Aristasia is an all-female society existing primarily in England but with adherents in many other parts of the world, notably the United States. It is also known as the "Feminine Empire."

Contents

1 Introduction 2 Aristasia 3 Aristasia Pura 4 Blondes and brunettes 5 Political alignment 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 External link

Introduction

Aristasia was founded at Oxford in the 1970s in reaction to what its founders saw as the collapse of cultural values following the 1960s. They called this collapse "the Eclipse", a term that has since been adopted by other writers.

The cultural Eclipse ... took place in [the] 1960s, leaving all values inverted, replacing the love of beauty with the love of ugliness, the love of order with the love of chaos and giving over all normal human loyalties, decencies and truths to vilification or to mockery. [1] (http://www.aristasia.co.uk/guide1.html)

Aristasians dress in clothes recalling styles from the 1920s to the early 1960s. The stricter ones avoid contact with modern music, television and periodicals, while watching old films and listening to 20s - 60s music, driving classic cars, and so on. They also strive to create art, culture, and dress of their own.

Aristasia

Within the movement, the word Aristasia refers to two different things:

• Aristasia Pura is a fictional world in which men do not exist. Instead, there are two feminine sexes, blonde and brunette (with hair colour being a secondary sexual characteristic).
• Aristasia-in-Telluria is an attempt to create Aristasia in "Telluria" (the real world); that is, an all-feminine counter-culture in response to the perceived death of mainstream Tellurian (Earth) culture.

Aristasia Pura

Aristasia Pura is an empire of seven provinces, which correspond very loosely to real-world temporal eras, mainly those in the Western (and, in particular, British) parts of Earth. For instance, the province of Quirinelle has a culture based loosely on the 1950s, while Trent is based on the 1930s. However, Amazonia represents both the ancient world and non-Westernised Asia, because Aristasians believe that non-Westernised Asia preserves a worldview similar to the ancient West. Such a worldview is respected by Aristasians and has far greater influence on the Aristasian West than on its real life counterpart.

Because there was no "Eclipse" in Aristasia Pura, there are no provinces equivalent to the Eclipsed decades (which run from the 1960s to the 2040s), though there is the island of Infraquirinelle, which is a protectorate of Quirinelle representing the acceptable aspects of the 1960s.

Blondes and brunettes

In Aristasia Pura, blondes (always spelt with the "e") and brunettes are two different sexes. Both are feminine, but blondes are "ultra-feminine". They differ biologically and are capable of reproduction. Sexual attraction between the two sexes works in the expected way: blondes are typically attracted to brunettes, and vice versa. However, "homosexual" (i.e. blonde-blonde or brunette-brunette) attraction is not unheard of, and even a heterosexual blonde (i.e. one attracted to brunettes) will tend to have a best blonde-friend. Brunettes tend to see this as non-threatening.

In Aristasia-in-Telluria (the real world), the language of blondes and brunettes as sexes is maintained, but has no actual relation to hair colour, being purely based on personality type. Thus Aristasians tend to institutionalise the stereotypical view of blondeness while dissociating it from physical hair colour. Blondeness for an Aristasian is a choice - yet, she would also argue, it is the way she is - the way she was made.

Aristasians consider blondes impractical and vain. However, it is entirely acceptable for blondes to hold positions of authority, and the intellectuality of blondes is not disputed. Many blonde Aristasians find the concept of blondeness liberating, giving them a way of positively identifying themselves in a world that is generally hostile to ultra-femininity especially in women who prefer women.

Political alignment

Aristasia has been viewed as a branch of the Guénonian Traditionalist current. (Mark Sedgwick in his history of that school, Against the Modern World, sees Aristasia in this contex.) Others have associated it with lesbian separatism. Aristasians assert femininity as the superior principle and strongly attack the "social conditioning" theory which considers femininity a device for the subjugation of women. While Aristasians adduce biological evidence for the actuality and primacy of "conventional femininity", their view of femininity is ultimately metaphysical and spiritual.

See also

• Gothic Lolita

Further reading

• Sedgwick, Mark J. (2004). Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195152972.

External link

• http://www.aristasia.co.uk