The Kajirus

The Kajirus
by Makaku Oyami


"I have been to Earth," she said. "I have seen the males there. There are so few men among them. It is so hard, I wonder, to be a man. Why is it that so many of the males of Earth have given up their manhood, and pretend to rejoice in their mutilation. Doubtless there are complex historical causes. It is interesting, the grotesque shapes into which cultures can shape a tortured biology."

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.59
(Slave trainer the Lady Gina
speaking to the newly abducted earthman
Jason Marshall).



Male slaves occasionally seek a home within the Gorean framework. They often face a very rough and hostile response from Gorean men. From some women, both free and slave, they are sometimes accorded a little more leeway and sympathy. From other female Goreans, they are met with anger and disgust.

Many Gorean men will not tolerate a male slave in their presence, considering such a person an affront to the natural order. For some Gorean men, their Gorean lifestyle space has been created so as to exclude male submissives, Dommes, gays and lesbians, feminists and any other lifestyle that challenges the Gorean natural order belief.

Other Gorean men, while finding the submissive male slave as unnatural, permit a space in Gorean lifestyle for such people. Some Goreans are tolerant of difference and diversity in this area. Some are rigid and inflexible. For some, the male slave, like the female Domme, is a creature of D/s and not Gorean at all. Others look in the books and find plenty enough male submissive and female dommish behavior to argue the complete opposite.

What does Gor offer submissive males? Not a lot. Frankly, were I a submissive male with even a passing knowledge of the Gorean philosophy I would stay well away from Goreans But clearly some wish to state their case and debate the relevance of silkslaves in the Gorean framework. I see nothing wrong with healthy discussion in the correct forum. I do not fear male submissives, nor do I fear their existence will undermine my Gorean maleness.

When considering an issue up for discussion, I like to begin by stepping back and examining what the novels have to say about the issue at hand. This is not because I live my life slavishly according to the books. On the contrary, I find plenty of the books’ ideas preposterous, dated, or contradictory. But the books are our source. When we call ourselves Gorean, we are describing ourselves using words from a series of novels written by a man in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Gor is a man’s world. We call ourselves Gorean because we consider ourselves men. So where do male slaves fit in?

Most of the male slavery depicted in the Gor novels shows men held in slavery by force and against their will, usually by men, but sometimes by women. These male slaves it should be noted are predominantly Gorean males captured in battle, not abducted earthmen. Gorean men are not noted for their willing subservience to slave owners. We are told that most male slaves are kept permanently chained, for the safety of their owners:

“In some cities, including Ar, an unchained male slave is almost never seen; there are, incidentally, far fewer male slaves than female slaves; a captured female is almost invariably collared; a captured male is almost invariably put to the sword.”

Assassins of Gor, p.51.




More details about male slaves are forthcoming in “Hunters of Gor”:

“Male slaves, on Gor, are not particularly valuable, and do not command high prices. Most labor is performed by free men. Most commonly, male slaves are utilized on the cargo galleys, and in the mines, and on the great farms. They also serve, frequently, as porters at the wharves. Still, perhaps they are fortunate to have their lives, even at such a price. Males captured in war, or in the seizure of cylinders or villages, or in the pillaging of caravans, are commonly slain. The female is the prize commodity in the Gorean slave markets. A high price for a male is a slaver tarsk, but even a plain wench, of low caste, provided she moves well to the touch of the auctioneer's coiled whip, will bring as much or more.”

Hunters of Gor, p.32.




In “Outlaw of Gor” the cruel and oppressive owner of male slaves is the female Tatrix of Tharna, Lara. The men are held in slavery by force, watched over by other servile men who serve the Tatrix. They are chained and heavily controlled and supervised. They do not revolt only because they lack a leader to unite them in remembering who they are.

Tarl is the catalyst in the mines of Tharna, who reminds them that they are men not animals. The dominance over men however is not reserved only for slaves in the mines of Tharna. The entire society of Tharna is based around the premise that men should be subservient to women at all levels.

