By Nyc Republic
In a sea of male dominance on the planet that mirrors our own, the Gorean City of Tharna sits as a jewel of female supremacy and an island of refuge for dominant women and their submissives in Second Life’s Gorean culture.
The Gor of the novels might be best described as a chauvinistic man’s world where men are Masters and rule the planet. It is the natural order of Gor for the male to have dominion over the female. In sharp contrast to this overwhelming theme, Second Life Gor, as practiced in Tharna provides “a place where females can be in a position of power,” according to Chancel Oldrich, a Captain of the city’s Guard.
Gor itself is not a fetish, a lifestyle, or a category of BDSM. It began as a fictional planet ruled by alien Priest-Kings and described in a series of 27 novels. Begun in 1967 by John Norman, the pseudonym of Dr. John Lange, a Ph. D. in philosophy and a professor at Columbia University in New York, the books were extraordinarily popular. They sold millions of copies, and creating a large following through the late 1970s, when, at their height, they were translated into 10 languages.
Interest waned in the 1980s, a time when Norman claimed he was being blacklisted by publishers bowing to the “political correctness” movement. (See “John Norman – Libertarian” at http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/john-norman.html.) Recently, the novels have enjoyed a revival. The BBC News estimated in that 25,000 practicing “Goreans” existed worldwide in a May 19, 2006, article entitled “Officers Discover Sex-Slave Cult.”
While the Gor of literature is known for its barbaric and harsh environments, it is also rich in custom and belief. Goreans treasure the simple things in life such as the beauty of a flower, eating a nice meal, or watching a sunset as opposed to spending their lives working and building fortunes. To a Gorean, fortune lies in the beauty of life itself.
In the midst of this harsh, male-dominated world, the City of Tharna appears as the subject of the second of the Gor novels, “The Chronicles of Counter-Earth, Outlaw of Gor.” Tarl Cabot, a main narrator for the Norman’s series, has returned to Gor after several years and found his home city of Ko-ro-ba to have been destroyed by the Priest-Kings. On his journey to confront them, he spends some time in the City of Tharna, which is a much changed city from the rest of Gorean society. Tharna, once ruled by men, is now run by free women.
Its recreation in Second Life is also owned and ruled by women, in particular, Queen or Tatrix, Juicy Bamaisin, who is also the region owner. Unlike many “traditional” Gorean cities, the senior community members are female avatars, such as its Captains of the City Guard, Europa Aeon and Oldrich, mentioned above. Tharna as portrayed in Second Life is the vision of its owner and administrators and may differ from Norman’s novel.
“[The overriding philosophy of Tharna is] to give a safe place for slaves to practice their D/s lifestyle without fear of abuse,” the Tatrix said. “While Gor is considered a dangerous place, Tharna protects slaves and encourages consensual and abuse-free relationships and roleplay.” While D/s is not “practiced” in Gor, it is, nevertheless, an underlying theme in the City of Tharna.
Tharna is unique in Second Life Gor as its laws twist the traditional male-dominated world. For instance, free women are allowed to carry weapons including short swords and have the ability to become guards. In her summarized history of Tharna, based on the novels, the Tatrix noted that a free woman elsewhere in Gor would be enslaved for what she can happily do in Tharna. In Tharna, free women walk unattended, with no need for bodyguards. They walk with an imperious step, and the men step aside so they do not commit the crime of touching the women.
The rules a visitor is handed upon entering Second Life’s Tharna state that free women are welcome in the city; however, any free woman who behaves like a slave, dances with a slave, or shows too much passion or aggression will be enslaved. The roles of the free have somewhat switched where the men are the beasts, and the woman are in control. Free men are also welcomed; however, they must understand that Tharna is a ruled by females and men should act accordingly. This role reversal is obviously a contentious issue within the context of a “traditional” Gorean city. The Tatrix believes that “men are not superior to women and respects anyone that shows honor to his or her caste and to the city. If any free man chooses to live here, he must have an open mind.”
In many ways, the social structure of Tharna is similar to Gor with Masters, Mistresses, and slaves, known as kajiri. From a female dominance perspective, kajiri can serve women. In Gor, a male slave (kajirus) is rare and as a consequence many submissive men come to Tharna seeking a Mistress. Women in Tharna are equal in status to men, and so have little threat of being collared themselves. According to the Tatrix, free women in rest of Gor are easy prey with many laws that allow their enslavement. She also mentions the belief that a Gorean man will claim that a woman on Gor has the physical strength of a 12-year-old male.
“Strength can be measured in many ways apart from physical force to control. The female uses her mental abilities and senses as well as the desires of males to exert control, and this power is used to keep Tharna’s society together,” she said.
