The
Healing
A
Dramatic Series for the imagination
Written
by
Heidi
James
Premise
The
Healing is a serialised drama that questions what the world will be
like after all the men are gone. In the aftermath of a parasite
epidemic that wipes out the human male population of the world, it’s
left to the women to take control. It takes a period of mourning (for
some) and readjustment but society begins to thrive. The environment
heals, toxic patriarchy has been eradicated and with it violence and
oppression in all its forms. Welcome to the utopia of The Healing,
but is it all it seems?
What
if your memories of your father, your brother, your husband don’t
quite fit the history now being told about the innate violence of all
men? What if, now the danger has passed, you wanted men back? What if
you believed that a new world could be created, one where the lessons
of the past had been learned, where gender no longer mattered? What
if you longed for the old days? What would you do? And how would the
new order respond to keep their peaceful matriarchy intact?
Location
Formerly
known as America, but the new world is borderless. Green and
plentiful, and with the population dramatically reduced the pressure
on resources and the environment has disappeared. The world is
recognisable to us, just more efficient, cooler, peaceful, and
without men.
The
parasite
The
destruction of the environment, specifically massive overfishing,
disturbed the ecosystem allowing the growth of a parasite, Wolbachia
Letalis Viros, to go unchecked by the usual forces of the food chain.
Harmless to females, the parasite destroyed reproductive tissues and
organs in males, before causing multiple organ failure. With no cure
available many men took fate into their own hands, wreaking havoc
before ending their lives. When the temporary solution of taking
female hormones was offered till a cure was found, for many men,
including trans men, they preferred the option of dying male. A few
however, joined the ranks of the surviving women, becoming un-ones.
They are now the underclass.
Culture
and Society
The
prevailing dogma is that the world was delivered from the hell of
men, and that WLVs (pronounced Wolves) liberated humanity. Nature rid
herself of this plague of men, and everything is better without them,
so why bring them back?
In
this new world, people work and live collaboratively, freed from
objectification and oppression. Free to dress, behave and love
without fear. Without an aggressive capitalist ‘growth’ culture,
and the use of eco technologies people spend less time working, more
time with loved ones, playing and creating. Life is sweet, unless you
are an un-one, the property of your female relative. Family units are
often extended, though coupling up is common too.
The
former culture is relegated to museums, where the art, history, film,
religion and literature of patriarchy is derided and displayed to
educate and warn against the dangers of masculinity. In this new
world of women gender isn’t an issue.
But
not everyone agrees, the Adamites, a small group of rebels led by the
enigmatic Vera, believe that WLVs was a medical crisis, no different
from any other plague or epidemic and that without males and
traditional reproduction another natural crisis is inevitable and the
future uncertain. The group is out to return the gender balance, by
both providing safe haven for un-ones who want to stop taking
hormones, and the conception and birth of male babies. Some of these
women are older and remember men in a positive light, but a few have
never lost their Christian/internal patriarchy and have taught this
to their daughters, becoming another source of tension and conflict.
The movement is subversive, potentially fundamental and explores
love, memory and the ‘not all men’ theme. The aims of the group
and the conflict it creates drives the series arc as both groups
become more entrenched and divided.
Reproduction
Only
females are born (initially because of the parasite, but now as an
established part of culture and available technology) in the early
era post-WLV children were conceived using sperm donated before the
epidemic. Now, women who are ready for children – it is a joyful
choice – use iPSCs (stem cells from their female partner) to create
‘sperm’ and conceive with the assistance of dedicated clinics.
Parthenogenesis is outlawed in order to preserve genetic diversity.
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