BDSM Vs Gorean

Most Gorean sims (which there are over 200 of them) have observor tags you can wear and even some free gorean clothing you can put on to look around. All they ask is that you don't stand out in club type clothes and interrupt any roleplay going on at the time. All sims drop you at a market or safe zone first with notecards on the rules of the sim.

I have messaged you with my alt, if you are around when I am I am happy to give you a tour of a few places and there wont be any recruiting

Sure thing Rose

Czari, I'll go be a field slave. Yeah I'll do that - if I can pick grapes .. but I want to do it in my baby spider monkey avatar and I reserve to spit grape pips and wang bananas at people.

[You have been ejected from this sim]

Damnit.

Thank you so much, Denise! Of course I am willing to wear whatever is required and would never disrupt anyone's RP. Heck, I even wore a collar and cuffs for an afternoon as a slave in training. I will look for your IM and IM you back. I'm sure we'll connect eventually

My partner and FC in Gor has the baby spider monkey AV and has run around Gor with it. Trouble is, all the women wanted to keep him as a pet

I'd almost be willing to do exactly that.

I've had tours of a number of Gorean sims, simply by turning up and standing around until someone greets me. I tend to do some fairly basic roleplay as a traveller just arrived with little or no knowledge of Gorean society, which seems to make things go smoothly. It may help that my AV is male, and tends to look and dress in a vaguely Gorean style simply because I like the look .

The one thing I think Gor/BDSM/ D/s etc have very much in common is that they are labels that cover a wide variety of lifestyles without necessarily fitting very well with any individual person's way of life. The labels can be useful to give a general understanding, but shouldn't be used as laying down a code which must be followed at all times. The exception to that of course is roleplay sims, which tend to need some sort of rulebook to avoid collapsing into anarchy.

My relationship with my partner, which is both an SL and an RL relationship, clearly fits within the BDSM label in a general way, but I have never read any explanation of what BDSM is about that I felt explained what we are about. We are the way we choose to be, and whilst some aspects of our relationship may best be described as BDSM, others are more D/s, some aspects of how we relate (especially in SL) are quite close to my understanding of Gor, and in some aspects of our lives I absolutely defer to her, even though in general I am very much the dominant partner.

There are no rules as to how these things have to work, you have to find the way that works for you and your partner(s), the only essential is that the relationship is based on love and respect. We are happy the way we are, if other people think we are not doing things "the right way", they can take a running jump off a short pier.

This is why SL-Gor can get rather fuzzy about what is gor. Each sim is set up according to how the owner of that sims precieves gor to be. At one time I had thought about buying into a large chunk of a gorean sim and starting a family of sorts. A 1st girl, a bed slave, a couple in brown silks to keep the place landscaped for each season. I just never found the right sim for me and the girl I was going over for left for greener pastures.

I couldn't agree more!
/me cheers for Wulfric and his partner defining their relationship in the way that works best for them.

Most sims are based on different cities/areas of Gor in the books which vary a lot much like Earth travelling from north to south from the snowy north, through the green vallies and woods down to the dry plains and even sandy hot deserts. Life varies as well depending on the geography the same as here.

The books actually use a lot of Earth places and cultures done in a 'Gorean way'.

Some are....but they have to go through a whole rigmarole of proving their worth to be in the tribe as Panthers/Talunas generally disdain slave girls on the whole.

They also capture unwary men traveling through their territory, enslave them for a time, then shave a vertical line down the center of their hair so others who see them will know they were unfortunate enough to be captured by the panthers and generally be mocked and ridiculed by their peers.

(I threw that last bit in at no charge for you men who might think infiltrating a panther camp sounds like fun *grins*)

SL Gor is an in-world culture dominated by bored housewives, who ironically are called "sex slaves"


It is a subset of BDSM in SL which is a popular from of entertainment. BDSM is made up of all sorts of people, many with a low opinion of GOR both RL and SL.

SL BDSM consists ..

bored people of every stripe,
a lot of curious people,
a small number of RL D/S lifestylers ..

a fair number of "main" accounts ..
And a whole TON of alts.

You seem to know more about Gor than the average SL person I encounter, Denise So just wanted to add that the "silk color system" is an online-ism, began on IRC to basically denote slave training levels. There was no such reference in the books.

What is referred to online as a white silk in the books *was* a slave girl who had "not yet been opened for the use of men" as the author puts it - ie. a virgin.

