Editing Gor (section)

== Subculture ==
A [[fandom]] has developed based on the series.<ref name="BBC">{{Cite news |date=May 19, 2006 |title=Officers discover sex-slave cult |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4996410.stm |access-date=August 18, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Guar">{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Paul |date=May 19, 2006 |title=Gor blimey! Subservient cult is unleashed on Darlington |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/19/britishidentity.uknews2 |access-date=August 18, 2010}}</ref> Gorean subculture developed independently of Norman's involvement, particularly starting as a fan network after the [[publishing house]]s ceased printing new paperback editions of the novels.  Fans allege that due to the controversy and pressure from [[feminist]] circles, the Gor books went [[Out-of-print book|out of print]] in the late 1980s<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 3, 2012 |title=John Norman - Libertarian |url=http://server.theadvocates.org/celebrities/john-norman.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203163326/http://server.theadvocates.org/celebrities/john-norman.html |archive-date=February 3, 2012 }}</ref> (trade paperback and e-book sequel novels were subsequently published from 2001 to 2016). It does not have a uniform following but encompasses different groups of varying views and practices.

The Gorean subculture particularly focuses on the master-and-slave dynamic in sexual relationships and associated forms of [[female submission]] as portrayed in the novels. Therefore, although they are estimated to comprise less than 5% of the total female population on Gor,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Writings & Interview by Turians |url=https://turia.weebly.com/writings--interview-by-turians.html |website=Turia}}</ref> training and keeping a female slave (often known as a ''[[kajira]]'') is central to Gorean subculture. Formal slave training, slave positions, and commands, as well as slave attire and beautification, are practices central to the Gorean subculture.

Literalists, otherwise known as lifestylers, incorporate elements from the Gorean culture and gender roles in their daily lives<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gorean "Lifestyle" ~ Gorean Living |url=http://www.goreanliving.com/lifestyle.php |website=www.goreanliving.com}}</ref> and some followers of an unofficial splinter group known as Kaotians who adhered to this approach were prosecuted for leading coercive sex cults.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 31, 2014 |title=The BSDM legacy of Gorean slaves |url=https://www.dailydot.com/irl/gor-gorean-slaves-history/ |website=The Daily Dot}}</ref> As opposed to literalists, the role players, divided into real-life [[sexual roleplay]]ers (engaged or not engaged in [[BDSM]] practices) and online [[role-playing game]]rs (present particularly in ''[[Second Life]]'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bardzell |first1=Shaowen |author1-link=Shaowen Bardzell|last2=Odom |first2=William |date=August 2008 |title=The Experience of Embodied Space in Virtual Worlds: An Ethnography of a Second Life Community |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240696933 |journal=[[Space and Culture]] |publisher=[[SAGE Journals]] |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=239–259 |doi=10.1177/1206331208319148 |s2cid=146711299 |issn=1206-3312 |lccn=99301909 |oclc=535496255 |via=[[ResearchGate]]|citeseerx=10.1.1.472.686 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gorean roleplay in ''Second Life'' |date=May 2013 |url=http://www.second-life-adventures.com/gorean-roleplay-in-second-life/}}</ref> are not necessarily committed to Gorean philosophy and ideals. 

Starting from the 1990s, the Gorean subculture has become attractive to a number of male teenagers through role-playing in chat rooms. The teenage role-playing Goreans who concealed many of their personal aspects such as age or lack of experience, thanks to anonymity, managed to appeal to a considerable number of married and middle-aged women as kajirae in role-playing contexts.<ref name=" makai" /> Such notoriety caused by this profile and related practices in the virtual Gorean community succeeded in creating disdain among both [[feminist]]s and the BDSM community.<ref name="makai">{{Cite book |last=Makai |first=Michael |title=Domination & Submission: The BDSM Relationship Handbook |date=2013}}</ref> Nevertheless, scholars have discussed the way that Gorean subculture groups on media such as Second Life and [[Internet Relay Chat]] have influenced the development of online role-playing and even the [[Massively multiplayer online role-playing game|MMORPG]] genre.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Jøn |first=A. Asbjørn |date=2010 |title=The Development of MMORPG Culture and The Guild |url=https://journals.kvasirpublishing.com/af/article/view/270 |journal=Australian Folklore |volume=25 |issue= |pages=97–112 |access-date=November 13, 2015}}</ref>

Norman's non-fictional sex manual ''[[Imaginative Sex]]'' presents a series of elaborate fantasy scenarios to be acted out in isolated scenes. He also recommends the use of symbolic substitutes, such as the sound of claps as a substitute for whippings and other physical punishments. [[Patrick Califia]] asserts that Norman was critical of the psychological and physical harm that non-stop BDSM slavery and corporal punishment might inflict.<ref>"No Fantasy, Please, We're Americans: A Foreword by a Feminist", introduction by [[Pat Califia]] to the 1997 edition of ''Imaginative Sex''</ref> However, such views of Norman are not part of the Gorean canon and debate on Gorean practices' relationship to BDSM, focusing on aspects such as [[Master/slave (BDSM)|Total Power Exchange]] and further complicated by the community's diverse nature, continue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scroll 83: Gor vs. BDSM |url=http://www.gor-now.net/delphius2002/id150.htm |website=www.gor-now.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gor - a Subset of BDSM? No! but ~ Gorean Living |url=http://www.goreanliving.com/bdsm.html |website=www.goreanliving.com |access-date=2023-11-27 |archive-date=2021-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207110720/http://www.goreanliving.com/bdsm.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> BDSM writer Michael Makai nevertheless asserts that Gorean fiction may be found responsible for shaping or otherwise popularizing many of today's established BDSM protocols and tenets.<ref name="makai" />

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:The Gor Project 1 by mjranum stock.jpg|Model dressed as a ''[[kajira]]'' in a camisk with a simulated ''kef'' brand
File:Woman topless on leash at Folsom Street Fair 2012.jpg|[[Sexual roleplay]]er in a ''kajira'' pose at [[Folsom Street Fair]]. The woman is posing in an approximation to ''nadu'', the typical position of a "[[Kajira#Employment|pleasure slave]]".
File:Panthers Thentis.jpg|Gorean role-playing in ''[[Second Life]]''. Panther Girls (Gorean quasi-[[Amazons]]) from the Northern Forest, attending a meeting at the town hall of the city Thentis.
</gallery>