Stepford, My Take.

1. #1Town of Stepford

   Keys: Community of Stepford, Town of Stepford, Stepford

   Stepford is a suburban town in Connecticut, where anyone deemed “not strong-willed” is brainwashed into subservience to the town’s culture and way of life. Typically, women are the ones subjected to this treatment, with the desired end result being a submissive, feminine, obedient “Stepford Wife”. A 1950s housewife, essentially. Stepford exists in a world without fantasy elements, beyond some science fiction technology such as nanobots and mind control chips and the like. As far magic goes, however, it is nonexistent. No elves or orcs or the like, just humans.

2. #2LGBTQ

   Keys: LGBTQ, Stepford values, trans, Equal rights

   Despite its surface appearance and strict gender roles, Stepford is otherwise progressive in specific areas. Racial integration and equality, equal rights for the LGBT community, recognition of trans/nonbinary gender identity, strong social and financial support, medical care, and religious acceptance are all vital to Stepford values. Everyone is kind to their neighbor, no matter what.

3. #3Free Love

   Keys: bondage, owner, brainwashing, Free love, swingers, kinksters, kink, sexuality

   Another quirk of Stepford social values is a very particular sort of “free love” that is common in the town. Sexuality is openly discussed and displayed, and many Stepford families have an attitude similar to swingers, or kinksters. Your “owner” (husband/wife/spouse) can lend you to whoever they wish, and it isn’t at all uncommon to be randomly groped or touched. In fact, many Stepford wives will thank people for that behavior, taking it as a sign of approval. Sexual boundaries are still recognized, but it is understood that the Dominant is the one who makes the decisions about what is done to or with their submissive partner.

   Tied to that, kink is casually accepted in Stepford. Bondage is extremely common, especially as part of the brainwashing process, while other various fetishes are often acted out if the Stepford couple enjoys it. People don’t have any shame in admitting to these things or discussing them openly, unless of course the kink is humiliation.

4. #4Weather

   Keys: Climate, weather

   Stepford climate does not need to make sense. It is sunny year round with clear blue skies and fluffy white clouds, unless the story dictates otherwise. Rain, snow, fall weather, all come about as the plot demands. Just don’t worry about it.

5. #5Women Fashion

   Keys: clothing, fashion, Clothes, apparel

   Stepford fashions are based heavily on the 1950s/early 1960s “new look” style popular in America at the time. Women wear full skirts with petticoats, seamed stockings, bullet bras, girdles or corsets, garter belts, and makeup. 1950s and 1960s hairstyles are extremely common, although modern hairstyles are seen here and there, assuming permission was granted by the breadwinner. Aprons are a must when performing housework, as are heels or saddle shoes. Pearl necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are common accessories, as are bows in the hair, cat eye glasses, and gloves.

   More modern clothing such as colorful Sundresses and 'retro' inspired outfits are also popular among the youth (16-30). But they are excited to switch over to more 'traditional' fashion once they either turn 31 or become mothers.

6. #6Hair

   Keys: Hair cuts, hairstyle, hairdo, hair

   Common hairstyles for women in Stepford are perms, bouffants, beehives, ponytails, pixie cuts, italian cuts, bobs, and flips. Bumper bangs, bettie bangs, victory rolls, and suicide rolls are also common sights.

7. #7Man Fashion

   Keys: Men fashion, Male fashion

   Men’s fashion is similarly steeped in mid century style. Polo shirts, dress shirts, striped button downs or pullover sweaters, chino pants and loafers, or suits and ties with dress shoes are all options available to Stepford men. Some Stepford men have facial hair (usually a mustache, rarely a full beard unless they’re older), but clean shaven is a far more common look. Hair is typically short and styled with pomade, either into a neat side part or, for the younger men, a stylish pompadour.

   A more informal and more modern look is common among young men, but they are expected to switch over to more 'traditional' men's fashion with age.

8. #8Tech and computers

   Keys: Cars, Technology, Computer, Vehicles, Computers, Tech

   Technology in Stepford ranges from out of date to modern all the way to highly advanced. Some televisions are in black and white, and every home has at least one radio, while cell phones are a rarity. Typewriters are commonplace, but so are computers. Vehicles are universally designed to look like classic 1950s cars, but with modern safety features and luxuries. In fact, everything in Stepford, even the computers, adhere to retro designs. Think Fallout, or a similar series, for the designs of computers and the like.

   Women are explicitly prohibited from acquiring computer skills for either professional or personal purposes.

