Debunk of Gorean onlinism – 2
There are many, many things that people believe to be true in Gor on Second Life, simply because it’s written on a notecard or because someone has taught them in good faith things that are totally false but so taken at face value that they’ve become a reality that people cling to with as much obstinacy as error. This article is here to debunk this false information.
1- The face veil is compulsory for a free woman
No, it isn’t. It’s first and foremost a custom and a social pressure, like many others that free women must endure to maintain their rank. It’s also a subject on which Norman contradicts himself every other time in his novels: either the veil isn’t required and non veiled women are commonplace, or it’s legally forbidden and socially considered an odious indecency. Since I’m in favor of always choosing the more open solution, let’s consider that women without veils are not rare, but that modesty pushes them to wear them whenever possible, and all the more so if they’re rich and high-caste. But is this the norm? No, just a general consideration.
It’s worth noting that veiling is not legally compulsory for a free woman; rather, it’s a matter of modesty and custom. Some free, unaccompanied, low-class girls do not wear the veil. Similarly, some daring free women neglect the veil. Neglect of the veil is not a crime in Gor cities, although in some it is considered a brazen and scandalous omission. …In some cities, and among some groups and tribes, it may be mentioned, although it is not common, that veils may be, for practical reasons, unknown even among free women. The cities of Gor are many and varied. Each has its own history, customs and traditions. On the whole, however, Gor culture prescribes veiling for free women.
Slave-girl of Gor
In Ar station,” he says, ”as in Ar, concealing clothing is not legally required for free women, nor is the veil. It’s more a question of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are laws that prescribe certain rules of propriety for free women. For example, they can’t go naked in the streets, like slaves. In fact, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these rules of propriety, for example with her arms or legs too bare, can be turned into a slave”.
Renegades of Gor
It’s important to understand, of course, that the public display of the features of a free woman, especially one of high caste or with a claim to position or status, is a socially serious matter in many Gorean localities. Indeed, in some towns, a free woman who is not veiled is liable to be arrested by guards, then veiled, by force if necessary, and taken publicly back to her home.
Players of Gor
“It is not unknown for some women of the lower castes to slacken, or omit, veils,” said Lita.
Plunder of Gor
2- Free women always tie their hair up in a high bun
So, no, not at all. A free woman must have her ears free of hair, at least partially. Why? Because it exposes her earlobes and thus their lack of holes (which are secondary marks of bondage). That said, you can’t always see a free woman’s ears, hidden under her veils. So, at the very least, a free woman has her hair tied back in a ponytail… and that’s the only rule to respect. The rest is a matter of coquetry and pride in one’s beauty. Free women often have long hair, and, in wealthy high-castes, it can reach their knees. And those who can’t have such hair, or have unhealthy hair, wear wigs, hairpieces, false braids and so on. The richer and more powerful a woman is, the more sophisticated her hairstyle…
… and slaves do the same! We’ll talk about it below.
3- A free woman never wears pants
Oh yes, she does! But under long dresses and tunics. They’re for work and travel, and also an extra layer of fabric for the cold. Women who work in manual, agricultural trades, and who travel, don’t wear heavy cover-up dresses, but much simpler and more comfortable ones, too. And therefore, pants, for the cold, so as not to damage their legs, etc.
PS: let me remind you that a gorean cover-up dress is more or less similar to a burqa-like with colors, printed fabrics and rich ornaments, a bit like Berber outfits… yes, it’s heavy, covering and you can’t see any shape. The neck is covered by the veil, which also covers the head, and the only things visible are the hands, gloved in the case of the ruder women. So I’m not surprised that this isn’t really the norm in Gor Second Life.
4- A free woman isn’t free at all
So this is another paradox of the novels. Norman mentions that a woman can’t leave her neighborhood, or even her house, without the consent of her legal guardian, but he also, and far more often, evokes women working quite independently, without any yoke of legal guardianship, including women who are heads of their families, whether low or high caste. So, which to choose?
Both. There are families and couples where the man, master of his house, is a patriarchal sexist who controls the every move of the women in his household, and other families who are much more moderate and free with their women, not forgetting women who are, in effect, heads of the family, for example because they are widows and have been able to rise to the rank of the family’s main personality.
