My Problem With Game of Thrones
Please note: For the purpose of this post I am only referring to the televised version of Game of Thrones and *not* the book version (I haven't read them but my husband has).
** This post contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk **
There's been a lot of talk lately about Game of Thrones and the problem it has with female characters. As someone who considers herself a feminist, as well as someone who makes my living (meager though it may be) as a storyteller, I've been torn on how I feel about the direction the show has gone for the past couple of seasons.
First and foremost, anyone who has watched even one season of GoT knows that female nudity is pretty much par for the course. The problem here is that it is always in a sexualized fashion. For me it's not surprising to see naked ladies in Littlefinger's brothel because that's generally where you'll find a whole gaggle of naked people so I didn't put up too much of a fight on that one. Yeah, maybe we didn't need to see all of those vaginas and quite so many breasts, but it wasn't necessarily out of context if you know what I mean. That said, if you're going to show that much hooker flesh, you might want to even up the stakes a bit and show the dongs that would also be hanging out at an orgy. Of course the show runners did not go this route. I've heard it's because "no one wants to see penises."
I remember reading after season two that Emilia Clarke, who plays the amazing Daenerys Targaryen, had it put in her contract that she wouldn't go naked anymore. We saw a lot of Emilia in season one so I can understand her maybe not wanting her character to be viewed as the Naked Queen instead of the Bad Ass Queen. (Because yes, Dany is bad ass and it has nothing to do with her boobs). Compare this to another queen on the show - Cersei - and up until last night we'd never seen her stripped quite so bare. Was it because Lena Headley is an "older" woman and like the penises mentioned above, "no one wants to see that?" I can't say, but on last night's season finale we saw all there was to see of Lena Headley and while it was an emotionally gripping few minutes, I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been just as effective if she'd taken her walk of shame in a very thin piece of fabric. She still would have been screamed at, her person would still have been pelted with all manner of disgust, and we would have seen her essentially stripped bare of her queenly artifice. Was it necessary to show it quite so literally? Would we have seen a male character have to go through something similar? I really don't think so.
My husband and I were talking about this last night after the finale aired and we were at completely opposite ends of the spectrum. As someone who has read the books, he thinks George R.R. Martin has created some very strong female characters. I agree that there indeed are/were very strong women on this show - Arya, Dany, Cersei, Brienne, Margaery, Melisandre, Ygritte, Olenna Tyrell, Caitlynn Stark, Sansa (sometimes), etc. etc. - but more often than not women are used as cannon fodder for a larger story. There is a disarming level of power inequality in this show despite how much power these women seem to wield.
And this is where my true problem with Game of Thrones comes in. No matter how strong a woman on this show is, she is perpetually shown as the lesser. A perfect example of this is Sansa's rape on the night of her wedding. I've heard it argued that it wasn't rape because it was her husband and to that I'm just going to say, SIT DOWN. I don't know why the writers/directors/EPs decided to go the route they did with this scene but I feel like they took the coward's way out and they lessened the experience of the character. We never want to see a beloved women get raped, but if you're going to do it, at least give the character and the actress playing her the respect she deserves by showing it from her own perspective. No, instead, we have to see how terrible Sansa's rape was from Theon's point of view. We had to see how it affected Theon, not you know, the woman it was happening to. We had to see Theon cry. Oh, poor Theon how horrible it must have been for him to have to witness that. You know what? It wasn't a fraction as bad as it was for SANSA TO EXPERIENCE IT. That scene, those handful of minutes, encapsulated everything that is wrong with Game of Thrones for me from a female perspective.
So yes, I do think Game of Thrones has a problem with women. The ugly thing is, they don't need to. I'm not going to pretend that everything should be sunshine and roses for its female characters, but the way they handle the degradation of the female form versus how they handle it for males is ridiculous.
It's been said that it is somewhat realistic in the way it treats women because the world that Martin has created is based in large part on the middle ages when women were treated abominably. That's all well and good, but let's be honest with ourselves for a second. The world of Game of Thrones is fiction. If you can have flying dragons and witches who can conjure killer shadow babies, you can create a world in which your females aren't so terribly treated because you're not entirely based in reality. There is no reason for you to start being historically accurate in that regard when nothing else is at all.