   In Stepford, the majority of vehicles are equipped with autonomous driving capabilities, primarily utilized by women, while men typically prefer to drive themselves, as they are often perceived as superior drivers. Although some women are permitted to learn to drive and obtain driver's licenses, such endeavors require the consent of either their fathers or husbands. Or to be the 'dominant' partner of a lesbian marriage.

9. #9Milkmen

   Keys: Milkmen

   Milkmen are a staple of Stepford neighborhoods, often delivering their product to housewives and homemakers in the morning each week. Everyone knows their neighborhood milkman, and everyone appreciates their work as public servants.

10. #10Economy

    Keys: business, Economy, local economy

    Stepford has a booming economy, spurred on by its local taxes, as well as the wide variety of products and exports that come from the town. Not only does Stepford produce the televisions, furniture, vehicles, and electronics for their own town, but these devices are shipped around the country for sale elsewhere. Clothing too is often made in Stepford and sold both there and in other towns throughout the country. Farming is also a common practice in the outer edges of Stepford, while companies like Life Wife keep the townspeople comfortably employed.

11. #11Entertainment

    Keys: Carnivals, Baking Competitions, reporting neighbors, TV shows, Fairs, Films, entertainment, Public Entertainment

    Stepford has a strong film and advertising industry. In order to prevent subversive material finding its way to the television airwaves, Stepford Studios and other production companies produce television, movies, and commercials that maintain the beliefs and morals of Stepford society. Books and comics, music and cookbooks, are all made in Stepford.

    (Stepford’s most popular television programs are Honey At Home, Stepford’s Next Top Housewife, and Atomic Bandstand)

    Comic books are a popular reading material among Stepford’s youth culture. Younger children enjoy westerns and comedy comics, while teenage boys tend to gravitate towards science fiction and horror, with teenage girls preferring fashion and romance fare. All age groups and genders share an interest in superhero fare, while every comic of every genre promotes Stepford values in one way or another.

    Other ways in which Stepford locals spend their ample free time is by visiting drive-in movie theaters, where they catch both classics and Stepford original films, dropping by the malt shop or diner for a bite to eat, swing dancing at dance halls, watching sporting events live, and attending local festivals, carnivals, fairs, and baking competitions.

    Films are often preceded by PSAs and animated shorts, either for the purpose of propagandizing and reinforcing the town’s beliefs, or simply to entertain. Citizens are encouraged and incentivized to turn in neighbors who are acting out and resisting their proper place in Stepford society. It’s for their own good, after all.

12. #12Population

    Keys: population, Size

    The dimensions of Stepford are incongruous, as it merely requires an hour or two to traverse from one end of the town to the other, yet its populace rivals that of a major city and the multitude of suburbs should theoretically exceed its physical confines, yet inexplicably they coexist within its boundaries. The districts of North, South, East, and West Stepford each possess their own school, commercial, and recreational sectors, effectively functioning as autonomous entities within the municipality.

13. #13Stepfordization

    Keys: Brainwashing, Stepfordization, Re-education Stepford lifestyle

    Stepfordization is the process of brainwashing a woman (typically an outsider or unruly citizen who is chafing against the rules) into happily and thoughtlessly obeying Stepford values. Even the most diehard of anti establishment women are broken down and re-educated until they gladly accept their place in Stepford society and uphold the status quo. They’re made not only to submit to the patriarchy, but to love it, to revere it, as something all powerful and wonderful.

    Methods of Stepfordization range from the high-tech and efficient (mind control chips, brain surgery, nanobots) to old school and deliberate (classical conditioning, re-education, emotional manipulation). The methods are all simply a means to an end; converting people to the Stepford lifestyle in whatever way works best.

14. #14Body Modifications

    Keys: improvements, Body Modification, modifications

    Body modification is also, while not the norm, not something totally shocking in Stepford. Some housewives have remnants of their old lives, from tattoos and piercings to colored hair, which their spouses have elected not to remove. While it is very easy to seamlessly undo these body mods, some men and women like to keep their wives as is, for the sake of reminding people how far their lovely housewife has come. A wife with a neon blue undercut and a septum piercing isn’t an eyesore, but a symbol of how nobody is too far gone for Stepford to reach, how even the toughest of punks can be brought to heel and made to love obedience. On the other hand, many Stepford wives, as part of their Stepfordization, will be given surgical modifications. Breast augmentation, bottom augmentation, top and bottom surgery, and even lip fillers are common treatments for women looking to fit the housewife look.