Suffice it to say that, on Gor Second Life, which is above all a girls’ game, let’s not kid ourselves, free women are generally far more independent than the poor high-caste women of the novels, who can’t do a thing without a chaperone watching over them at all times.
5- Slave girls always wear their hair long and loose
No. While this is generally the case, many slaves have their hair tied back in a ponytail, especially for domestic work, and short-haired kajirae are quite common. Yes, goreans prefer girls with long, loose hair. But it’s not a law, nor is it an absolute norm! A bathhouse girl has her hair cut at the nape of her neck, a public slave rarely has hair that goes below her shoulders, and the high-slaves, the kajirae who belong to the members of the wealthiest high-castes, often wear very sophisticated hairstyles and high buns.
There are various hairdos in which such combs are worn in the hair. Usually, however, the hair of slaves is worn long, and loose, or confined only in some simple way, as with a ribbon or woolen fillet. Some masters like the ponytail hairdo on a slave, which, on Gor, is usually spoken of as the “leash,” or “hair leash,” for, by it, a girl may be conveniently seized and controlled. Upswept hairdos are usually reserved for free women, or high slaves. They are a mark of status. To be sure, one of the reasons for permitting a hairdo of that sort to a slave is the master’s pleasure in undoing it, in loosening it, thus reminding even the high slave that in his arms, ultimately, she, the high slave, is yet a slave, and as much or more than the lowest girl in the most remote village. The loosening of a woman’s hair on Gor in an extremely sensuous, meaningful act. “Who loosens her hair?” is a way of asking, in effect, who owns her.
Dancer of Gor
Whereas long hair is commonly favored in slaves, it is seldom that a slave is brought to the block with ankle-length hair. On the other hand, Gorean free women often have quite long hair, in which they take great pride. It is not unusual that it might reach to the back of their knees. When they are enslaved it is commonly shortened, considerably.
Swordsmen of Gor
“This,” she says, moving on to the next girl, “is an upswept hairstyle. It looks sophisticated. It’s a hairstyle favored by some free women, but not forbidden to slaves.
Kajira of Gor
6- The kajira outfit is always camisk or dance silks!
A kajira wears whatever her master wants her to wear, including nothing – and a kajira kept naked is very common, including just for eye candy.
Below, I’ve put a few quotes from various slave garments, among many others. But I want to come back to one point: slaves fear the cold, just like everyone else. Making a kajira wear camisks and diaphanous dancing silks in winter is an interesting way of making her get sick and risk her death (and diseases do exist on Gor, including colds, flu, angina, etc! More on that below). A kajira therefore often wears a long-sleeved tunic, or even a warm skirt, coat, cape and wool socks and legwarmers, depending on the climate. In short, enough to keep her warm and therefore healthy and fit to serve.
Among wagon peoples, being dressed in Kajir means, for a girl, wearing four items, two red, two black; a red cord, the Curla, is tied around the waist; the Chatka, or long, narrow strip of black leather, fits over this cord at the front, passes underneath, then again, from the inside, passes over the cord at the back; the Chatka is tightened; The Kalmak is then slipped on; this is a short, open, sleeveless black leather vest; finally, the Koora, a strip of red cloth, matching the Curla, is wrapped around the head to hold back the hair, as slave women, among the Wagon peoples, are not allowed to braid or style their hair in any other way; it must be, except for the Koora, worn loose.
Nomads of Gor
She wore a high, tight vest of red silk, with four hooks; her midriff was bare; she wore the sashed chalwar, a sashed, diaphanous trousered garment, full but gathered in, closely, at the ankles; she was barefoot; her wrists and ankles were bangled; she was veiled; she was collared.
Tribesmen of Gor
“And this,” said Marcus, loosening the cord, “is perhaps the most common way of wearing the slave girdle.” He then took the forward ends of the cord, again free, and this time crossed them, over the bosom, before placing them again through the loop at the back, drawing them forward and, once more, fastening them, perhaps more snugly than was necessary, before her.
