they'd do some photo shoots so she could start putting her name and likeness out there.
He produced a handful of cheap bound lab journals and "reminded" her that she'd bought them to record her experiences. He showed her some printed pages and had her copy them into the first journal.
There were three entries. The first entry was from a couple weeks ago on New Year's day. In it, she expressed her reasons for doing this "project." She wanted to learn first-hand exactly what it was like to be a sex-worker and pornstar. Yes, it would involve discomfort but she'd be able to document that discomfort and perhaps help some women avoid some of that discomfort. Yes, she would suffer embarrassment, but every life had some embarrassment and this was for a great cause about which she cared passionately. Yes, it would be humiliating to have sex for money, but that's what millions of women experience daily and Maggie would be able to handle it the same way they did and, further, cast sunlight on the circumstances that drove women to such desperate measures. Yes, she'd have to suppress her feminist feelings and that was hard but it was definitely for a greater good. The more she'd thought about it, the more she was sure this would be worthwhile.
The way DTB worked, she'd clearly recall writing the journal entries, but her memory would "file" these memories into her long term memory in a way that conformed to David's suggestions if he did things correctly. At least that was what David's research on the drug had suggested. For example, she she'd recall writing the first entry on January 1 if David made the right suggestions.
"Good job," David smiled at her. "Now what was the date on that entry?"
"New Year's day," Maggie replied.
"Sure, and what did you do for lunch that day?"
"I don't recall. I think I was working on a grant application and I ate a peanut butter sandwich at my desk."
"Right! Now that you mention it, I recall you saying that this plan came to you as you wrote a grant applicant on New year's day. That's what inspired you to do this project, and you got out a fresh journal and wrote this entry right before lunch. Then you made yourself a peanut butter sandwich and got back to the grant writing. Do you remember that?"
"I do..."
David was very pleased that this was working so well. He indicated that she should transcribe the second entry, which was long and detailed. It was dated last week and laid out her plan. She would experience all aspects of the slut/sex-worker lifestyle. Basically, she would think about everything in terms of how a feminist would think, then do the opposite. And she would steer into humiliating and painful experiences, instead of trying to avoid them. She would go full-pornstar-mode. She would change the way she looked and dressed to be more "slutty." She would learn to style her hair, wear makeup, paint her nails. She would learn to look "cute" and "girlie." She would work hard on being pleasing to men. She would try to appear as young as possible. She would submit to stereotypically sexist treatments like manicures and pedicures.
It wasn't her style to depilate. Until now, she preferred to be "natural." So, of course, she'd do the opposite and remove all the hair on her body below the eyebrows. She'd researched it and shaving was very temporary. Waxing was only slightly less temporary and it was painful. Plus, both methods caused potentially serious side-effects like ingrown hairs that could turn into painful ulcers. As a result, she'd decided to pay to have her body hair lasered off. The laser was more or less permanent. Only about 20% of the hair treated would die immediately, so she'd need several treatments, and some new hair might eventually grow and require touch-up's, but it was just one of many sacrifices that women went through to conform to male expectations and she'd conform along with the other women. She regretted that it was permanent, but it was better than the alternative, shaving and waxing. She was actually a little embarrassed about her privilege to be able to take care of it with just a few easy laser treatments.
David was surprised how long it was taking her to transcribe the second entry. It wouldn't do for him to urge her to write faster (she should remember writing this, but not that David was present), so he smiled and pushed her coffee closer to encourage her to drink more coffee and ingest more of the drug. She took the suggestion subconsciously and drank more coffee and continued transcribing.
The second entry continued: she debated about piercing and tattoos. On the one hand, these had long since ceased being counter-culture elements; it seemed like every young woman had a tattoo and several piercings. On the other hand, the incidence of body modifications among pornstars was very high (about 85% according to one recent study) and this suggested that she should invest in some ink and piercings. In the end, she'd decided to get some piercings and two small tattoos.
As far as experiences go, she felt that it was important, for her research, that she do it all: She would start dressing more provocatively. She would try to use her "feminine wiles" to try to exploit men, ideally earning her living this way. In fact, if all went well, she'd donate her salary to a good cause, like NOW, and live on the proceeds of her sex trade work. She would pose nude for pictures. She would take semi-nude and nude selfies. She would do exotic dancing. She would do some webcam modeling — including some vanilla camming and some kinkier stuff like bondage and fetishes. Of course, she would do some porn. She also made a cryptic reference to "other common behavioral paradigms confronting women in the sex trade" and David "reminded" her that that was her way of saying that she'd do illegal things like prostitution.
