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... ouch. That really would've been nice to see in the letter. Having a pervy philosophy during kinky sex with consenting adults is a very different thing fro
by Pxtl 10y ago
... ouch. That really would've been nice to see in the letter. Having a pervy philosophy during kinky sex with consenting adults is a very different thing from believing women are inherently inferior.
- Bartweiss 10y agoAs I understood it, the driving evidence in this case (what's been publicized, at least) was roleplay on a private forum specifically for that purpose. Which wasn't clarified in the letter, but is a significant part of why people across the political spectrum are so upset about this one - it treats statements made in a fictional context as core beliefs. (All made more complicated by the fact that Goreanism itself seems to operate on a bizarre multiple-levels-of-fiction basis, but still.)
- striking 10y agoMy God. Did you honestly think it was the latter? Without even considering the less malicious of the two first?
- Pxtl 10y ago"Brilliant Geek posts mysogyny on his spare time" happens enough that I took it at face value. I mean, after Scott Adams and Dave Sim, it wouldn't be shocking to learn that a geek I respected had views that disgusted me.
- striking 10y agoI guess I can understand that perspective to some degree, but you made a lot of assertions in this thread that were ultimately unfounded. Do you think that's fair to Larry? I don't want to give you a hard time, I just wish people were more careful about this kind of thing.
- Pxtl 10y agoI'm just going by the letter, and mostly on the issue of "how do we handle misogyny in our orgs" not about Larry himself. Unfortunately HN will no longer let me edit my first posts to point out "it was a sex thing".
- soundwave106 10y agoYeah, until I read the comments, the context of that letter was not clear to me at all, as BDSM was only referred to in passing. I only have a vague familiarity with the Gorean subculture. The modern subculture seems largely to be an extension of BDSM oriented role-play. The main negative I've heard is that Goreans sometimes take themselves way too seriously, ala a deep Star Wars or Star Trek nerd. I don't think I've ever heard them described as "abusive to women". Even just adding "Gorean" within the letter would've helped me understand better. In literary circles, the books (after the first couple at least) do not have a great reputation, and they definitely have been criticized as sexist / misogynist (in addition to being simply bad pornographic writing). So it's easier to see how this sort of controversy can pop up.
- Pxtl 10y agoWait, Gorean as in the Gor books? Ohhhhh.
- soundwave106 10y agoYes... for further clarification, the "Gorean subculture" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorean_subculture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorean_subculture -- beware, this link is NSFW) is derived from the Gor series of fantasy books by John Norman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor). (I don't know too much in detail about either, the only Gor related media I've seen is a tangentially related film bad enough to make it onto MST3K -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_of_Gor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_of_Gor)