Magicians of Gor
One of the most exciting items of slave clothing, if the slave is allowed to wear it, is the Ta-Teera, or, as it is sometimes called, the slave rag. This garment is analogous to the tunic, but is little more, and intentionally, than one or more rags. In this garment, the girl is left in no doubt as to her status as a slave. Some cities do not want girls in Ta-Teeras to be seen in public on the streets. Some masters only make their girls wear these garments when camping or out in the wild. Others, of course, may prescribe Ta-Teeras for their daughters when they are in their own compartments.
Guardsman of Gor
There are a large number of ways in which slave silk is worn. It can be worn, for example, on the shoulder or off the shoulder, with high necklines or plunging necklines, in open or closed garments, tightly or flowingly, and in various lengths. Sometimes it is put on the girl only in halters and G-strings, or mere G-strings.
Dancer of Gor
“One is a slave garment,” he says, “which seems more cultural than his present tunic, and the other is a winding of chains and rings, which I’m told is a sirik.”
Mariners of Gor
I had been, in my training, put in various costumes, mostly, I suppose, for my masters to see what I looked like in them, such as the common and Turian camisk, and the scandalous garb prescribed for Tuchuk slave girls.
Dancer of Gor
7- A slave is always barefoot
No, this is neither a law nor a norm. It’s just a custom, based on an often little-known fact: sandals, even the simplest ones, are expensive, and many low-caste people don’t wear them either, except in the depths of winter. For example, in France, Germany and Austria, but also in the USA, children from families of modest means didn’t wear shoes, or only in winter, until the Second World War.
So on Gor, it’s not surprising that shoes weren’t commonplace for slaves, except in the bitterest cold, or for the most precious slaves.
Slaves, for example, are often barefoot. High-ranking slaves, on the other hand, often wear sandals, some of them magnificent.
Vagabonds of Gor
She was rather modestly dressed, I thought, her tunic coming up to her knees. What’s more, she had no belt. This was probably to conceal her figure. On the other hand, I assumed that beneath this garment, woven from the wool of the lice, her figure was not without interest. She wore no make-up. She had been given sandals.
Magicians of Gor
The bracelets contrasted with the pettiness of her coarse brown garment. Thorn touched the garment with his finger. “We’ll get rid of it,” he told her. “Soon, when you’ve been properly prepared, you’ll be dressed in costly pleasure silk, given sandals perhaps, scarves, veils and jewels, clothes to gladden a maiden’s heart.”
Outlaw of Gor
8- Slaves are very numerous
A paradox between what the novels say and Norman’s own interpretations, we understand that
1. male slaves for work or female slaves for service and pleasure are relatively widespread consumer products, although they remain a luxury, and
2. that the actual rate of enslavement in Gor as a whole is low.
On the one hand, slaves seem to be plentiful on the breed enclosures that supply the majority of slave girls, and on the raids and war captures. On the other, it’s not everywhere either. The average for Gor’s world, which could be estimated at around 500 million people, is 4 to 5% slaves, which would give around 20-25 millions slaves. But in the city-states, this rate rises to 10%, or even 20% for the largest cities. Ar and its million inhabitants would have a total of 200,000 slaves, for example. If you think that’s a lot, Imperial Rome in the1st century, with its million inhabitants, had around 350,000 slaves out of the total population. Yes… one slave for every two free citizens, an almost absolute record.
Slaves are an expensive commodity, because they’re not that common. This is where the paradox of Norman’s writings becomes problematic, as slaves are sometimes traded for the price of a few loaves of bread, which is absurd if slaves are not widespread and their training (the Romans hardly trained their slaves… they just told them, in general: you do as you’re told or suffer and die) is expensive. It’s a profession and an art, in Gor, not just a function. A profession whose skills must be paid for! Their basic value will then be, even without training, a price closer to that of a bosk than a tarsk. Owning a slave is not only a prestige, it’s a luxury.
9- Goreans aren’t sadists
In fact, yes, they are; but you have to place yourself in the context of the novels and in Norman’s head to put this into perspective. The goreans described by Norman suffer few inborn or acquired psychological defects, and psychopaths of various kinds are very rare and obviously get killed fairly quickly. Goreans repress all gratuitous violence against men, women and children, but this is limited to the free.
