The Gorean "Lifestyle"

What is "The Gorean Lifestyle"?
Well, there are as many opinions on the answer to that question as there are people claiming to live it.

The term has really become a catchall term for the incorporation of Gorean philsophy, customs or trappings into one's life in any form.

There are Gorean role players, both online and in real life, who play a "role" of a Gorean, usually having to do with masters and slaves. What makes someone a role player is that this isn't really how they live their real life, and they diferentiate between Gor and reality.
They often refer to "Gor" or being "in Gor" as opposed to being in reality.
It is like a part time thing or a hobby for these individuals.

Then you have your literalists. These people, even more so than the role players, are the ones primarily responsible for the label of "extremists", "fanatics", abusers, wackos, ets, that get attached to Goreans as a whole.
These practitioners may or may not actually live by any of the philosophies, but tend to be fully immersed in the trappings, many of them going so far as to eschew any and all "Earth thinking", including feeling bound to any of Earth's laws or customs. They often celebrate "Gorean" holidays instead of Earth ones and use the "Gorean" forms of measurement and calendars. Some have even made up "Gorean" languages and insist that all in their groups use those languages exclusively.
Most of these households, groups and "camps" seem to focus mainly on the "Warrior" and Master/slave aspects of the books, and many have gone far beyond the bounds of legality or what most of us see as sanity or reason in terms of that they deem acceptable in their actions and dealings with others.

What is primarily explored on this site is pertaining to real life Goreans, which, for the purposes of the Gorean Living site and its affiliates, means individuals who have chosen to live their lives in accordance with the philosophies found in the Gor novels, with or without any of the social customs or trappings. This is not a "lifestyle", but rather, a way of life.
Many Goreans *do* incorporate certain of the trappings, such as Home Stones, certain terms, and even the celebrating of some "Gorean" holidays into their lives.
Many also practice some of the customs from the books, most commonly, Free Companionship and slavery, adapted to work in a realistic fashion here on Earth, of course.

The main difference between what I refer to here as real life Goreans and the others seems to be that the real life Goreans' focus tends to be on the philosophical elements of the novels, while the literalists' and role players' primary focus tends to be on the fantasy and fictional elements.

There are quite probably many more categories than these, but this is just a very basic breakdown.