Could it be, I wondered, that she might be a slave, truly? And, if so, what ought, in the claimant justice of biology and truth, to be her disposition? But, of course, she, of Earth, could not be a slave! Not she! I recalled her.
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How unhappy she had been on Earth! How absurd and piteous had been her attempts to conform to imposed stereotypes so heinously alien to her nature.
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How zealously earnest she had been to dress in certain ways and behave in certain ways, to deny her beauty and its meaning, how desperately she had tried to live up to ideological strictures foreign to her needs; how pathetically she had dutifully repeated slogans; how sincerely she had tried to believe lies; how blindly she had tried to convince herself that axiological toxins were salubrious nourishment, how dutifully she had attempted to subscribe to the views of others, with self-serving agendas, not herself.
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How she had feared to listen to her blood, and her heart.
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How powerful are the forces of socialization! How rare the individual who has the intelligence and strength to examine inflicted orthodoxies! How few can detect the subtle encompassing walls, let alone break or scale them.
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The shaping of heads and the bindings of feet, such gross interferences with nature, are common knowledge; but the shapings and bindings of minds, even more hideous, seems seldom detected.
I thought of her.
Could it be, I wondered, that she might be a slave, truly? And, if so, what ought, in the claimant justice of biology and truth, to be her disposition? But, of course, she, of Earth, could not be a slave! Not she! I recalled her.
How unhappy she had been on Earth! How absurd and piteous had been her attempts to conform to imposed stereotypes so heinously alien to her nature.
How zealously earnest she had been to dress in certain ways and behave in certain ways, to deny her beauty and its meaning, how desperately she had tried to live up to ideological strictures foreign to her needs; how pathetically she had dutifully repeated slogans; how sincerely she had tried to believe lies; how blindly she had tried to convince herself that axiological toxins were salubrious nourishment, how dutifully she had attempted to subscribe to the views of others, with self-serving agendas, not herself.
How she had feared to listen to her blood, and her heart.
How powerful are the forces of socialization! How rare the individual who has the intelligence and strength to examine inflicted orthodoxies! How few can detect the subtle encompassing walls, let alone break or scale them.
The shaping of heads and the bindings of feet, such gross interferences with nature, are common knowledge; but the shapings and bindings of minds, even more hideous, seems seldom detected.
- (Rogue of Gor, Chapter )