Gor: What's that all about then?

There are many cultures and tribes in Secondlife, where people flock together with like minded folks, under shared interests, or a want for a virtual family or people. Few of these inspire more agitated feeling and public displays of support or protest that the followers of Gor. Like most, I know Gorean’s, and have bumped into other’s around the place, but not personally being interested in being dominated by, or dominator of, anyone, I’ve not really got involved… but have always been interested in exactly what goes on, and what the inner workings are, of these societies and groups. With the aim of furthering my understanding, I set out to investigate on the subject.

After speaking to many people, and reading a lot of literature, it seems that, like most things, pinning down one overall answer to “What is Gor in SL?” is more complicated than one would hope. Interpretations of what is Gor can vary depending on which SIM you are in. But the basic philosophy is to do with power, domination, and ownership. There are strict rules based on sub/dom relationships, usually with the male being the master, and the female being the slave. However, it should be noted that there is a stress of responsibility upon the master over their slave, even though they are termed to be “as cattle”. There are such things as Free Women, but these seem to be the exception rather than a common situation, and appear to be subject to being matched up, and are generally treated as a second class citizen and therefore not on a equal level to the men. In fact, as one person to me, slaves “are treated better than FW, unless they are disobedient”. This is the accepted status quo, and the cities are populated by these masters and their slaves. There is a strict code of honour, the plus of this meaning that lying is considered completely unacceptable, and within the gorean codes, people should be respectful of each other. The downside is that slaves must be respectful not only to their master, but also any other masters, no matter how abusive or insulting they may be, relying on their master to defend them.
There are some slaves who escape, or “Free woman who are not happy with their matches” who choose to live wild. These are termed Panthers, due to the fact that they wear clothing made from panther skin. They live away from society, and capture slaves and free men who stray too near, use them for their own sexual needs, and maybe sell them on. Many are also apparently lesbian or bi-sexual, giving the formation of sexual sisterhoods, with the danger of being always on the run, and forbidden lovers.
There are also Outlaws, warriors who live inside the society, although do not conform to the ways, and largely do not get involved in the relationships, but more in the battle. These are treated as lowers in the Gor Caste system.
Finally, it must be pointed out that although I have largely talked about these roles and situations in terms of the most common genders attached to roles, there are also free women with male and/or female slaves, and of course men with male slaves. It was pointed out to me that there are entirely homosexual Gor SIMs in SL.

In roleplay terms, the Gorean experience allows allows a variety of experiences for the enjoyment of the participants. As a master, they get the chance to live as the dominant partner, powerful and responsible for the slaves completely at their service. And due to the prescence of panthers, it allows them to occasionally be the submissive, if they stray too far from their city, and “accidentally” get captured, and cannot roleplay their way out of their imprisonment, under the power and skills of their captors. And of course, if they catch a panther, they get to live out a battle of wills, against a powerful female adversary.
As a slave if they enjoy being submissive, completely immerse themselves in being at this, receiving praise at being a good, loyal and obedient slave, or, for those who like it, being careless and not following the rules as strictly as they could, receiving punishment from their beloved master.
The Panthers, as I said, can enjoy a forbidden sexual sisterhood, with the added excitement of constantly being chased by the oppressive norm. They can also capture others, and dominate them, or at least attempt to force the masters to their will, and of course get to try their will from the lower position, when they themselves are caught, and must resist being tamed. It should be noted that doing all this in character can be harder than it sounds, as convincingly resisting to give in to the demands put upon you under the threat of torture is not easy., especially with seasoned roleplayers who can keep a scenario completely under their control.

This article has taken me a very long time to try to put together, as I have had an enormous amount of trouble getting anyone to really want to speak to me, once they found out I was writing it. Some people gave the reason that it is their fantasy escape, and they didn’t want to go on the record, and have a spotlight put on them, which I respect. Others were fiercely suspicious of the motives of anyone writing about Gor, due to the number of people with fierce feelings against it. However, when talking to people, I slowly realised that the lessons of the journey are just as important to the answer you seek:
There was one story I heard about a Panther, and a Gorean Nobleman, who seem to be developing some OOC (Out Of Character) feelings for each other. The Nobleman is letting these feelings conflict when they are involved in role-play, leading to inappropriate responses about his “enemy”, spoiling the scenarios for the girl, and others around them.
Conversely, when asking for interviews, I spoke to one Gorean SIM owner, for who the phrase OOC does not seem to exist. I was treated to a 45 minute explanation on how Goreans are an ethnic group, and therefore any criticism or disapproval of what they believe or do would make me a racist, and the publication, including the allowance of anti-Gor comments in response to the article, would be a hate crime.
These differing attitudes towards the Gorean experience trouble me, and the complications found in the first story seem to be symptomatic of the potential difficulties. I have no problem with consenting adults agreeing to indulge in roleplay, but the issue as I see it has to do with the lack of definition over where one persons reality crosses another persons fantasy, or where the lines become blurred. These situations, when not agreed upon, mean that there can be no consent, especially when so many people are involved, as you can never quite be sure what you are getting into. Some SIMs help matters by being especially dedicated to “lifestyle” players, who rp in rl (real life), and are looking to meet people in SL, who they can get involved with in rl, while others are very clearly just pure sl fantasy. But there are a large amount in the middle, where the two mix. Gor is nothing to be afraid of. It’s consenting adults, exploring the different sides of their own desires, and exploring the excitement and adventure of a sexual fantasy where taboos are broken, and as one person said, “anything can happen”. There are very clear rules and guidelines in all the different SIMS, so everyone knows what they are getting themselves into, and there are even ways, if you don’t like the rules, that you can play and not conform (panthers and outlaws). Personally I never would, as I have no desire to dominate or be dominated, and my inner feminist could never agree to live in a society where woman are deemed lesser because they are women (although she does point out that real life is still a little that way), but as a non-participant, my opinion on how what they chose to do is irrelevant, and I would never seek to curb their right to do whatever they want with each other to fully enjoy the SL experience, and be happy. However, I do feel that those involved should be careful about who they play with, and make sure it’s the shared experience it should be.