The Tatrix, along with her administration, would like to persuade the rest of Gor to accept some of this philosophy, instead of relegating women to the roles of kajira or passive free woman only.
“Tharna is tolerated, but still some of the more traditional Gor cities do not share its policies,” the Tatrix noted.
Although John Norman created the concept of Tharna, many Goreans would argue that this concept is just a small part of his fictional ideal of Gor. A highly respected Gorean teacher in Second Life, who has asked to remain anonymous, believes that the general populace avoids Tharna because most Gorean roleplayers are drawn by something different.
“Gor is a male dominated place where women were always at risk of becoming slaves,” the Gorean teacher said. “Why then would anyone come to Gor and join a woman-dominated Gorean region? The slaves wanted to be dommed by men and the Men want to rule. This is also a huge problem in and of itself because the general etiquette toward free women gets thrown out the door to extremes. [O]nly those who specifically are seeking to be owned by a woman, are going to go to Tharna, and only those men who want to be dominated by women will go there.”
In the Tatrix’s historical account of Tharna, the City was once like any other Gorean city; however, female dominance became the norm over the generations. Men started to care for their women, and the desire to dominate them lessened. As this happened, women were able to improve their station in life thus gaining social and economic power. Since women were the educators, they conditioned the children philosophies of equality among the sexes. The consequence being that the societal position of women was elevated even more. Tharna eventually became a gynocracy, a city ruled by women.
“The thing with Tharna that gets missed is [that] it wasn’t about Femdom, or women owning slaves,” the Gorean teacher added. “It was about politics. It was all about politics. And that’s where most people fail online when trying to role play out a Tharna. They make it into a big ‘women rule’ playground and forget all about the politics. So they are completely missing the whole point of the city in the books which is that women can rule a city, but eventually the men would find a way to take it over either by force, or trickery. What makes Tharna special was that women were in charge in a man-ruled world.”
Tharna, however, still provides an alternative so that females can have the opportunity to be what they can be, to demonstrate the ability to have power without significant male influence. While this male influence is recognized, listened to, considered and even applied; it is just not allowed to be dominant. However, this attitude requires an open mindedness, and a willingness to go beyond the books, to allow for interpretation, and application of a more modern approach to Gor.
“[Tharna is] an excellent place for women to thrive and to be able to grow and demonstrate abilities that we possess and not just to be subservient and dominated as in traditional Gor,” Oldrich said.
In a sea of male dominance on the planet that mirrors our own, the Gorean City of Tharna sits as a jewel of female supremacy and an island of refuge for dominant women and their submissives in Second Life’s Gorean culture.
The Gor of the novels might be best described as a chauvinistic man’s world where men are Masters and rule the planet. It is the natural order of Gor for the male to have dominion over the female. In sharp contrast to this overwhelming theme, Second Life Gor, as practiced in Tharna provides “a place where females can be in a position of power,” according to Chancel Oldrich, a Captain of the city’s Guard.
Gor itself is not a fetish, a lifestyle, or a category of BDSM. It began as a fictional planet ruled by alien Priest-Kings and described in a series of 27 novels. Begun in 1967 by John Norman, the pseudonym of Dr. John Lange, a Ph. D. in philosophy and a professor at Columbia University in New York, the books were extraordinarily popular. They sold millions of copies, and creating a large following through the late 1970s, when, at their height, they were translated into 10 languages.
Interest waned in the 1980s, a time when Norman claimed he was being blacklisted by publishers bowing to the “political correctness” movement. (See “John Norman – Libertarian” at http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/john-norman.html.) Recently, the novels have enjoyed a revival. The BBC News estimated in that 25,000 practicing “Goreans” existed worldwide in a May 19, 2006, article entitled “Officers Discover Sex-Slave Cult.”
While the Gor of literature is known for its barbaric and harsh environments, it is also rich in custom and belief. Goreans treasure the simple things in life such as the beauty of a flower, eating a nice meal, or watching a sunset as opposed to spending their lives working and building fortunes. To a Gorean, fortune lies in the beauty of life itself.
In the midst of this harsh, male-dominated world, the City of Tharna appears as the subject of the second of the Gor novels, “The Chronicles of Counter-Earth, Outlaw of Gor.” Tarl Cabot, a main narrator for the Norman’s series, has returned to Gor after several years and found his home city of Ko-ro-ba to have been destroyed by the Priest-Kings. On his journey to confront them, he spends some time in the City of Tharna, which is a much changed city from the rest of Gorean society. Tharna, once ruled by men, is now run by free women.
Its recreation in Second Life is also owned and ruled by women, in particular, Queen or Tatrix, Juicy Bamaisin, who is also the region owner. Unlike many “traditional” Gorean cities, the senior community members are female avatars, such as its Captains of the City Guard, Europa Aeon and Oldrich, mentioned above. Tharna as portrayed in Second Life is the vision of its owner and administrators and may differ from Norman’s novel.
