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AnimusRex -> Gor beyond slavery (12/27/2009 7:58:03 PM)
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This thread began as a reference to the various threads and flamewars relating to definitions, and slavery; but seemed a bit off topic, so I created a new one:
The argument about defining "slavery" sparks a thought in my mind, of the various "mommy wars" that you see raging across the blogosphere, between stay at home moms and working moms; or the various factions of feminism, like the "sex positive do-me" feminsts, versus the old school "do not be objectified" feminists.
I notice the mad bizarre fixation teenaged girls have with food and weight; I notice that the moment a woman steps out her front door, every tiny detail of her appearance is studied, scrutinized, evaluated, weighted, and of course, found lacking.
How no matter what lifestyle choice she makes- to stay home or work; to have children or not; to take hr husband's name or not; she is ridiculed, mocked, praised, lauded, or reviled.
There are entire magazine and book publishing empires built on the industry of Telling Women How To Act/ Be/ Look. I saw an ad in a magazine, that advertised a plastic surgery outfit, that showed a photo of a naked woman, with about a dozen arrows and notes pointing at different parts of her body, helpfully informing women of all the various places they should be ashamed of, and rush in to have corrected. I heard that plastic surgeons have discovered a new frontier in anal bleaching, whereby women get their anus hole bleached, so as to be more like the porn stars their husbands ogled.
I think that there is a tremendous angst and uncertainty and confusion in our society- (meaning Western European/ American society)- about the status of and role of women. Without a clear and assured understanding of roles, women's bodies and lives are the subject of endless quarrels and definitions.
On another thread, I referenced my neighbors, a traditional Afghan family, and how they seemed at peace with their role and status. I see others- the Amish, the Orthodox, pre-industrial societies around the world, and I don't notice the same insecurity and handwringing over how the genders should approach one another. I don't hear them next door arguing about whether or not Mrs. Muhammed should sit to his left or right, or kneel with thighs spread or closed. They just do what they have always done, in confidence and assurance.
I suppose this was my attraction to Gor- its straightforward assertions that there is a natural order to things, that only the overlying wrong-headed framework of modernity obscured it, and by conducting ourselves in a more natural way, we could live lives more fulfilling, more suited to our true selves.
It isn't a coincidence that Norman made Gor a pre-indusrial society- Men and women didn't exist in a futuristic place where they zipped around in hovercraft and had robots do their cooking. His real target was not feminism, but modernity.
Feminism grew out of modernity- the modern industrial society robbed women of their traditional roles of healer, teacher, cook, homemaker and provider of all things men need, by the industrializing of hospitals, schools, food processing, labor saving appliances, and consumer products.
For all the liberating effects of modernity, it seems to have had the opposite effects- robbing women of their power, leaving them as merely decorations, sexual things to be toyed with, but essentially unecessary accessories to mens lives.
But it hasn't done men any favors either- without our counterparts, we are stripped of our roles as head of household, role models for children- we become merely cogs in the consumer society, measured only by our ability to consume products, and we end up as empty and bereft of meaning as women.
For all the surface appearance of sexism and chauvinism, Gor appeals to women (IMO) because it posits a world in which they have real power, . As provider of the home, the provider of hearth and children and domestic bliss, women gain the ability to provide things that are valuable, that can't be purchased or replicated by industry.
This is a rather long way of presenting explaining my frustration with the endless fixation on Mastery/slavery/ conquest, and parsing of the various meanings of slavery- the Internal Slavery, the Metaphorical Slavery, the Metaphysical Slavery, the Slavery You Would Never Understand Because Your Slave Heat Doesn't Glisten Like Mine.
Or its counterpart, the quoting of the "Sacred Scrolls" as if Norman wrote 26 novels as rigid blueprints for how to eat, sleep, mow the lawn and fuck.
There doesn't seem to be any dimension to Gorean women outside of their silken thighs and artful nadus; there doesn't seem to be many life situations that can't be resolved by a pithy quotation about how Tarl Cabot said such and such on page 52.
This seems to be a Gorean version of anal bleaching- trying to turn Gor and its participants into an artificial construct, something strange, something kinky, yet another wank fantasy produced by the modern porn consumer culture. .
Without confidence and assurance of our lives, lives that stand in contrast to the modern consumer culture, I suppose thats all we have left, is endless quibbles over who really has perfected the deepest, most absolute enslavement and who is the luckiest girl in the world, and whose boyfriend can beat up whose boyfriend.
So aside from ranting, I suppose what I am doing is trying to suggest that the Gorean community attempt a broader focus- Thinking less about the erotic and romantic aspects of Gor, but more about what it can say about how we live lives.
I welcome thoughts, critique, churlish insults.
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