Free Women Behavior

[Guest]

Yes, many who chat here feel the 'Gorean' philosophy a natural lifestyle for men and women on earth, but when push comes to shove, Gor is a series of novels about a fantasy world. A fantasy world created soley by the author John Norman. Thus, a free woman can only truely be what John Norman says a free woman is.

Truth is, he doesn't really write a lot about free women, his novels concentrate on a Master slave relationship and the natural fulfillment a woman finds in slavery to men...a'bio truth'. His primary description of free women in Gor is that of a sexually repressed person who will only find true womanhood in a man's collar. However, only a small percentage of Gorean women are inslaved, and the greater numbers of the free general population is rarely written of. Basically, I infer the expected behavior of a proper free woman from John Normans description of those who so transgress such, that they are collared for it.

I view a free woman, as purely a woman, no more, no less. Her pride in her freedom and family honor and her modesty, and self-control, is an intrinsic and defining characteristic of her personality. In interaction with Gorean society, especially men, she certainly may not and possibly cannot openly express all her emotions, but still has a full range and depth of feminine characteristics and emotion.

I do provide quotes on the role of free women (many other excellent reference sites do as well) but, to understand the true nature and scope, of the role of a free woman on Gor, you have to read John Norman's Gorean novels. Only the books, read in their entirety, really reading the entire series, can fully outline the author's concept of what a free woman is, mostly by the authors descriptions of what free women are enslaved for.

On Gor, as Mother, Sister, Mate, daughter and/or friend, free women are extremely valued and highly respected by true Gorean men. She is the source of the future of Gor. She has a special place in Gor, only a free woman may bear and raise a free child. Her postion is far above slaves, it is even far above a wife of Earth. However Gorean freewomen are not of earth. Much like a victorian, Gorean society required a woman to severely supress her sexuality to remain free. The Gorean mindset equates sexuality with animals...ie slaves. If you were a sexual woman you were a slave or soon would be.

Yes, she is a woman and wishes a relationship with a man, but the gorean free woman will show no overwhelming need to sexualy please, much less submit, to man. In most of the Gorean society's free woman (or thier family) will chose and contract to join with one man for a year or longer. Sometimes this relationship is based on love, many times though, her relationship will promote the position and wealth of herself, her family, or city. These contracts may or may not be renewed on thier aniversary.

A freewoman is not independent of men or Gorean society. She complies with the restriction of her local society and its moralities. Being and remaining free, aGorean woman controls her physical and emotional expressions and chooses who to display them to and when if she wishes to be free. The men of her family and society around her keep her free, if and Only if, she maintains self-control. Hints at letting her emotions rule her or displaying open sexuality are a sure road to a collar.

Slavery is legal and viewed as a condition of the natural order in Gor. Why does the Gorean man and society require or permit women freedom at all?

The primal difficulty, for one who is not Gorean, to understand and truly comprehend, is the concept Gorean society holds, that only a free woman can produce and raise free children. A free man's mother was free, as were his sisters, his friend's sisters and his own female playmates. If he was to have children, it was expected and common through most of Gor, even law, their mother must be free.

Goreans valued honesty and being true to their natures. If you were a woman you were either free or a slave in nature. Goreans felt if you were in a collar for whatever reason you deserved it by natural order. If she had slave feelings a women animal would naturally seek and find a collar. If a free female submitted to slavery through submission or during capture she was declared slave and disowned, she lost any caste or family standing she had. As a slave and animal by common law you could not even instruct a free person. How can one who has submitted and admits to being a helpless, needy slave prove an example to, or teach a man's free child?

Men could and often did love slaves, but a natural Gorean Masters would show no weakness in their control of that slave especially because of that love. A love slave was held in even stricter slavery and control than common pleasure slaves. Slaves on the whole, knew and gladly submitting to their own nature, did not wish to be freed. Freeing a slave was considered the act of a fool. On the whole, Goreans simply did not breed slave animals for anything but the production of more slave animals. Thereafter those slave infants and slave children were not raised by breeding or pleasure slaves.

If for some reason the offspring of a slave was to be claimed then the slave would be freed merely long enough to give birth to a child that could then be called free, before the slave mother was reinslaved...The child would not be raised by the slave openly. Outside the city of Tharna even this procedure was rare. Freeing and making slaves free companions was even more rare.

Free women own property, manage households, keep the books of their Companion's estates, and oversee the economics of their holdings - both alone and joint - with the same obligations to society as free men do. Free women own and manage shops, inns and gathering places of various sorts. They interact professionally with men in their business deals and enjoy friendships based on common interests. It is presumable that free men were not born slaves, and that a free man would not wish to see either his mother or his sister in fetters unasked for, so though the freewomen are protected, this does not imply that they are powerless. Indeed it is likely they control more of civilized society than is at first noticeable simply because the men are more concerned with other matters. Gorean free women are vital contributors to Gorean society.

A freewoman behaves like a lady in formal situations, and yet is capable of being as humorous and quick-witted as her male counterparts. Many free women are known for their sharp-tongued replies, but are just as likely to sooth tempers with matronly wisdom. As with all Goreans, a free woman’s honor is on the line each time she speaks. It is, however, much more likely that she will be called on the carpet to answer for her behavior than a free man might. A free woman is not a “slave in waiting,” but neither is she a “castrated male.” A free woman is a vital asset to her community and a cherished mate to her Companion.

By definition, a Gorean free woman is submissive. All women of Gor are submissive. A woman, who is not submissive, is not (by definition) Gorean. A free woman exercises self-will. She operates on her own account and is fully accountable and responsible for herself. She does, by association lend her attributes to both her Companion and to a lesser degree her community. Both her Companion, and to a lesser degree her community can hold her accountable for her actions. In contrast, a kajira – who is also submissive – does not exercise self-will. A kajira operates on her Master’s will. He is accountable and responsible for her. She is accountable solely to him. This layer of protection around a kajira is necessary for her to be able to surrender herself fully to her Master. A woman who has to stand alone, is not able to surrender fully.

This is not to say that a free woman is incapable of surrender, for there are times when Companions reduce the world to just each other, and he surrounds his mate with a shield of protection completely impenetrable. In these private moments a free woman can surrender herself to her mate. Whereas a kajira is expected to be open and expressive of her surrender even in public, a free woman is expected to hold back this open expression of self from public display. This is most often where online FW get tripped up. If one behaves as a slut, one will be called a slut, and one will be treated as a slut. A FW who displays the attributes of a kajira will become a kajira in the eyes of the free. And so she will be treated. What a lady does in her own parlor, in the company of her servants is, of course, her own business.

This is the core of the contempt free women hold against those females who switch back and forth between slave-status and free-status. It is understandable that a woman finds her need to express her open sexuality in public, and so surrenders, but it is much more difficult for other women to accept that a girl has gathered up her dignity and donned the robes of discretion. As often happens, this untruth becomes readily apparent as the switch makes the change back to slave-status at the first opportunity.

While we are on the topic of switching, let me say here that girls who wear Velcro collars are shunned by Gorean society. If you submit your will to a man, make sure you plan on doing your best. There is no loss of community trust in a relationship ending, but there is a loss of community trust in a girl who changes collars on a whim, or wears more than one collar, or lies to people about her collars. Treat a collar, girls, like man does his homestone. Because it does, in fact, define where you are from.