Monat: November 2008

One of the toughest and most asked questions around is, if Gor is quite discriminating against women or not. Many just find the whole setup and role play quite disgusting because of the use of slaves, pleasure slaves, their punishments and the role women at whole play in that kind of medieval society.

So, how to approach that? Well, first let us take a look at some facts of Gor:

• John Norman believes in a natural order and thinks that living against that causes quite some trouble. So, this includes that males are being dominant, and women, while most of them are free, either need to choose between freedom or sexual fulfillment as a woman. Some people quite like the idea of such a natural order, because they think, all have there well met place in society, then, and that living against this order is the reason for many today’s troubles in society at all.
• There are many slaves around, used for whatever kinds, but both male and female are possible.
• Although there are free women, they are highly appreciated and such, their place in society is of course more hurdlesome than that of free men. They have to wear veils and such and finding a partner is not easy, for them, while though they may use kajirii.
• There are severe punishments, of course, against all kinds bad stuff, but most times it seems that women are often being punished more severe than most men are.
• There are no female warriors on Gor according to the author himself, John Norman.
• Most gamers are going to tell you, when that topic is being raised, that all women on Gor are not stronger than a 12 years old – but of course, then again, a Panther can run around pulling a hard wagon with quite much stuff on it, go figure.

Well, there might be for sure other stuff, but it might give you an idea. The picture of the woman in Gor is quite clear, also that of the man. Gor is a man’s world.

So the question is: is Gor about discriminating women or not? Well, this goes twofold:

1. The picture of women being drawn in the Gorean novels is something that our society has been thrown away and overcome with in the last century. Women are being equal to men, more or less, and the hard decisions being showed in the book are not necessary, anymore. Also not every woman in reality would find fulfillment in the ways being shown in the books. So some may – and with reason – say, that the picture of women in the society of Gor, being compared with our own society, is something that’s quite discriminating against them. Yes. Others of course are then telling you, that they think the Gorean system fits more nicely for them and they like it more that way.
2. The other side of the coin is, that no one is being forced to play Gor. So those people playing slaves/women have a reason for being there, to play it, they are all there on their own will, they want to try out something different for a while, looking if it fits for them or not, so if you take that stance, Gor is not about discriminating women at all. All are there on their own will.

So a conclusion in that matter might be: while the picture of a woman in Gor’s society might be viewed as quite discriminating compared to the role of a woman in a modern society per se, it really isn’t about discriminating women at all, because all are there on their own will, because they want to try it out and the people, who dislike it, are going to leave it then, soon, while the rest of them is going to stay more or less long. In the end it is, again, what you make out of it.

Technorati : gor, gorean, role play, second life

One quite frequent discussion on all Gorean groups and channels in Second
Life is, if there is such a thing like one true Gorean role play or not.
Normally the people then take two main stances.

1. There are the people who want to play as according to the books in Second
   Life as possible and dislike so called onlineisms. An onlineism
   is something, that is simple not there in the books, but became quite common in
   certain sims of Second Life.
   Examples for it are: there is a common phrase in
   the book in the region of Torvaldsland called Jarl, which is
   the way to adress a leader of them instead of Ubar. Bondsmaids address all free
   men as Jarl, but in the books there is no such phrase as Jarla
   to greet free women, but this is something that is quite common on certain sims
   in Second Life, so this is a good example. The people who dislike onlineisms
   don’t ust this phrase at all.
   Another example are female warriors. There is
   no such thing in the books, even the author itself stated there is no such thing
   on Gor, but on quite some Gorean sims in Second Life there are indeed female
   warriors. So the people who really play by the books don’t acknowledge them at
   all as being valid.
2. The other party of people is the crowd, which takes the stance, that while
   the books are depicting the daily life of the planet Gor, they are only able to
   depict small aspects of the whole culture at all, and, while not really
   mentioned in the books, quite some stuff is still possible to be there in the whole setting and most likely is there, if you
   come to think about it, and therefore should be considered a possible part of
   Gorean role play even while not being mentioned in the books at all.
   Those
   are the people, who don’t bother using onlineisms then like "Jarla", perhaps also female
   warriors and such.

So these are the two main parties, which constantly discuss on Second Life about what real
Gorean role play should be or not, what in it might be or not, sometimes also might engagne in flame wars. And because of this fact alone already, there is not just only one true Gorean role play, but every sim or alliance of sims makes up their own rules about what they consider valid role play or not. So what you get in reality in Second Life is quite a broad range about what real Gorean role play is about and what not, and coming with that, big, different rule sets.

While there are also some, which complain that there isn’t such a thing just like one, big, unified Gorean Role Play at all, most other people tend to be at peace with that and just take it pragmatically, meaning playing at that sim which comes most near to their own ideal about what Gorean Role Play should be about and that’s it at all, then, so with those two main parties you got in the consequence the opportunity to choice. And if there’s no such thing like your ideal then, until today, you also got the opportunity to found such a sim, like all of us have. 🙂