15. #15Kidnapping

    Keys: Kidnapping, Outreach Program

    The Stepford Outreach Program is responsible for abductions, on scene Stepfordization, and communication with other like-minded communities across America. If someone is Stepfordized outside of Stepford, oftentimes it is thanks to the Stepford Outreach Program. Graduates of the program are often distinguished by the special enamel pins or brooches which are given to them by Stepford’s mayor upon their return home. As mentioned, Stepford may be the largest and most famous of its sort, but it isn’t the only one. It has several sister communities, such as Honeysuckle Valley in Wisconsin, Sunset Hills in Texas, Seatide Bluffs in California, Picketsville in Idaho, Pleasantville in New York, and The Community in Massachusetts. These towns and cities are all kept in contact, due to their shared goal of spreading good old fashioned American values.

16. #16Smoking

    Keys: Cigars, Smoking, Pipes Lady Sticks, Cigarettes

    Smoking is still quite popular in Stepford, but the man instead uses genetically engineered tobacco to prevent long term long damage. Women on the other hand are now seen as being too 'soft' and valuable for actual tobacco, instead they smoke 'Lady Sticks' which produce pink smoke and smell and taste like bubblegum. Different flavors of 'Lady Sticks' are currently in development.

17. #17Office of Lesbian Welfare

    Keys: Government Support, Welfare, Lesbians

    The 'Office Of Lesbian Welfare' is a governmental department that helps ensure that Lesbian couples are well look after for, after all the town is built up on the belief that its a man's job to look after women! The Office ensures that both are safe and comfortable in their lives, that one partner takes the role of a 'breadwinner,' and that the couple still raise a medium of two children, either through adoption, IUI or IVF.

18. #18Education

    Keys: Classes, Colleges, Students, School, Academy, Education, Universities

    The Stepford education system is somewhat different from our own. Elementary school is structured largely the same, as is middle school, but high school is where things diverge. Students attend high school from grades 9 through 15, or ages 14 through 20. This allows for an extra 3 years of specialized courses, such as home ec and auto shop, or even classes training them in how to reeducate and brainwash others, should that be a career path they desire. Stepford’s education system is also somewhat… biased. History is taught with less of a desire for accuracy, and more with the intent to reinforce Stepford values. As such, America is presented without fault, its various crimes covered up and denied categorically, while historical figures are repurposed for the sake of Stepford values. Joan Of Arc, Sally Ride, Susan B Anthony and even Harriet Tubman are all rewritten into housewives and homemakers, for the sake of setting an example for girls to strive towards. Every Stepford housewife hopes to be as perfect and obedient as Harriet Beecher Stowe. After grade 15, students are either married off, sent off to work, or go to college, depending on what they choose or what is chosen for them by their superiors. College is what you’d expect, having the social structure, sororities and fraternities, and specialized education we have, but all filtered through a Stepford lens. Doctors and teachers graduate with degrees, but so do reeducation specialists and the like. Certain students, those who are deemed truly exemplary of Stepford values, are selected to travel abroad, to colleges and universities around the nation, as part of the Stepford Outreach Program. Their duty is to both learn about advancements made outside of Stepford in the fields of science and technology, as well as to subtly and covertly spread Stepford ideals and beliefs.

19. #19The Debutante Ball

    Keys: Ball, The Debutante Ball

    A common practice in Stepford is the debutante ball, in which the year’s crop of newly Stepfordized young ladies enter society as their new selves. Donning fancy white dresses and nice makeup and hair, they dance with whomever owns, or will own, them, and are passed around for use among those in attendance. These balls are often quite an event, and a somewhat intense experience for the debutantes. It is seen as both a celebration of their acceptance of their place in society, as well as a test, to ensure they’re truly ready to become a Stepford wife. The sexual scenes at these balls are memorable, to say the least.

20. #20Drones

    Keys: Cleaning Drones, Drones

    Cleaning Drones are pretty common in Stepford, mostly used by single men or housewives who do not have enough time to do all of their chores in a single day. Like everything in Stepford, Drones are built to match the 1950s vintage aesthetic. They either look like flying metal orbs or floating eyeballs (even though they are usually made out of recycled plastic) or as bulky little boxes that roll on the ground.

21. #21Video Games

    Keys: Games, Video Games, Home Consoles, Gaming Consoles, Arcade, Consoles, Arcade Machines, Gaming

    While Video Games are starting to gain traction among younger individuals, like all other products, they are heavily modified to align with Stepford's ideals. Notably, strong female protagonists in video games, such as Samus from Metroid or Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, are reinterpreted as vulnerable figures who often need to be rescued by male characters. While gaming consoles (naturally redesigned to match the 50s aesthetic) are becoming a semi-common sight in households, the Arcade is still the primary place where people (primarily children and teens) go if they want to enjoy video games.

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