I understand that it's a highly coveted position. I understand that the belas do it/choose it freely. I get that they really really like and enjoy the sex. However, I can't help but feel a little bit uncomfortable with the whole concept. Because, the way I see it, they're kinda like sex toys (or sexual outlets). Happy, satisfied sex toys, but sex toys nonetheless. When the princes are horny, they go to them (except for Rini who sometimes goes just to hang out with them).
I can understand where you're coming from, but remember that the premise is that in Orina Anoris, sex isn't something shameful, something dirty. In their culture, paying for sex is the same thing as paying a clerk or lawyer to go over a contract for you--if you were Anorian, would you be ashamed of your lawyer? To them, there's nothing shameful about sex or paying for sex, so they wouldn't be embarrassed. So, yes, I see where you're coming from when you mean "sex toys nonetheless," but I think you're coming at it from the angle of the societies of our world and that's what might be making you uncomfortable.
Now, looking at history and the development of cultures and civilizations throughout the world, a major theory is that the reason sex was shown as dirty was to discourage women having it--why? So that women, who were, sadly, treated as currency in a way (father "gives away" the bride and gets a dowry, etc., etc.) could be considered valuable (i.e. to sire heirs, etc.). If a man couldn't make sure that his daughter was pure (i.e., that his son-in-law was guaranteed that all his children were legitimately his, through social pressure not to have had sex before marriage, which would hopefully carry on into the realm of not having extra-marital affairs), then he couldn't use her as currency. She was not valuable if she was not pure, and so sex outside of marriage was painted as something only disreputable women did, women who were not socially acceptable. (Remember, women were sometimes killed if they were found to be committing adultery a few thousand years ago and probably recently, actually...) To make sure that their "currency" remained valuable and useful, sex became shown as not something that respectable women (young and old) (or men), talked about in public, which added to the sense of shame, to the idea that it was bad so it must be hidden.
Now, I realize that a lot of the belas are male, but the point of my previous paragraph is that we're all born into cultures that have certain mores, and we internalize those mores. If everyone grows up believing that talking about sex is shameful, and that therefore sex itself is shameful, so therefore people who show themselves to be sexually active are also shameful, then the conclusion that being a bela is a shameful job is natural. However, Orina Anoris is the opposite of that, so the conclusion would also be the opposite: that there's nothing embarrassing about being a bela.
If they themselves get horny, well, their only option is to distract each other. They can't interact with anyone else outside their own belam, can't be touched by anyone but the princes, can't express any preference for one specific prince, they can't say "no" (can they? I'm only inferring here since it hasn't been explicitly stated--maybe they can't say no in the sense that nobody would turn down the princes?
). Anyways. It sounds very much like a golden cage to me. Well, they can leave whenever they want, but overall I think the job is a bit debasing.
But let's look at
why you see the job as debasing in the context of Anorian society. Just like any job, there are certain rules to be followed--i.e., if you have the honor of serving the princes, you shouldn't also be having sex in closets with any guy who saunters into the palace. You might recall that one of the belas (I can't remember who), was actually selected to be in the belam of the Seven Siblings, but when he was asked to, he said he preferred more variety; obviously his preferences were taken into account and he got a job in the guest belam instead, which makes him happier. They can also say no in that if they don't feel like it, they stay in their room. I can't cite where right now, because I haven't slept in 24 hours, but either Orinakin or Selorin said that the belas are not required to be available to them at all times. The princes must respect their privacy. They're trained in the art of self-defense so that if they're attacked, they're not helpless, just because their position is a little dangerous because they're so enticing. They're usually accompanied by a guard everywhere they go, because their safety is a priority. For them, it's a job, like any other job, and since their culture has never looked down on sex (probably due to a very close relationship with Ilanosa), then there's no shame in the fact that their job involves sex.
