Dispatches from Stepford

So I also wrote a little character study of one of my main villains, delving a little bit into his backstory, his steady far-right radicalisation which leads to him alienating a close friend from college, his reasons for moving to Stepford and his abduction of Rachel Martinez, and his role in the Men’s Association – and generally establishing him as being a class-A prick. The study as a whole delves into some very uncomfortable and upsetting places, a lot of which I’m not willing to share here for a number of reasons, but I do have this excerpt of an interaction he has with Dale Coba Jr., who discovers his true identity and threatens to expose him unless he assists a fellow Men’s Association member with the abduction of Cece Thomas. ———   “You lied to me, William,” Dale Coba Jr. says gravely as he turns his computer screen towards you. “Or should I say… Jake LaCosta?” Fuck. On the screen is an article from the San Diego Tribune, reporting on your sudden disappearance after that ...

 In the interest of full disclosure, character bios etc will be posted sporadically whenever I’ve finished the character sheets! I have to be able to properly communicate the way these characters appear in my mind before I can properly share them with the world, or the small fraction of the world that will actually see this blog.

Appearance notes: 26-year-old white(?) cis woman 5’3”, curvy build Long wavy blonde hair and green eyes Often seen in low-cut housewife-style dresses Rosie Everett, when we first meet her, is one of the town’s ‘Stepford Wives’, a term coined by Kim Eberhart to refer to the impossibly beautiful, subservient wives of the Men’s Association members. At first she appears perpetually cheerful and unsettlingly devoted to her husband William Everett, by whom she has two young sons, but we soon learn that she has been conditioned to act this way, and is constantly fighting a psychological battle for freedom beneath her seemingly flawless and vacant exterior.

  Appearance notes: 29-year-old Black bisexual cis woman 5’4”, lithe/petite build Brown-black curly hair and deep brown eyes Cece Samira Thomas is another of Zach’s close friends, who has gone missing in Stepford by the start of the film. She is ultimately the most important character in the story, as she is the first character to appear on screen, her disappearance is the focal point of the plot, and she rescues Zach from the Men’s Association near the end of the film. Cece is a headstrong and resilient young woman, willing to take action to protect the people she loves and to help those in need. She and Zach first became friends off campus while attending Columbia University, where Cece was an art student and Zach was getting his journalism degree; Cece was renting an apartment, and Zach briefly roomed with her after graduating until he found his own place. We learn quickly, however, that Cece and Zach had an argument shortly before she vanished, which informs Zach’s decisi...

  Appearance notes: 30-year-old Iranian-American bisexual cis man 5’11”, bordering on 6 foot, lean build Black shoulder-length hair and brown eyes Usually favours plain and comfortable gym wear Often incorporates elements of gender non-conformity into his daily appearance (e.g. subtle Euphoria-inspired makeup, painted nails, hair accessories) Omar Shahbazi is a close friend of Zach’s from high school in Brooklyn. He is a self-taught makeup artist and a second generation immigrant, his parents Wahlid and Mona having arrived in America from Tehran some time after the Iranian Revolution, and becoming heavily involved in community activism in New York before they settled down and started a family. He is the youngest of three children. Most of Omar’s interactions with Zach involve him either being concerned for his well-being or sick of his shit, but ultimately they are very good friends; he matches Zach’s energy in ways not even he realises. He drives up to Stepford to join Zac...

  Appearance notes: 31-year-old white gay trans man, 10+ years on testosterone, 5+ years post-top surgery 5’7”, slim build Strawberry blond hair and hazel eyes Frequently appears tired and dishevelled (short scruffy light stubble, dark circles, slept-in clothes) Has a couple tattoos; a chest tattoo that says “NOLITE TE BASTARDES CARBORUNDUM” that he got after his top surgery, “DO NO HARM” on one arm and “TAKE NO SHIT” on the other Zachary Allen Taylor is a freelance investigative journalist based in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Born in August 1993, he left his home in the suburbs of Brooklyn as soon as he turned 18, estranging himself from his transphobic mother to enroll at Columbia University, and has since carved out a niche for himself in the field of independent journalism. He is openly gay, but currently stealth about his trans status. His vices are cigarettes and black coffee, both of which he claims help him focus. When Zach is onto a story, for example the conspi...

I know the truth about what happened to Mom. They killed her, Kimmy. They killed her and dumped her body in a hole in the ground and replaced her with a June Cleaverbot. —————— Like I already mentioned in an earlier post, when I was comparing the Stepford Wives book and film for my approach to my sequel idea I noticed that the Eberharts have two daughters in the film, but in the source material they have a daughter and a son. I thought “hey that’s weird but wait i can do something with this lmao”, merged these two separate characters together into one trans lady, and gave her a backstory that’d fit with the themes explored by both Ira Levin and myself. I used to write a lot of fanfiction (i still kinda do sometimes) so I guess you could call this glorified fanfiction, except I cannot be fucked to post it on AO3 without the proper context of Welcome to Stepford lmao. —————— Stepford, CT,  September 1985 Trudging down the staircase with a yawn, Kim Eberhart rubbed the fatigue from h...

Line-up: Hannah Havoc (Hannah Lopez): vocals, occasional rhythm guitar Roxxi Riot (Rachel Martinez): lead guitar, occasional backing vocals Cindy Catalyst (Catherine Bellamy): bass Moira Malaise (Melanie Huang/Huang Mingzhu): drums Disaffectress are a queercore band based in Downtown Brooklyn. Formed by high school friends Rachel Martinez and Hannah Lopez at the age of 15, they later recruited Catherine Bellamy and Melanie Huang and have since attracted a small yet loyal following, commonly being hailed as one of the best live punk acts of the 21st century and commended for their strong DIY ethics. Drawing from a wide range of musical influences including noise rock, early hardcore punk and deathrock, their lyrics primarily deal with topics related to feminism and social justice, tackling racism, transphobia, misogyny, rape culture, and late capitalism, among other subjects. The band was halfway through a tour of the East Coast when Rachel was abducted from their van by William ...

  Appearance notes: Early 50’s white cishet man 5’11”, stocky build Receding black hair and blue eyes Usually seen in police uniform Darren Coba is the Chief of the Stepford Police Department, having been granted the role by his brother, Dale Coba Jr., shortly after the latter became head of the Men’s Association. In return, Darren has taken full advantage of his connection with the M.A. to help capture fleeing Stepford Wives and intimidate residents who oppose the group’s presence within the town. Darren is a very hot-headed and deeply bigoted man, who secretly harbours a deep resentment of Dale Jr., due to his own inferiority complex stemming from his father’s obvious favouritism of his elder brother. This specific nature leads him to pick a fight with Zach Taylor at a dive bar and threaten him with homophobic slurs, only to lead to him being knocked out with a bottle of Bud Light and a shoulder throw to the ground. Darren later looks up Zach in a police database, discover...

Welcome to Stepford is a direct sequel to Bryan Forbes’ The Stepford Wives (1975), written by William Goldman and based on the 1972 book of the same name by Ira Levin. It’s set 49-50 years after the original film and follows a new cast of characters within the town of Stepford, Connecticut. The horror and thriller elements of the original are retained here, yet Levin’s original concept is re-examined through an explicitly intersectional lens by a queer and trans writer (me!). The idea was to address two specific scenarios; first, how a queer and/or trans person would interact with the town of Stepford, its Men’s Association, and its unsettlingly submissive housewives; and second, what the Men’s Association of the original book would be like if it was run by 21st century insecure misogynistic men who aren’t content to just start a podcast, and instead have to strip away women’s autonomy and identities and mould them to fit their outdated standards of how women should act and behave. ...

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