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:
- 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.
- 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.