Panthers - the most feared woman on Gor

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May 2012

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May 28 - Memorial Day

[Randall Reich]

The average Gorean man would regard panthergirls as a bunch of fleabitten, bedraggled, runaway slaves and crazy vagabonds who have to hide out in the Northern Forest to avoid the collar.  He is no more likely to encounter one than he is a Priestking.  Panthergirls represent zero threat to the average Gorean.

True, but in SL Gor Panther Girls are large groups of female warriors armed with machine gun bows and fast computers. 

All the BS concerning IC/OOC boundaries aside, there is a reason I love to play a panther. The male vs. female dynamic. The men I truly respect are the ones that can handle me when I'm at my most wild, intelligent, and intense, roleplaying my panther girl as btb as possible (I do my absolute best) in the limited roleplaying environment of SL. I want to be burning with craziness and challenge them with the entirety of my female being. It's unbelievable how it brings out a spectrum of men ranging from piles of intimidated goo to ultimate hotness of manliness ( ). That's what's in it for me, as a panther roleplayer in Gor. There's nothing more thrilling to me than being at the zenith of my power and meeting a male face to face that can calmly put me on my knees. I admit it! I would bet that is exactly how John Norman intended it. The second I have to water myself down, act less skilled, less intelligent, less capable in order to placate male players, then I've lost my respect for them. It's like being the fastest horse on the track. You're handicapped with weights so the others can compete with you. Bleh. There's no fun in that.

I love this post.  LOVE it. 

[Suyuan Quan]

To me, panthers represent female duality or rather yin and yang - soft and hard, vulnerable yet unyielding.  They are to be feared for their ability and knack of surviving - whether it would be killing, foraging, slaving, thieving etc.  They are hardened women who at times don't always fit the collar, though by majority and the book, it says they become excellent slaves once conquered.  Any woman in the books, whether she be she-urt, high caste free woman, panther, peasant, contract woman etc. you name it, Norman describes them as waiting to be conquered.  Panthers and Talunas have to be considered as women who are conquered, who are at the end of their rope and they simply go into the woods in an effort to survive in a more primitive method.

Aside from that, experience has revealed to me that despite societal conditioning, there will always be the odd-woman-out and those are the Panthers and Talunas - women who are meant to be outside of the box and challenge Gorean men's roles.  In a male-dominated society, women who tire of their roles view gender relations as: The Unstoppable Force meets The Immovable Object.  It's a constant battle, even with the cap, rape, and release and it depends on the player who wins.

[Drevan Darkbyrd]

Said it before and will say it again, I do not, will not and can not fear a panther, No self respecting Gorean man  would they are tree sluts little more than slaves not yet collared, that said it is not showing fear to recognize an adversary and their abilities and respect such abilities by showing caution and using proper preparations when dealing with them. For example I would NEVER go to Clearchus village Unarmed and I wouldn't walk thru a Forrest with known panthers in it with out proper precautions that isnt being fearful nor does it make a panther feared It makes me sensible and the panther the Hunted

[Elle Couerblanc]

Aside from that, experience has revealed to me that despite societal conditioning, there will always be the odd-woman-out and those are the Panthers and Talunas - women who are meant to be outside of the box and challenge Gorean men's roles. 

In any other context besides Gor I would absolutely agree with this statement.  But in looking at it from what I have ascertained from reading Captive and Hunters a couple times, I say the Panther Girls are more running from themselves than society.  They fear what they may become if they allow themselves to companion or truly accept their slavery.  Even Verna herself used Talena as a lure for Marlenus because she knew he was the only man that could really put her on her knees. 

Yes in the end she returned to the woods but that was because I feel Marlenus allowed it. 

[Eternity Starsmith]

Said it before and will say it again, I do not, will not and can not fear a panther, No self respecting Gorean man  would they are tree sluts little more than slaves not yet collared, that said it is not showing fear to recognize an adversary and their abilities and respect such abilities by showing caution and using proper preparations when dealing with them. For example I would NEVER go to Clearchus village Unarmed and I wouldn't walk thru a Forrest with known panthers in it with out proper precautions that isnt being fearful nor does it make a panther feared It makes me sensible and the panther the Hunted

That's what they all say... 

[Eternity Starsmith]

The average Gorean man would regard panthergirls as a bunch of fleabitten, bedraggled, runaway slaves and crazy vagabonds who have to hide out in the Northern Forest to avoid the collar.  He is no more likely to encounter one than he is a Priestking.  Panthergirls represent zero threat to the average Gorean.

True, but in SL Gor Panther Girls are large groups of female warriors armed with machine gun bows and fast computers. 

