>>34767
To preface this post, I typically ponder two explanations for their surroundings. The first is that their colony is a remainder from a fallen civilization, or they are settlers on a frontier distant, or otherwise isolated from broader civilization. The second is pretty much the truth: they are deliberate but experimental engineered culture with a particular taboo/blindspot so they will collectively flourish and fail in unique ways. They live a life of leisure in the lap of a much larger civilization, as their unique value earns them patronage. If they want, they can leave the Truman show and explore the world- but the taboo will remain, so it will be harder to visit home and impossible to reveal the nature of the taboo without severe consequences.
In any setting, they are provided with X-chromosome selected sperm and it is presented as some sort of machine-produced synthetic fertility-assisting tool. The biological advantages of sperm (genetic diversification) are presented as technological improvements over clonal pregnancy. (As a then vestigial trait, clonal pregnancy has apparently disappeared... break it to them slowly?)
I don't think gendered language would be an issue if the initial language was kept to basic English- Male pronouns and such just wouldn't have a use among the matrons who raise the first generation.
I had considered the animal precedent issue more from the perspective of "How are we going to teach them biology or history?" and the options are either A. teach them wrong and hide any contrary evidence or B. leave a void. I'm willing to found multiple amazonian colonies just to try all the variables.
But for animal presence in particular, we have few options. There are sustainably clonal parthenogenetic animals like texan "lesbian lizards" who could alleviate some sense of alienation from nature. But once they understand evolution they may find some conflict with the narrative that they alone are a monosexual species with an apparently non-gender repository of genetic differentiation. I'm sure I can find some sustainable backstories if long-lived Amazon cultures turn out to be very interesting. If we're doing artificial insemination already then the IQ, Openness, etc of the population are just variables for the tuning. So the question "How good of a backstory can we fabricate" is really more like "How smart can we make the girls? How long might the illusion last if we make them this smart?" I expect a barbell strategy: short-lived cultures of 115-130 IQ geniuses, and long-lived cultures of 100-110 IQ hotties. Genetic selection doesn't have to follow a Gaussian distribution, so overly-intelligent outliers could be made very rare.
Menarche topic- I was aware of some research, but I didn't know about the stepfather effect. I think the coolest result would be if proper nutrition + zero males/sex resulted in a very slow maturation, like menarche at 19 and a decade of puberty resulting in a slowly, finely sculpted body. Like the opposite of chubby girls with hasty puberty- which are also great, but I love the spice of life.
>These issues notwithstanding, it does make for a good wank fantasy.
I enjoy it as an idea of an experimental culture, a work of cultures that creates culture beyond itself.
But, I also want to win an auction and introduce a couple hot redheads to the concept of a penis.