"Is your slave a memlook?"

A memlook, in Code d’ Odalisque, is a low slave, a work slave. Memlooks have no rights. They can be used for any purpose. An odalisque, on the other hand, is “preserved from toil.” She is kept exclusively for erotic purposes. Her only task is to provide pleasure for her Master. She is a pleasure slave. She is not required to cook or clean. She is required to be beautiful and to fuck and suck. There is a hard, clear distinction between these two types of slaves. Memlook = work slave. Odalisque = sexual slave, bedroom slave, cockslave.

Accordingly, an odalisque should not be treated as a memlook. An odalisque, though still a slave, has a much higher status than a memlook and it is disrespectful to her status to treat her like a memlook. Slavekeepers must observe this rule: do not treat an odalisque as a memlook. This means, do not require her to toil like a common slave. She is spared from housework and cooking and other chores. She is kept for sex. It is an affront for a Slavekeeper to require his odalisque to labor like a memlook.

This is such a serious matter that the Code allows an odalisque to question her Master about this. On nearly all matters an odalisque must be humble and obedient. She never questions her Master’s commands. But if her Master commands her to behave like a memlook the Code provides that she can, in that instance, raise an objection. There is a set way for her to do this. She is permitted to ask: “Is your slave a memlook, Slavekeeper?” This is to say: I am an odalisque. Are you going to disrepect me and treat me like a memlook?

Let us suppose her Master has commanded her to clean the house or wash clothes. The odalisque can respond to this command by saying : “Is your slave a memlook, Slavekeeper?”

Hopefully, this is enough to prompt the conscience of the Slavekeeper. It is, in fact, barbaric to treat an odalisque as a common memlook. Hopefully, he will retract the command.

However, if the slave says to him “Is your slave a memlook, Slavekeeper?” and, for whatever reason, he still insists she cleans the house or washes the clothes, then – under the etiquette of the Code – the slave must obey. The Slavekeeper, in fact, is in the wrong. She has asked him to amend his command. He has refused to do so. In that case, the slave must obey him. The Code allows her to question the command, but only once, and if he does not change the command she must then yield. In any battle of wills, the slave must yield.

If a Slavekeeper persists in treating his odalisque as a memlook in this way she is within her rights to start reconsidering their bond. She might complain to her Overmistress. Or she might put in place a written Plea for Mercy asking her Master to desist from treating her as a memlook. If all else fails, she is justified in leaving the relationship. An odalisque does not have to put up with being treated as a memlook. She has every right to be treated as an odalisque, to be kept from toil and to be preserved for her special purpose, the provision of beauty and pleasure.