In the story Norman tells us very clearly that this is unnatural, that the inhabitants of such a society, both men and women, will be unfulfilled and miserable, and that such a society will collapse as soon as men realize their natural dominance. So why are the men of Tharna so weak and passive at the beginning of the story? Norman tells us that long ago the men ruled the women in Tharna, but the men relaxed their control of their female slaves, who, exploiting their freedom, gradually developed influence and power (a fairly crude attack on feminism, of course :

“… just as, in our own world it is possible to condition entire populations to believe what is, from the standpoint of another population, incomprehensible and absurd, so in Tharna both the men and the women came eventually to believe the myths or the distortions advantageous to female dominance. Thus it was, gradually and unnoticed, that the gynocracy of Tharna came to be established, and honored with the full weight of tradition and custom, those invisible bond heavier than chains because they are not understood to exist … in a city such as Tharna the men, taught to regard themselves as beasts, as inferior beings, seldom developed the full respect for themselves essential to true manhood … I have wondered how long nature’s laws, if laws they are, can be subverted in Tharna.”

Outlaw of Gor, p.206.




Are the men of Tharna natural submissive males? Norman says yes they are submissive, but a definite NO it is not natural. The men are unhappy and not fulfilled by their role as submissives to the silver masked women of Tharna. And with Tarl to lead them they re-assert their maleness, i.e., dominance. Norman suggests that the male slaves are far from natural submissives (as the slave girls are). Tharna excepted, Norman suggests that generally on Gor the male slaves are permanently on the brink of rising up against their oppressors:

“Whether or not there were male slaves I could not well judge, for the collars would have been hidden by the gray robes. There is no distinctive garment for a male slave on Gor, since as it is said, it is not well for them to discover how numerous they are.”

Outlaw of Gor, p.66.




In “Raiders of Gor” we see Tarl enslaved a second time. While in Outlaw he is captured and enslaved by the city of Tharna and forced to work in the mines, here in Raiders he is captured and enslaved by the Rence people. After his capture he is given a choice: slavery or death. He discovers here that he is afraid to die, and betrays his warrior codes to save his skin:

“I lowered my head, burning with shame. In my eyes in that moment it seemed I had lost myself, that my codes had been betrayed, Ko-Ro-Ba my city dishonored, even the blade I had carried soiled. I could not look Ho-Hak again in the eyes. In their eyes, and in mine, I could now be nothing, only slave.”

Raiders of Gor, p.24.




Tarl’s subsequent abject and passive service to the Rence people, notably Telima, who collars him, humiliates him and uses him sexually, is not because he is a natural submissive male seeking fulfillment at the feet of an owner, but rather the result of his self loathing and hatred of the coward he has become:

“… I was sick, and I was shamed, and I could not now, somehow, care. I had chosen ignominious bondage to the freedom of honorable death.”

Raiders of Gor, p.25.




This loss of honor through cowardice is is also what drives Tarl to become a pirate in Port Kar, and this story shows him sink to the depths of self loathing at his position as a “willing” kajirus:

“… I was miserable in my heart. I had had an image of myself, a proud image, and the loss of this image had crushed me. I had lived a lie with myself and then, in my own eyes, and in those of others, I had been found out. I had chosen ignominious bondage to the freedom of honorable death. I now knew the sort of thing I was, and in my worthless heart it so sickened me that I did not much care now whether I lived or died. I did not even much care that I might spend the rest of my life as an abject slave, abused on a rence island, the sport of a girl or children, the butt of cruelty and jests of men. Such, doubtless, was deserved. How could I face free men again, when in my own heart I could not even face myself?”

Raiders of Gor, p.30.




These are not good role models for real life earthmen who wish to be Gorean style kajiri. For a male slave to find himself in the Gor novels and argue his right to be in Gorean spaces, he needs to find male slaves portrayed in the stories who find their true natures in their bondage and service to free men and free women. Such a male slave is going to have a tough time.

The key book for a discussion of silk slaves ­ male pleasure slaves ­ and the nearest Norman gets to considering the submissive male, is Fighting Slave of Gor, which depicts the first Earthman abducted to Gor, Jason Marshall, who is taken to be trained and sold as a slave for the pleasure of Free Women on Gor. Norman has told us little before “Fighting Slave” about the male silk slaves. But they are briefly referred to in “Hunters of Gor”:

“An exception to the low prices for males generally is that paid for a certified woman's slave, a handsome male, silken clad, who has been trained to tend a woman's compartments. Some of such bring a price comparable to that brought by a girl, of average loveliness. Prices, of course, tend to fluctuate with given markets and seasons. If there are few such on the market in a given time, their prices will tend to be proportionately higher. Such men tend to be sold in women's auctions, closed to free men, with the exception, of course, of the auctioneer and such personnel.”

Hunters of Gor, p.32.