Slaves, on the other hand, are made to be abused and beaten at will and without any need for justification, even if this is mostly theoretical (see quotes below). Their suffering and death are of relatively little consequence, and taking it out on them is perfectly normal for goreans. Besides, the richer you are on Gor, the more you can afford to indulge in perverse and shocking whims, but which, since they only concern slaves, are therefore not serious. A good example, among others, are the kajirae breeding virgins, ignorant of men, sacrificed at 15 for a night of debauchery. Thrown into a cage and raped for hours on end by male captives during a luxurious party, before the eyes of the guests and the man who has paid a fortune for the spectacle, they usually end up so traumatized that their throats are slit in the morning. We need only recall the sordid details of the Gorean game of “l’attrape-fille”, which also regularly results in the death of a kajira, too injured or traumatized, who is then finished off after the game.
So Goreans can be sadistic in our eyes, and they are. But so were the Romans, and so was pretty much everyone else, in their customs and pleasures, until the 19th century. It’s just that Goreans don’t see sadism as applying to slaves; what’s more, they know how to channel this sadism; bloodthirsty murderous outbursts are limited to slaves and remain uncommon. Slaves are expensive and precious, and Goreans prefer to treat them well, relatively speaking, rather than letting off steam.
– “Nonsense,” he says, “she’s just a slave.”
– “Maybe Samos has found a love slave,” I say.
– “An Earth girl?” exclaimed Samos, laughing.
– “Perhaps,” I said.
– “It doesn’t matter,” said Samos. “She’s only a slave, a thing to be served, beaten and abused, if it pleases me. ”
Explorers of Gor
Free women occasionally use hooded serving slave-girls on all fours, in crawling races, in which, walking behind them, they incite them to greater speed by the frequent monitions of a switch. Free women often delight in this game, as it gives them an opportunity to show what they think of female slaves.
Mariners of Gor
The slave girl is subject to whipping, and she knows it, but she is rarely, if ever, whipped. Likewise, she will go to great lengths to avoid being whipped. The whip hurts. There are few occasions when a slave wishes to be whipped. One is when the slave feels he has failed in his duties or disappointed a beloved master and, contrite and unhappy, wishes to make amends. Another case is when the slave wishes to be reminded that he is a slave. For many slaves, the most severe punishment is simply to be neglected or ignored by their master. Punishment can be physical or psychological, and often both. The humiliation of punishment is often more lasting and painful than the effect of a few blows. This is particularly the case when discipline is carried out in front of other slaves, suggesting that the punished slave is lacking, inadequate or inferior, that she is boring, incompetent or stupid. Who else but an ignorant or slow slave would need the whip to correct her behavior?
Treasure of Gor
“You hit me,” she said, reproachfully. “No! Don’t turn away!
He turned away. I was afraid he was angry. The slave must not be struck in anger. She must be struck, if she must be struck at all, to discipline her, to improve her. She must be trained like the animal she is, and in her training, the whip is sometimes useful.
Rebels of Gor
10- Goreans are never sick!
Have you read the novels? They’re full of scenes depicting Gorean anguish over disease and epidemics. Ships loaded with slaves, like caravans, are subject to quarantine, disinfection in antiseptic baths, treatment against parasites, compulsory vaccinations, sanitary confinements, and so on. And it’s not just the Bazi plague (cholera) and dar-kosis (leprosy) that are on the agenda, but also influenza, pneumonia, infected wounds, swamp fevers, you name it.
Gorean medicine can’t do everything, and longevity serum doesn’t make you immune to disease! It just increases your healthy lifespan by slowing down the aging process! So there are illnesses, and epidemics, and people who die from them, and while the common cold shouldn’t really be that troublesome for a Gorean, and the flu a temporary setback, I’m sure they catch a cold like everyone else!
11-Every tavern or inn has a “servery”.
Well, no, because the word doesn’t exist in English or French. If you mean the space for cooking, preparing and transferring food in this kind of place, it’s called a counter (like a kitchen counter). The English word is counter.
Servery is not only an onlinism, it’s also a neologism: a made-up word.
