I’m not sure we can really consider ourselves “Gorean” anymore. I’m not entirely convinced we ever really were. We share a great many philosophies with the books and spent a bit of time in the rooms but things just sort of fizzled out and we’re back to doing things the way we’ve always done them. Hit and miss, I guess. I think I’ve said all that before.

One of the reasons Master delved into Gorean channels is because of the ridiculousness we dealt with in BDSM channels. We were assured by an old friend that the “slaves” of Gor would never even dream of treating Master the way the older submissives treated him: claiming they were smarter and knew more than Him because they were older; telling Him to sit back and shut up while they told Him “the way things are™”; snarking any dominant they didn’t consider to be “real” or strong enough or manly enough or old enough in public channel as well as in private conversations; trying to talk submissives out of relationships with people they viewed as abusive without knowing all the details… The atrocities go on and on.

You find these behaviors in all walks of BDSM (Much to both sides’ chagrin, Gor does fall under the category of BDSM.), and probably all walks of life, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. On one website we belong to, which caters to BDSM masters and slaves (but also accepts switches, dom/mes and subs) and many believe similarly to Master and I, we’ve had submissives exclaim how much better they are than me, tell Master how ignorant He is, order Master to “handle” me because they think I’m out of line in the way I speak to them. In a channel or two, we’ve had disgruntled “slaves” launch all out wars between Master and their owners (and their owners’ friends) over things like Master refusing to be treated like a slave Himself by a submissive, treating other slaves as He treats me (like a bauble rather than a precious gem), or just plain saying something the “slave” didn’t like. That’s neither here nor there.

Another reason He delved into Gor is for the strictness. In the books, at least, nonsense such as the aforementioned was not tolerated in slaves. Property was dealt with swiftly and efficiently and, generally speaking, the problem never arose again. Slaves were faced with one choice and one choice only. Behave or die.

In the real world, because of the law, we can’t live that way. Well, we could, but if a master killed his slave the police would swoop in and take him away to a bang-you-in-the-ass-prison, do not pass go, do not collect $200.00. However, in the role play of Gor online, they pretend that they function that way. They don’t. Not once have I seen a slave “killed” online because she acted out. Generally speaking, that’s because the slaves online flower up their acting out so the masters think they’re being cute and let it slide, but often it’s also because the men tend to put the slaves who are good at turning them on with their serves on this pedestal so high up that none of them can reach them. The only time I’ve ever even seen a collar removed without the slave asking for it to be, it was because the girl refused to hide her feelings behind a cute little mask and made it clear that she was not happy. I couldn’t help but cheer her on. There’s more to life than the visage of perfection and problems should be dealt with, not swept behind a doll-like mask. Even if it means just a simple “I’m the Master and you’re the slave and this is how I say it will be. Deal.”

The reason I’m rambling about the similar negatives in BDSM and Gor is mainly because I recently read a blog on one man’s opinion of Goreans and I was a little offended. I won’t point you to the article because I’m too lazy to get the link from where I found it. Hey… at least I’m honest 🙂

I realize that the vast majority of Goreans come across as die hard morons who honestly believe in this alter Earth and hope against hope in their heart of hearts that they will be zapped from our planet’s surface and onto the surface of Gor quick, fast and in a hurry so they can reap the benefits of owning whichever female they wish. They come across as geeks who can’t get a date to save their lives so they join a mock lifestyle in which they can slap a collar on a girl’s neck whether she likes it or not and she belongs to them and that’s that. Thing is, they’re not all like that. Not by a long shot.

I met a great deal of people who participated in Gor specifically as role play to spice up their sex life. I knew one woman who was a married switch in real life and only played at being a slave online (with her husband’s express permission and sometimes participation) because she enjoyed the fantasy but had no real interest in realizing it. I met men who participated in Gorean role play because they were interested in owning a woman but knew they weren’t currently responsible enough or equipped (financially, or where they lived or how they lived, etc.) to take one into their care. Outside of the online world, they date, they interact with real live people, they have jobs…

And the girls are not brainwashed to believe anything. While a lot of them do believe they are owed a lot more respect than they deserve (again, just my opinion), they got that from mommy and daddy teaching them that they’re little princesses and the men of Gor who foster that behavior do it out of fear of running out of slaves, I think. Mostly, though, the slaves just get off on the fantasy of actually letting someone so close that they can’t get away from them. Online Gor is a stage and many of the players remove their makeup and go back to their normal lives when they click the “restart” button on their computers.

I didn’t meet anyone who believed, wholeheartedly, that the Gor novels were a Bible of sorts of how things should be done in the world today. I didn’t meet anyone who believed, wholeheartedly, that the Gor novels were real. I also didn’t meet anyone who believed in every single philosophy preached in the Gor novels. Most of them believe as follows: Men are the dominant gender, because of their strength and ability to provide for the family (and if one takes a look at nature and the way humans came up through history, until the women’s liberation movement, that’s really the way nature intended in my opinion – as an aside, how come plural of man and woman are men and women but plural of human isn’t humen?) and women should defer to them. Not necessarily as slaves… but what the man says goes if he’s unwilling to change his mind and even the free women must abide by it. If that makes them all brainwashed morons… well, whatever 🙂

Again… I think I’ve said all this before. I just felt the need to say it again. Seriously, people need to stop buying into stereotypes. It’s like racism with a BDSM bent.