It is at just such an auction that Jason is sold. The story tells of the abduction of a male from earth, who is taken to Gor and forced into slavery as a pleasure slave for free women. On earth he is not a very assertive male, and generally treats women according to the rules of his time, with a fair degree of deference, and certainly not with dominance, although he fantasizes often about forcing them to submit.

On Gor Jason is taught that as an earthman he is weak and pathetic in comparison with the Gorean male, and as a weakling he is only fit to be used by the free women as a sexual plaything. Accordingly, while they are happy to use him (since he is pretty… apparently ), the free women also find him an object of scorn:

"How are you regarded Handsome Slave?" asked the Lady Gina. "With contempt, Mistress." I said. "Yes," she said. It was true. All in the room looked upon me with contempt, even the slaves, I, a kneeling man of Earth.

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.120.




The Gorean women who buy, sell and use Jason consistently discuss his absence of manhood. He is not a “man” according to Gorean standards, because a “man” on Gor means a master who dominates and enslaves the women:

"...I discovered that you were not a man, but only a slave, and one who was despicably weak."

(Lady Tima to Jason) Fighting Slave of Gor, p.132




And again a little later:

"You have had your moment of sport, Jason," she said "pretending, as is occasionally the wont of the males of Earth, to be a man, but it is now time to remember what you truly are, only a weakling of Earth, one fit to be only a woman's slave."

(Lady Tima to Jason) Fighting Slave of Gor, p.158




Insult him they may, but there is a place for such weak males on Gor, otherwise the trade in male pleasure slaves would not exist. The free women desire such “men”, because they want control over them. They want male slaves who are compliant, and who will be passive and non-threatening.

Norman describes the emasculation of the male on earth through the words of the female Gorean slave trainers. Earthmen we learn have forgotten who they are, forgotten the natural order:

"I am teaching you, as men of Earth are taught," she said. "to fear and suppress your sexuality. The process is simple. Tantalize and punish. Tantalize and punish. Soon, by natural, pyschological linkages, an association will be formed between sexuality and punishment, You will come to fear your sexual feelings, as being precursors to pain, physical or mental, This will induce anxiety in secular situation and impair sexual effectiveness.

In children, of course, the punishments are commonly forgotten, at least on conscious levels, Inexplicable anxieties, however, often remain, These anxieties, and the rules that seem associated with them, pertaining to the suppression and inhibition of sexuality, most, of course, by thinking organisms, be rationalized.

An entire structure of myths is then raised to protect the individual from the insight that he was, long ago, when defenseless, mutilated and cripples, You are familiar with the nature of such myths, such superstructures and defense mechanisms, They are many and varied, These range from the praising of an idiotic celibacy in the interests of a presumably nonexistent spirit to the genres of dirty jokes and stories, in which a vengeance is taken on the thwarted sexuality by trying to make it appear small and dirty.

Between these two madnesses is a variety of more dangerous antisexisms, more pernicious because subtler, recrudescent Puritanisms masking themselves under the garbage of trigger rhetoric's, the usage of such expressions as "persons" and such designed to suppers thought and enforce social conformity."

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.70.





This breaking of the male spirit of domainance through cultural conditioning is not however limited only to earth males. Jason we are told is the first earthman brought to Gor (Fighting Slave of Gor, p58). There are other male silk slaves on Gor who are Gorean men, who have also had the natural male dominance either bred out of them, educated out of them, or beaten out of them. The free women are well aware that in order to render the men safe for female exploitation, their masculinity must be removed:

“’Masculinity in the male,’ she said, ‘is closely allied with sexuality. Masculinity may be best attacked by an attack on male sexuality, and the more pervasive and pernicious it is the better. Men are the natural masters. This is obvious in the study of primate biology. Thus the male must be hobbled, broken and crippled. He must be, as a male, destroyed. Women can then assume their place as his equal, or superior.'"

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.71. (Slave trainer Lady Gina, talking to Jason).




The world of male submissive silk slaves is a largely hidden subculture within Gorean society. It is hidden by the free women from the Gorean males, for obvious reasons. Lady Gina explains:

“’Why do you not carry your cause outside the pens?’ I asked. She laughed. ‘I am not a fool’ she said. ‘Do you think I want to be branded with a hot iron? Do you think I want to be put in a steel collar and thrown naked to the feet of men beneath their whips? No, my dear Jason, I do not wish that. Those are not men of earth up there, who will consider the arguments for their own castration with reflective care. Those are Gorean men up there.’”