All the BS concerning IC/OOC boundaries aside, there is a reason I love to play a panther. The male vs. female dynamic. The men I truly respect are the ones that can handle me when I'm at my most wild, intelligent, and intense, roleplaying my panther girl as btb as possible (I do my absolute best) in the limited roleplaying environment of SL. I want to be burning with craziness and challenge them with the entirety of my female being. It's unbelievable how it brings out a spectrum of men ranging from piles of intimidated goo to ultimate hotness of manliness ( ). That's what's in it for me, as a panther roleplayer in Gor. There's nothing more thrilling to me than being at the zenith of my power and meeting a male face to face that can calmly put me on my knees. I admit it! I would bet that is exactly how John Norman intended it. The second I have to water myself down, act less skilled, less intelligent, less capable in order to placate male players, then I've lost my respect for them. It's like being the fastest horse on the track. You're handicapped with weights so the others can compete with you. Bleh. There's no fun in that.

I love this post.  LOVE it. 

Thank you, Raven. <3

[Kristev Resident]

In many ways I think the panther role is perfect for one like me and I've tried the slave and the free woman and both limit me... close me... choke me!
Its not me so much me VS men but me VS everyone else and I love the I cap you and you cap me thing cause well sometimes I laugh so hard with captor/captured that my boring rl day becomes a whole more intresting.

I am crazy... I like running... I don't like to comform and I am a coward (yeah I shoot from a safe place )that is all very panther becoming to me.

[Ice Bradley]

Personally i would be a lot more afraid of pissing off an ubara or any other woman holding a lot of power, compared to a panther.

[Delaynie Barbosa]

'I thought it was I who was hunting women, said he, but it was they who were hunting me'
Hunters of Gor

"There was incredible pride and superiority in her gaze and carriage. She was barbaric, a panther girl, a beauty. She carried a spear. She wore at her belt a sleen knife. She wore the skins of forest panthers, primitive ornaments of beaten gold... Verna looked down upon me. 'You wished to take us as slaves, she said, it is you who have been taken slave'. I looked up at her in horror. I pulled at the thongs. 'Shave him' she said..."
Hunters of Gor

"Those are the great forests. No one knows how far they extend to the east, and they go north as far as Torvaldsland. In them there are the forest people, but also many bands of outlaws, some of women and some of men"  "Women?" I asked. "Some call them forest girls," said Ute. "Others call them the panther girls, for they dress themselves in the teeth and skins of forest panthers, which they slay with their spears and bows." ~ Captive of Gor pg. 82?

"It is not uncommon for panther girls to first make contact," said Rim, smiling, "with a hunting arrow in the back." ~ Hunters of Gor Page 79

I like these quotes to support panther roleplay.  I really do not support the idea of candy trading, even if it is "by the book."  If you are arrogant and aggressive enough to shoot first and ask questions never, then when you bring a captive to the trading post, be arrogant and aggressive enough to ask for arrowheads and other supplies. Sugar, for instance, to melt down and make your own candy over the fire.  Sayin'.

[Grace Loudon]

Of course Panther Girls are not the "most feared women on Gor."  But I do believe it would just be silly to fathom that a single man against ten armed women wouldn't have some fear.  Yes, even on Gor.  They did have a bit of a reputation and did do their fair share of trading of men - the degradation stripe was mentioned more than once in the books.

There were a couple of comments in these threads that I just laughed out loud at.  Firstly, the women who choose to play Panther Girls are *not* by default, lesbian.  I am certainly not nor have a majority of the women I've roleplayed with.  I do believe that if you get captured and molested, you're likely dealing with men playing the role.  I can assure anyone who believes otherwise that I, a long-time Panther Girl, have zero interest in touching your girly parts.

Secondly, the reason for choosing the role.  When I picked up the role of panther in 2005, I did it because I needed a challenge in my roleplay.  I was tired of the cookie cutter free women and slaves and wanted something that made my time in SL more interesting and exciting.  I chose Panther Girl and started a tribe and interacted with other players.  It wasn't easy at all nor has the role ever been easy.  After 2005 it seems like there was a bevy of Panthers because they saw these women playing this new role and getting all this attention from the men of Gor.  Constant raids on our camps to cap a Panther were an everyday, all day thing.  That's where the action was so that's where a lot of the women went.  However, they kept and likely still keep their slave alt character on the side.  But I like to think that most of them were looking for what I was looking for:  something with a little more substance in our Gor life.

Personally, I'm terribly disappointed in the quality of Panther Girl roleplay today.  I know there are a few groups who work at keeping things respectable and as close to the nature of the books as possible.  But there are more who just do it for the whole thrill of capture play.  But you know, as long as they are encouraged...and they are encouraged...it won't change.  So to me, constantly targeting them for ridicule and judgement gains nothing.  It is not going to change.  Nor is the long-haired 80's rock star look, or the frigid free-woman stereotype, or the princess slave routine.  For those who complain about how it's changed look again.  It hasn't changed at all - it has just gotten bigger:)

Derailment done!