First the Heinleinian pagans and now this:
Salon has a fascinating
article
about the Gor books, bombastic pulp scifi S&M erotica about a planet where
"men are men and women are slaves", and the subculture of real-life Goreans,
of various degrees, who subscribe to the principles of male domination and
female slavery:
The Gorean Argument, something of a definitive statement by "Marcus of Ar,"
a major contributor to the Silk and Steel site, says that "the process of
evolution has naturally selected for strong, competitive males, and females
who were both desirable to such men, and who were in turn attracted to such
men. ... Weak males would not survive the competitive selection process to
reproduce. Females who were not attractive and responsive to strong men
would not be selected to reproduce. Therefore, nature being what it is,
the non-competitive and unattractive geneaological [sic] lines would fade
away and the strong and attractive lines would continue to survive."
Julian also disputed, on theoretical grounds, the very foundation of the
Gorean lifestyle as it is being lived: the consensual nature of the slavery
entered into by women... Julian's fantasy is that he would be able to make a
woman surrender to him totally if he were somehow able to "get away with"
kidnapping and "training" her to please him.
(Seeing this reminded me of
The
Houseplants of Gor.)