| “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 Book 20 Page 119 “Disgusting! Disgusting!” cried the free woman, one veiled and wearing the robes of the scribes, standing in the audience. “Pull down your skirt, you slave, you brazen hussy!” “Pray, do withdraw, noble sir, for you surprise me unawares, and of necessity I must improvise some veiling, lest my features be disclosed,” cried the girl upon the stage, Boots Tarsk-Bit’s current Brigella. I had seen her a few days earlier in Port Kar. “Pull down your skirt, slut!” cried the free woman in the audience. “Be quiet,” said a free man to the woman. “It is only a play.” “Be silent yourself!” she cried back at him. “Would that you were a slave,” he growled. “You would pay richly for your impertinence.” “I am not a slave,” she said. “Obviously,” he said. “And I shall never he a slave,” she said. “Do not be too sure of that,” he said. “Beast,” she said. “I wonder if you would be any good chained in a tent,” he said. “Monster!” she said. “Let us observe the drama,” suggested another fellow. Players of Gor Book 20 Page 120 - 121 It must be understood, of course, to fully appreciate what was going on, that the public exposure of the features of a free woman, particularly one of high caste, or with some pretense to position or status, is a socially serious matter in many Gorean localities. Indeed, in some cities an unveiled free woman is susceptible to being taken into custody by guardsmen, then to be veiled, by force if necessary, and publicly conducted back to her home. Indeed, in some cities she is marched back to her home stripped, except for the face veil which has been put on her. In these cases a crowd usually follows, to see to what home it is that she is to be returned. Repeated offenses in such a city usually result in the enslavement of the female. Such serious measures, of course, are seldom required to protect such familiar Gorean proprieties. Custom, by itself, normally suffices. Social pressures, too, in various ways, contribute to the same end. An unveiled woman, for example, may find other women turning away from her in a market, perhaps with expressions of disgust. Indeed, she may not even be waited upon, or dealt with, in a market by a free woman unless she first kneels. It would not be unusual for her, in a crowded place, to overhear remarks, perhaps whispers or sneers, of which she is the obvious object, such as “Shameless slut,” “Brazen baggage,” “As immodest as a slave,” “I wonder who her master is,” and “Put a collar on her!” And if she should attempt to confront or challenge her assailants, she will merely find such remarks repeated articulately and clearly to her face. Players of Gor Book 20 Page 124 - 125 “I am Telitsia, Lady of Asperiche,” she said. “I am a free woman! I am not afraid of men!” I smiled to myself. She was perfectly safe, of course, for she was within the perimeters of the Sardar Fair. How brave women can be within the context of conventions! I wondered if they understood the artificiality, the fragility, the tentativeness, the revocability of those subtle ramparts. Did they truly confuse them with walls of stone and the forces of weaponry? Did they understand the differences between the lines and colors on maps and the realities of a physical terrain? To what extent did they comprehend the fictional or mythical nature of those castles within which they took refuge, from the heights of which they sought to impress their will on worlds? Did they not know that one day men might say to them, “The castle does not exist,” and that they might then find themselves once again, the patience of men ended, the folly concluded, the game over, snuck to their place in nature, gazing upward at masters? Players of Gor Book 20 Page 128 - 129 “Disgusting!” cried the free woman. “It is you who are disgusting,” said one of the men to the free woman. “I?” she cried. “Yes, you,” he said. The free woman did not respond to him. She stiffened in her robes, her small hands clenched in her blue gloves. How antibiological, petty, and self-serving were her value judgments. Players of Gor Book 20 Page 140 - 141 “Do not be too hard on her,” I said. “She is only a slave.” “Slaves are to be shown no mercy,” said the free woman coldly. Players of Gor Book 20 Page 150 “As you are perfect gentlemen, you will free me,” she said. “I can count on that as a free woman!” I smiled. Goreans tend to be less gentlemen, than owners and masters of females. In the order of nature they tend to acquire and dominate them, making them uncompromisingly their own. Players of Gor Book 20 Page 198 Page29 |