** This post contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk **
There's been a lot of talk lately about Game of Thrones and the problem it has with female characters. As someone who considers herself a feminist, as well as someone who makes my living (meager though it may be) as a storyteller, I've been torn on how I feel about the direction the show has gone for the past couple of seasons.
First and foremost, anyone who has watched even one season of GoT knows that female nudity is pretty much par for the course. The problem here is that it is always in a sexualized fashion. For me it's not surprising to see naked ladies in Littlefinger's brothel because that's generally where you'll find a whole gaggle of naked people so I didn't put up too much of a fight on that one. Yeah, maybe we didn't need to see all of those vaginas and quite so many breasts, but it wasn't necessarily out of context if you know what I mean. That said, if you're going to show that much hooker flesh, you might want to even up the stakes a bit and show the dongs that would also be hanging out at an orgy. Of course the show runners did not go this route. I've heard it's because "no one wants to see penises."
I remember reading after season two that Emilia Clarke, who plays the amazing Daenerys Targaryen, had it put in her contract that she wouldn't go naked anymore. We saw a lot of Emilia in season one so I can understand her maybe not wanting her character to be viewed as the Naked Queen instead of the Bad Ass Queen. (Because yes, Dany is bad ass and it has nothing to do with her boobs). Compare this to another queen on the show - Cersei - and up until last night we'd never seen her stripped quite so bare. Was it because Lena Headley is an "older" woman and like the penises mentioned above, "no one wants to see that?" I can't say, but on last night's season finale we saw all there was to see of Lena Headley and while it was an emotionally gripping few minutes, I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been just as effective if she'd taken her walk of shame in a very thin piece of fabric. She still would have been screamed at, her person would still have been pelted with all manner of disgust, and we would have seen her essentially stripped bare of her queenly artifice. Was it necessary to show it quite so literally? Would we have seen a male character have to go through something similar? I really don't think so.
My husband and I were talking about this last night after the finale aired and we were at completely opposite ends of the spectrum. As someone who has read the books, he thinks George R.R. Martin has created some very strong female characters. I agree that there indeed are/were very strong women on this show - Arya, Dany, Cersei, Brienne, Margaery, Melisandre, Ygritte, Olenna Tyrell, Caitlynn Stark, Sansa (sometimes), etc. etc. - but more often than not women are used as cannon fodder for a larger story. There is a disarming level of power inequality in this show despite how much power these women seem to wield.
And this is where my true problem with Game of Thrones comes in. No matter how strong a woman on this show is, she is perpetually shown as the lesser. A perfect example of this is Sansa's rape on the night of her wedding. I've heard it argued that it wasn't rape because it was her husband and to that I'm just going to say, SIT DOWN. I don't know why the writers/directors/EPs decided to go the route they did with this scene but I feel like they took the coward's way out and they lessened the experience of the character. We never want to see a beloved women get raped, but if you're going to do it, at least give the character and the actress playing her the respect she deserves by showing it from her own perspective. No, instead, we have to see how terrible Sansa's rape was from Theon's point of view. We had to see how it affected Theon, not you know, the woman it was happening to. We had to see Theon cry. Oh, poor Theon how horrible it must have been for him to have to witness that. You know what? It wasn't a fraction as bad as it was for SANSA TO EXPERIENCE IT. That scene, those handful of minutes, encapsulated everything that is wrong with Game of Thrones for me from a female perspective.
So yes, I do think Game of Thrones has a problem with women. The ugly thing is, they don't need to. I'm not going to pretend that everything should be sunshine and roses for its female characters, but the way they handle the degradation of the female form versus how they handle it for males is ridiculous.
It's been said that it is somewhat realistic in the way it treats women because the world that Martin has created is based in large part on the middle ages when women were treated abominably. That's all well and good, but let's be honest with ourselves for a second. The world of Game of Thrones is fiction. If you can have flying dragons and witches who can conjure killer shadow babies, you can create a world in which your females aren't so terribly treated because you're not entirely based in reality. There is no reason for you to start being historically accurate in that regard when nothing else is at all.
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