You are absolutely right, Denise, in that some who are submissive in nature and enjoy the Gorean backdrop to role play truly enjoy serving non-sexually. I have always been amazed when I've wondered aloud where I can find such and such dress, AO, whatever in a Gorean sim and one of the girls tells me or takes me there and seems to derive such enjoyment from doing so. And some choose to stay in essentially the role of a "city slave" or in some cases a "house slave" - enjoying the non-sexual aspects of serving.

But, most are looking for their "love master/slave" - which generally lasts as long as the average SL wedding.

(Caveat: I know of one Gorean couple who have been Master/slave for 11 years now - but that is ONE in the literally hundreds of Goreans (and again, yes I realize there is no planet Gor) over the years.)

"Most" Gorean sims are wary of strangers (in the role play sense) and I would not recommend stepping foot in them unless you read all the rules and REALLY know what you're doing. Of course...regardless...you can always tp out.

Iaomai and its city offshoot, Piedmont, welcome visitors and there are most always one or more people at the tp point to offer a tour. If someone is not there at the time you tp in (on Iaomai, it is a ship)....in a few moments the word goes out on the group chat, "A visitor is at the ship, who is available to give a tour?"

Oh also...no problem in either of those sims with attire either...you are recognized as a visitor.

I am also most willing to accompany you to either/both of these plus my own former home if you would like. Feel free to IM me in world.

(I just purchased new robes...I need an excuse to go out on a Gorean excursion )

Gor is really more about roleplaying a certain social order (which has slaveplay as one of its elements) than BDSM, which is often about reciprocal fetish/D/s needs being exchanged. There is clearly a good deal of overlap, but there's a pretty significant distinction, at least on the "back end" of how these experiences are conceived and perceived.

It's of course not surprising in the least that both, and especially Gor, have managed to proliferate in the environment of SL. SL offers, for many, an opportunity to explore things they cannot/will not explore in RL. D/s is one of those, Gor (for some) is another, etc. The typical "desperate housewife" in a passion-reduced long term marriage is particularly susceptible to this kind of thing, but not uniquely so. It's part and parcel of what you have to expect when you put adult human beings in a setting where they can interact with each other in many and sundry ways without much consequence: sex, exploratory sex, and more sex, will of course happen. The most unsurprising thing in the world, really.

ROFL!

You *almost* had it. I toured Piedmont for the first time yesterday and they actually have a vineyard with a "picking grapes" animation.

If it just hadn't been for the baby spider monkey thing....

QFT!

One man I know says that he is Gorean by philosophy but D/s in his sexual preferences. I always thought that was a great way to differentiate a tiny bit at least. And again..that is "for him."

Have to respectfully disagree with you here, Colette. As indicated by a previous post in this thread, Norman states in one of his novels that BDSM is an "Earth sickness."

I'll leave it there since I've had 13 years debating this particular issue, but for some reason this one issue irks both BDSMers and Goreans who know the books.

Oooh! Thank you, Czari! I'll send you an IM next time I'm in SL. I would love a tour.

The diversity of SL is amazing, awesome, and exciting.

Huh?

That is not really the case. The vast majority of the actual women characters in the Gor Novels were slaves, or became slaves through the course of the book.

Only in the nebulous society which you really didn't see much of were free women the "vast majority". In that Norman says often that most women were free Women, but those are mainly "extras".

As to whether they were commanded great respect - Again its mainly in the nebulous background where all this respect occurs. Its notably lacking as plots develop with Free Women characters. Especially considering almost invariably any major (and most minor) free women characters end up being collared.

Even in the first book (by far the tamest slavery wise) , which actually has a Free Woman as the major Female character - she is made a slave and later freed.

What Norman calls BDSM in one of his Fiction books hardly means that Gor is not a subset of BDSM.

Certainly within the contest of the fictional world of Gor its not a subset, since in that make-believe world it is just the way their life is.

But thats different thing entirely than people who do the Gor thing here on Earth outside of narrative of a Sci-Fi book.

In fact Norman wouldn't even be an authority on who those who do the Gor thing. Since as far as I can tell he is neither a RL Gorean, nor a Online Gorean nor a SL Gorean.

I would guess he is just laughing all the way to the bank

imogen

Maybe not even that.

He doesn't get any money for all this Online Gor Stuff. Theres no Merchandising of any RL Gor stuff from him either as far as I know.

Most of his books have been officially taken out of print.

Most book stores wouldn't carry them anyway.

While I'm sure he makes money off his Gor Novels (E-books probably mainly these days) Its probably less than a typical mainstream popular Author of Science Fiction.

Back in print with Witness of Gor as the latest release http://www.amazon.com/Witness-Gor-John-Norman/dp/0759242356