Free Woman's Handbook
by
Dangrus

Chapter 7
Looking up

I recently posted an essay on the GPB titled "Gorean men stand taller than the rest." I was inspired by a thread in which Gorean men spoke of their castes. Hanging on every word, I read as men discussed with each other what defines them as men.

I was consumed with a need to express my admiration for the male of the species, specifically the Gorean male. Well, shortly after, a slave whose posts I read faithfully on GorCork, described my post as assigning these men some sort of "mystical aura." Re-reading my own words, I had to admit she was right.

I respond to the men around me in direct relation to their strength, I think. Not physical strength, but the strength of their will. The consistency of their character. The stronger the courage of his convictions, the more I respect him. And the more I respect him, the more I look up to him..... the taller he seems.

While this is perhaps a tribute to the "Master" in the man, I find now that this is unfair to the man in the Master. I think when I look too far up to him, I lose perspective. As he grows taller, so do my expectations of him. When he falters, as all men do from time to time, it stuns me to see how quickly he becomes smaller in my eyes.

Where yesterday I looked up to him as a "Master," today I look him squarely in the eyes and see..... just a man. When his humanity is suddenly exposed, that revelation is devastating. The disappointment is overwhelming. And vastly unfair to him.

So.... I think that I need to take off the rose-colored glasses and look more clearly.

Oh, there will always be those who are in my eyes, "Taller than the rest,"..... those whom I look up to... I just need to make sure that I never make them so tall... that I can no longer look them in the eyes and see the man himself.