“[The overriding philosophy of Tharna is] to give a safe place for slaves to practice their D/s lifestyle without fear of abuse,” the Tatrix said. “While Gor is considered a dangerous place, Tharna protects slaves and encourages consensual and abuse-free relationships and roleplay.” While D/s is not “practiced” in Gor, it is, nevertheless, an underlying theme in the City of Tharna.
Tharna is unique in Second Life Gor as its laws twist the traditional male-dominated world. For instance, free women are allowed to carry weapons including short swords and have the ability to become guards. In her summarized history of Tharna, based on the novels, the Tatrix noted that a free woman elsewhere in Gor would be enslaved for what she can happily do in Tharna. In Tharna, free women walk unattended, with no need for bodyguards. They walk with an imperious step, and the men step aside so they do not commit the crime of touching the women.
The rules a visitor is handed upon entering Second Life’s Tharna state that free women are welcome in the city; however, any free woman who behaves like a slave, dances with a slave, or shows too much passion or aggression will be enslaved. The roles of the free have somewhat switched where the men are the beasts, and the woman are in control. Free men are also welcomed; however, they must understand that Tharna is a ruled by females and men should act accordingly. This role reversal is obviously a contentious issue within the context of a “traditional” Gorean city. The Tatrix believes that “men are not superior to women and respects anyone that shows honor to his or her caste and to the city. If any free man chooses to live here, he must have an open mind.”
In many ways, the social structure of Tharna is similar to Gor with Masters, Mistresses, and slaves, known as kajiri. From a female dominance perspective, kajiri can serve women. In Gor, a male slave (kajirus) is rare and as a consequence many submissive men come to Tharna seeking a Mistress. Women in Tharna are equal in status to men, and so have little threat of being collared themselves. According to the Tatrix, free women in rest of Gor are easy prey with many laws that allow their enslavement. She also mentions the belief that a Gorean man will claim that a woman on Gor has the physical strength of a 12-year-old male.
“Strength can be measured in many ways apart from physical force to control. The female uses her mental abilities and senses as well as the desires of males to exert control, and this power is used to keep Tharna’s society together,” she said.
The Tatrix, along with her administration, would like to persuade the rest of Gor to accept some of this philosophy, instead of relegating women to the roles of kajira or passive free woman only.
“Tharna is tolerated, but still some of the more traditional Gor cities do not share its policies,” the Tatrix noted.
Although John Norman created the concept of Tharna, many Goreans would argue that this concept is just a small part of his fictional ideal of Gor. A highly respected Gorean teacher in Second Life, who has asked to remain anonymous, believes that the general populace avoids Tharna because most Gorean roleplayers are drawn by something different.
“Gor is a male dominated place where women were always at risk of becoming slaves,” the Gorean teacher said. “Why then would anyone come to Gor and join a woman-dominated Gorean region? The slaves wanted to be dommed by men and the Men want to rule. This is also a huge problem in and of itself because the general etiquette toward free women gets thrown out the door to extremes. [O]nly those who specifically are seeking to be owned by a woman, are going to go to Tharna, and only those men who want to be dominated by women will go there.”
In the Tatrix’s historical account of Tharna, the City was once like any other Gorean city; however, female dominance became the norm over the generations. Men started to care for their women, and the desire to dominate them lessened. As this happened, women were able to improve their station in life thus gaining social and economic power. Since women were the educators, they conditioned the children philosophies of equality among the sexes. The consequence being that the societal position of women was elevated even more. Tharna eventually became a gynocracy, a city ruled by women.
“The thing with Tharna that gets missed is [that] it wasn’t about Femdom, or women owning slaves,” the Gorean teacher added. “It was about politics. It was all about politics. And that’s where most people fail online when trying to role play out a Tharna. They make it into a big ‘women rule’ playground and forget all about the politics. So they are completely missing the whole point of the city in the books which is that women can rule a city, but eventually the men would find a way to take it over either by force, or trickery. What makes Tharna special was that women were in charge in a man-ruled world.”
Tharna, however, still provides an alternative so that females can have the opportunity to be what they can be, to demonstrate the ability to have power without significant male influence. While this male influence is recognized, listened to, considered and even applied; it is just not allowed to be dominant. However, this attitude requires an open mindedness, and a willingness to go beyond the books, to allow for interpretation, and application of a more modern approach to Gor.
“[Tharna is] an excellent place for women to thrive and to be able to grow and demonstrate abilities that we possess and not just to be subservient and dominated as in traditional Gor,” Oldrich said.