Although I suppose it's very much a matter of morals/culture? I don't see how it works out though. The main reason I'm bringing this up is because on some occasions, the princes have made some references about how having sex with the belas doesn't constitute cheating. Orinakin doesn't want to share Bade with anyone, and yet belas are fine. Why? Why is it different when it comes to them? Anosanim was talking to Talin (sorry I don't have the specific references) about having a boyfriend, and he said something about having sex with the belas, and Talin said that didn't count. If I remember correctly Xio Voh said something like he didn't mind Kudorin having sex with the belas. So it seems that the princes don't view the belas like they do other persons. Belas don't count. (Because they get paid to do it?) I remember Bade saying to Xio Voh that he was grateful that the belas never made it seem 'like work'. How is that a coveted, enviable position? The belas get the sex out of it, they get the money and luxurious lifestyle out of it, but beyond that? Is that it?
Again, I really understand where you're coming from, and it took me a couple of chapters (like Bade) to get used to the idea. I think that yes, if Orina Anoris looked down on sex the way a lot of cultures in the real world do, then the belas would be ashamed--but Orina Anoris doesn't, so they don't. For them, being great at sex is like being great at painting, or at designing clothes, or managing an estate, or making amazing pastries in the kitchen as a palace chef. Their job is to have sex with the children of their gods. Literally, the children of their gods. It's a pretty high honor. Though I can't say that for the people who go to training and
don't get into the coveted position of being belas, since I don't know where they go. But I do recall the short story "Slowly," where Tomi had to track down a prostitute as a witness and no one batted an eye at it. Maybe she went to bela training school and wanted to "freelance" instead? Either way, no one ever acted as if she should be ashamed of her job.
(edited to add): I forgot to address the whole "belas don't count" thing--they don't "count" only in that they don't pose an emotional threat to, for instance, a prince's spouse. (Not because they're not people--because they are.) Since it's their job, to get emotionally involved and manipulative and possessive over one of the brothers (esp. if they're married) is unprofessional, so it's a given that they aren't supposed to do it (and assumed that they won't). So Bade has no fear of the belas, because he knows that they view having sex with Orinakin as a job (an enjoyable job, but still a job), so he doesn't have to live in fear that one of them will take Orinakin from him, will manipulate and play games with his affection and wrest Orinakin away from him emotionally and physically. They respect his place as Orinakin's spouse. The same would go for any other brother, and Kudorin, I think. (Which is why Xio Voe got so jealous of Anosukinom kissing Li, because to him, Li was posing a threat to what was his, emotionally AND physically, and since Xio Voe hadn't even gotten a kiss from Anosukinom, he got a tad upset.)
Wouldn't one rather be a boyfriend (albeit for 1 month in the case of Selorin) than a bela?
Do you think the constant sex outweighs the other points (about how the princes view them)?
How do you think the princes view them?
Having the preference of being a bela or a boyfriend comes down, for these characters, as a very personal choice. I think you might be subconsciously transferring some of the strict views of the real world to the princes, and assume that they believe that sex is dirty, so belas are therefore dirty, and aren't worth anything because sex is their job. But the princes don't. As Orinakin said to Bade long ago when they first danced together at the Festival of Adanotu, belas are people, too. The princes dance with them freely, in public, without shame, and ask them to dance in front of their people at a festival, without shame. The reason they can't touch other people is to protect the sanctity of their bodies, to honor the contract they made with the princes when they accepted the job as a bela.
As Kudorin said in Ch.17:
“Belas are people,” Kudorin said. “I do not own Koto or any of the others.”
[...]
“They have, for a price, voluntarily surrendered themselves to my care,” Kudorin explained, rubbing Koto’s leg. “I take the responsibility seriously, and see that they are well provided for. I give them the physical and spiritual comforts that I can, and as much freedom as I am able. I wish that they could wander freely outside the palace grounds, but certain precautions must still be made.”I hope that helps in explaining my personal views on belas, and why I see them the way I do. If I came across as rude, I apologize in advance, I'm simply very tired. Actually, after writing this huge thing, I was kind of hesitant to post it, because I'm so tired I don't know if I'm coming off as a jackass (because I don't mean to), and because I really do understand where your discomfort is coming from, and wanted to explain in a way that might be helpful.
- Jae
