| Free Women
General Free women, in being free, command attention when they speak. It is their due. Explorers of Gor - Page 354 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Gorean women, incidentally, enjoy a prestige and status which, it seems to me, is higher than that of the normal Earth woman. Explorers of Gor - Page 459 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whereas a free woman may often make a man angry with impunity, she being lofty and free, this latitude is seldom extended to the slave. Blood Brothers or Gor - Page 221 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I inclined my head, "Lady," said I, acknowledging the introduction. To a free woman considerable deference is due, particularly to one such as the Lady Rowena, one obviously, at least hitherto, of high station. Players of Gor - Page 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Beware your words," I cautioned her. "I am a free woman," she said. "I can speak as I please." I could not gainsay her in this. She was free. She could, accordingly, say what she wished, and without requiring permission. Mercenaries of Gor - Page 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This type of response, however, however natural on Earth in such a situation, would not be feasible on Gor in a slave. Gorean free women, of course, may do what they wish. The slave girl, on the other hand, does not compete with the master, but serves him. Explorers of Gor - Page 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am a free woman," she said. "How can you, a free man, deny me anything I want?" "Easily," I said. She looked at me, angrily. "Many free women believe they can have anything they want, merely by asking for it, or demanding it," I said, "but now you see that that is not true, at least not in a world where there are true men." Players of Gor - Page 119 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goreans, in their simplistic fashion, often contend, categorically, that man is naturally free and woman is naturally slave. But even for them the issues are far more complex than these simple formulations would suggest. For example, there is no higher person, nor one more respected, than the Gorean free woman. Goreans do believe, however, that every woman has a natural master or set of masters, with respect to whom she could not help but be a complete and passionate slave girl. Hunters of Gor - Page 311 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elizabeth, besides speaking boldly out on a large number of delicate civic, social and political issues, usually not regarded as the Province of the fairer sex, categorically refused to wear the cumbersome Robes of Concealment traditionally expected of the free woman. She still wore the brief, exciting leather of a Tuchuk wagon girl and, when striding the high bridges, her hair in the wind, she attracted much attention, not only, obviously, from the men, but from women, both slave and free. Assassin of Gor - Page 74 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I rejoiced that in at least one city on Gor the free women were not expected to wear the Robes of Concealment, confine their activities largely to their own quarters, and speak only to their blood relatives and, eventually, the Free Companion. Outlaw of Gor - Page 49 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rich, vain women of high caste may wear ostentatiously as many as nine or ten veils. . . . The veil, it might be noted, is not legally imperative for a free woman; it is rather a matter of modesty and custom. Some low-class, uncompanioned, free girls do not wear veils. Similarly certain bold free women neglect the veil. Neglect of the veil is not a crime in Gorean cities, though in some it is deemed a brazen and scandalous omission. In some cities, and among some groups and tribes, it might be mentioned, though this is not common, veils may be for most practical purposes unknown, even among free women. The cities of Gor are numerous and pluralistic. Each has its own history, customs and traditions. On the whole, however, Gorean culture prescribes the veil for free women. Slave Girl of Gor - Page 107 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "In Ar's Station," he said, "as in Ar, robes of concealment, precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, no more than the veil. Such things are more a matter of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are statutes prescribing certain standards of decorum for free women. For example, they may not appear naked in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these standards of decorum, for example, with her arms or legs too much bared, may be made a slave." Renegades of Gor - Page 367 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The free woman was a tall woman, large. She wore a great cape of fur, of white sea-sleen, thrown back to reveal the whiteness of her arms. Her kirtle was of the finest wool of Ar, dyed scarlet, with black trimmings. She wore two broaches, both carved of the horn of a kailiauk, mounted in gold. At her waist she wore a jeweled scabbard, protruding from which I saw the ornamented, twisted blade of a Turian dagger; free women of Torvaldsland commonly carry a knife; at her belt too, hung her scissors, and a ring of many keys, indicating that her hall contained many chests or doors; her hair was worn high, wrapped about a comb, matching the broaches, of the horn of kailiauk ; the fact that her hair was worn dressed indicated that she stood in companionship; the number of her keys, together with the scissors, indicated that she was mistress of a great house. She had gray eyes; her hair was dark; her face was cold and harsh. Marauders of Gor - Page 156 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- … even girls who will be free companions, and never slaves, learn the preparation and serving of exotic dishes, the arts of walking, and standing and being beautiful, the care of a man's equipment, the love dances of their city, and so on. Nomads of Gor - Page 63 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free women, drinking, commonly lift their veil, or veils, with the left hand. Low-caste free women, if veiled, usually do the same. Sometimes, however, particularly if they are in public, they will drink through their veil, or veils. Sometimes, of course, free women will drink unveiled, even with guests. Much depends upon how well the individuals are known, and who is present. In their homes, of course, with only the members of their families present, or servants and slaves, most free women do not veil themselves, even those of high caste Fighting Slave of Gor - Page 276 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some Goreans think of the Free Companionship as being a form of contract slavery; this is not, of course, precisely correct; on the other hand, if more women took that definition seriously, I have little doubt but what free companionships would be far more rewarding than they now are, for many couples. They might then, under that interpretation, and held contractually enforceable on the woman, be that next best thing to her actual slavery. Blood Brothers of Gor - Page 246 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Is she free?" asked Ayari. "No," said Kisu. "Have her put her arms over her head, wrists back to back," said Ayari. "Do so," said Kisu. Tende complied. . . . The lovely posture which Tende had just assumed was undeniably one of the initial postures of certain slave dances. . . . No free woman, for example, would dare to place herself in such a position before Gorean free men, unless perhaps, weary of her misery and frustration, she was begging them, almost explicitly, to put her in a collar. There are many stories of Gorean free women, sometimes of high caste, who, as a lark or in a spirit of bold play, dared to dance in a paga tavern. Often, perhaps to their horror, they found themselves that very night hooded and gagged, locked in close chains, lying on their back, their legs drawn up, fastened in a wagon, chained by the neck and ankles, their small bodies bruised on its rough boards as they, helpless beneath a rough tarn blanket, are carried through the gates of their city. Explorers of Gor - Page 342 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I have never been in one of these places before,” she said. “I now understand why it is that free women never enter Paga taverns.” Assassins of Gor - Page 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Only slave girls, on Gor, reveal their navels. Explorers of Gor - Page 334 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The men, save I, rose as one to their feet, for Gorean men commonly stand when a free woman enters a room. Guardsman of Gor - Page 255 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- She looked up at me in wonder, blood at her mouth. She had been cuffed. "Did you strike me because I challenged your manhood?" she asked. "I did not really mean it. It is only that I was terribly angry. I did not think." "You were not struck for such an absurd reason," I said. "You are, after all, a free woman, and free women are entitled to insult, and to attempt to demean and destroy men. It is one of their freedoms, unless men, of course, should decide to take it from them. You were struck, rather, because you were attempting to manipulate me." Mercenaries of Gor - Page 422 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am sure you find free women of some interest," she said. "Certainly I find them of interest," I said. The most interesting thing about them, of course, was that they could be seized and enslaved. After that they might become of real interest to a man. The female slave, of course, yours in her servitude, is ten thousand times more interesting than a free woman could ever dream of being. In any contest of desirability the free woman must always lose out to the slave, and if she does not seem to do so, then let her be enslaved, and see how she then, suddenly, in a moment, competing then with her former self, becomes ten thousand times more desirable than she ever was as a mere free female. Mercenaries of Gor - Page 346 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps free women are incomprehensible. A Gorean saying came to mind, that the free woman is a riddle, the answer to which is the collar. Magicians of Gor - Page 50 |