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.71.




Fighting Slave is by no means the greatest of Norman’s stories. It often deteriorates into an artificial didactic discussion about slavery. Norman uses the characters simply to raise the issue of the unnatural perversion of men’s natural dominance. But the message is clear. Men can be controlled by women, and will serve women as slaves only if the women can successfully subvert the natural order:

“’You are then,’ I said, ‘trying to make me fear my sexual feelings that I will suppress them, and with them my manhood.’ ‘It is the best way we know,’ she said, ‘to reduce a male’s effectiveness in all socially competitive situations. He is then crippled, of course, not only sexually, but, often, in many other ways, too. When his sexuality does not give him spine he becomes timid and manipulable. He is then useful to ambitious women who, at another time, might scarcely have dared to speak to him.’ ‘What is the true point of depriving men of their sexuality?’ I asked. ‘Is it not obvious?’ she asked. ‘It is to make them slaves.’”

Fighting Slave of Gor, p.71.




What conclusions is Norman drawing about male silk slaves? The story of Jason is the story of a man who changes from unnatural slave to natural master. His submissiveness at the start of the story is the result of social conditioning on earth, and the free women who first own him try to reinforce that conditioning. He is of earth. He is weak. He is fit only to kiss the feet of free women. And for a short while they succeed in maintaining this unnatural order. But through his exposure to Gor Jason’s true nature slowly asserts itself. Is Norman then arguing that there is no such creature as a natural male slave, only artificial and unnatural creations? It would appear so:

"Many men who are strong physically are spineless weaklings, tortured and dominated by women, and ideas. Women despite what they may feel obligated to proclaim publicly, detest such men, for they betray their dominance, their genetic heritage as male primates, thus cheating not only themselves of the fulfillment of their nature but precluding the woman from also fulfilling hers.

It is no wonder that women, in their helplessness and frustration, their own confusions, turn upon such men, hurting them and making them miserable. This, of course, causes such men, who do not understand the problem, to redouble their efforts to accommodating the pleasing to the females, to give them whatever they want, and to reassure them of anything and everything they wish to hear. A vicious cycle is thus generated."

Beasts of Gor, p.274.




Norman’s analysis of the gender roles is that in the natural order men dominate and women submit. But clearly this order can be corrupted. It is so on earth, as Norman’s numerous anti-feminist diatribes indicate. In “Outlaw”, in Tharna, we are shown a whole society where the natural order of male dominance has been destroyed. And Norman in “Fighting Slave” shows us that it can be done in other parts of Gor too. But it is rarer on Gor than Earth. On Gor the natural order generally dominates and usually attempts to subvert it are short-lived:

“[M]en, it is clear, have a need to dominate: few deny this; none deny it who are informed; in the Gorean culture, as it is not on Earth, institutions exist for the satisfaction of this need, rather than its systematic suppression and frustration; the major Gorean institution satisfying this need is the widespread enslavement of human females; the master/slave relationship is the deepest, clearest recognition of, and concession to, this masculine need, felt by all truly vital, sexual male; but, in the Gorean theory, this masculine need to dominate, which, thwarted, leads to misery, sickness, and petty, vicious, meaningless aggressions, is not an aberration, nor an uncomplemented biological singularity in males, but has its full complementary, correspondent need in the human female, which is the need, seldom satisfied, to be overwhelmed and mastered; in primitive mate competitions, in which intelligence and cunning, and physical and pyschological power, were of biological importance, rather than wealth and status, the best women, statistically, would fall to the strongest, most intelligent men; it is possible, and likely, that women, or the best women, were once fought for, literally, as well as symbolically, as possessions; if this were the case then it is likely that something in the female, genetically, would respond to dominance and strength; most women do not, truly want weak men; they wish their children to be born not to an equal but a superior; how could they respect a man who in stature and power was no more than themselves. the equal of a woman, a prize; given the choice to bear the child of an equal, or a master, most women would choose to bear the child of a master; women long to bear the children of men superior to themselves; it is a defeated woman whose body grows fat with the child only of an equal; just as evolution, at one time, selected for strong, intelligent men, capable of combat, because they were successful in mate competitions, so too, correspondingly, in the transmission of genetic structures it would be selecting for women who responded to, and yielded to, such men, women who were the biologically specified such men either mated with weaker men, her children then being less well adapted for survival, or, perhaps, fled away, and her genes were lost, for better or for worse, to the struggling human groups; the female who was excited by such men, and longed to belong to them, to masters, and keep by them and serve them, had the best chance of survival; she was the best protected; further her children would be more intelligent and stronger.”

