The Alphaville Herald

Alex Fitzsimmons – Post 6 Grrrl

by Pixeleen Mistral on 29/12/06 at 3:15 pm

[Editor’s note: This week we feature a sword and statuette making gorean slave as our Post 6 Grrrl - Alex Fitzsimmons. I'd like to thank Alex for taking the time to share a little of herself with us courtesy of my favorite visionary - the amazing Marilyn Murphy. Marilyn is the force behind Players, SL’s in-world erotica magazine and I think everyone agrees her photographs are fabulous!]

Come now. You aren’t here for the article, are you?

Still with me?

Okay. It may be pointless, but I spent a lot of time thinking about what to write and just how to say it. I guess I wanted to promote my little sword- and statuette-making business (called Alex’s), but I think maybe I have something more valuable to say than just “please buy my stuff.”

Some of you, those who know me in-world, may have noticed I’m not speaking in third person as I always do in-world. The reasons for that are simply these: one, Mistress allows it for these purposes, and two, it seems less cumbersome and confusing, at least here, for the uninitiated.

Speaking of confusing, the rest of you may be wondering just what I’m going on about! It is simply this: in-world, and in my heart, I am a slave. I am the property of Mistress Angelique LaFollette, formerly Maria LaVeaux in The Sims Online. I’m trained generally in the manner of a Gorean kajira, although my involvement with Second Life Gor, given my avatar’s appearance and Mistress’s differences with many of the SL Goreans, is complicated to say the least.

I’m not forced to be a slave, and yet I’m not sure I’d call it a choice exactly, either. This gets into a very complicated subject, but the gist of it is that I believe that some people are born with an inclination to be happiest in the service of others: “natural slaves,” as some people call us.

A strict reading of Gorean ideals holds that this is true of women, that it is perhaps true to some degree of all women, and that it is perhaps not true of any men, but I disagree. (Yes, shockingly, I think it’s possible to get some value from something without slavishly — pardon the expression — following every detail. I don’t see any contradiction in that. Would you give total obedience to every idea put forth by any one philosopher?) However, I agree that there are natural slaves, and it may even be true that women are more inclined toward it, in general, than men. I agree that first comes the sword, then laws, and I believe that history bears this out. And I agree that there are no “mere” points of honor.

So just what is a Gorean, anyway? In a general sense, they, or perhaps we (depending on how you see Mistress and me), are people who model their behavior — in SL, outside of SL, or both — more or less on some novels written by one John Norman. Here it seems important to clarify a point: in SL at least, Goreans are divided between the “lifestylers” and the “roleplayers,” or just “players.” If you’ve visited SL Gor, odds are very high that you’ve interacted with the players, as their influence mostly dominates. As roleplayers, they don’t necessarily have any personal emotional investment in what they do — it’s “just a game.” This is in direct contrast to the lifestylers, who consider what they do more than just a game.

It would be accurate to say that lifestyler Goreans are a kind of D/s (Dominance/submission) lifestyler, but it’s important to understand that while all Gorean lifestylers are by definition a kind of D/s lifestyler, not all D/s lifestylers are Gorean.

By definition, any natural slaves, and any dominants who have a real understanding of what they’re doing, are lifestylers to some extent. Unfortunately, people who don’t know what they’re doing and aren’t emotionally invested besides (read: roleplayers) can do a lot of damage in such an intense relationship, which is one of the complaints against SL Gor especially among D/s lifestylers who aren’t Gorean. This leads to the claim that Goreans emotionally damage slaves, which as with many generalizations has a kernel of truth in it but isn’t fair when applied in such a blanket manner to such a diverse group of people.

I could go on and on with this subject given the time, but here are the most important things I’ve learned about D/s relationships in general and about honor from Mistress:

1. A slave is owned, but that does not make her the same as a chair. A thoroughbred is also owned, and only a fool would treat it like a chair.

2. Love matters.

3. True honor means not compromising your principles, even a little bit, for anyone or for any reason.

4. There is no such thing as a good “lie in support of a greater truth.”

Okay, that’s it. Other than in-world, you can find me over on Second Citizen from time to time with the rest of that crazy, dysfunctional crowd. Hi guys! Told you I’d sneak in a mention!

There. I said that’s it. Look, boobies!