Tribesmen of Gor, p.163.




A male then, in the Gorean sense, is a dominant, not a silk slave:

“I had sensed his incredible maleness, the animal maleness of him, so different from the thwarted, crippled sexuality so commended and tragically endemic among the males of Earth. For the first time in my life I felt I understood what might be the meaning of the expression 'male'”

Slave Girl of Gor, p.27.




Norman is not going to let us forget this point. A man can be a submissive slave only if he kills a part of himself that is natural. A male silk slave then, to a Gorean, is a man who has given up his manhood for an unnatural lifestyle based on mimicking the naturally submissive behavior of the female.

Which brings us to the male slave, living the lifestyle, seeking fulfillment through enslavement to an owner. A man who in Gorean terms has given up his manhood for an unnatural lifestyle based on mimicking the naturally submissive behavior of the female of the species. Do we as Goreans act wisely, honorably or in our best interests to exclude such “men” from our spaces? Is it true that as Norman writes:

“`If the men of Earth choose to surrender the birthright of their dominance, to exchange it for the garbage of a political perversion; if they should choose to deny their genes; if they should choose to subvert and violate the order of nature; if they should choose self- castration to manhood, that is, I suppose, their business.'?

Guardsman of Gor, p.152.




Goreans differ on this issue. Some lifestyle Goreans own male slaves. Is this pure Gor? Non-Gor? Or is it a D/s-Gor crossover? For the Gorean natural order purists such male slaves are generally unwelcome, and they are systematically purged from Gorean spaces.

Their argument might be: “We follow the Gorean lifestyle precisely to get away from submissive male slaves and feminist females." For the liberal end of the Gorean spectrum, on the other hand, such males are tolerated and even accepted as valid human beings exploring themselves through Gorean rituals. Their argument might be: “We welcome all inquiring minds to the world of lifestyle Gor, and the fictional world of Gor is easily adapted, and should be adapted to meet real life issues.”

Ultimately we will all find our spaces with whom we choose to socialize with. I find myself in two minds on this issue, and will therefore not attempt to make an ultimate judgement.

Personally, I prefer spaces that are exclusively occupied by Gorean dominant males and Gorean females, and I do not choose to be around male slaves. This is not because they threaten my masculinity, but because they affront my sense of natural order, and since I am surrounded by an unnatural order much of the time, I seek solace in Gorean spaces to get away from it.

I therefore do not appreciate the unnatural order appearing in my Gorean world. I have no issue with male slaves ­ I just do not consider them Gorean in the lifestyle sense. To me they are D/s, not Gorean. It is purely a personal opinion. But, that does not mean I would argue that male slaves could never be “of Gor”. Perhaps they can be of Gor by creating their own Gorean pseudo-sub-culture, or by gaining acceptance into the more liberal and tolerant already existing Gorean spaces.

On the other hand, Goreans are already a minority sub-culture, often unable to live the lifestyle openly for fear of being persecuted, losing jobs etc. I often feel that we should embrace and welcome on some level anyone who is also searching, exploring, willing to share ideas, discuss and debate in this area, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

For Goreans to isolate ourselves and encourage division and conflict between ourselves and other “strange and perverted sexual cults”(koff koff) seems to me to be ultimately counter productive to the advancement of thought, debate and knowledge about who we are.

The world we live in, perverted and unnatural as it is, is VERY powerful and it fears non-conformity greatly. Draw public attention to your Gorean-ness and you could lose your job, your children, your lover. Should not all of us facing persecution for who we are not keep the dialogue open? Who are we to call the lifestyles and beliefs of others “weird”? Even people in the BDSM scene think us weird cultists.

To paraphrase:

First they came for the male slaves… and we did nothing, because we were not male slaves.

Then they came for the Dommes… and we did nothing, because we were not Dommes.

Then they came for the gays and lesbians… and we did nothing, because we were not gays or lesbians. Then they came for the BDSM people… and we did nothing, because we were not BDSM.

Then they came for the vanillas… and we did nothing, because we were not vanilla.

Then, finally, they came for the Goreans… and there was no one left to help us.

I wish all well
Makaku Oyami