I consider myself a feminist. I prefer LEGOS to dolls. I worship the Holy Trinity: Meryl Streep, Rory Gilmore, and Taylor Swift. Oh, and I’m a decent person who believes in equality. So yes, I’m feminist.
One of the best parts about being a Millennial Feminist™ is the abundance of strong female characters in television and movies today. There’s Olivia Pope, Leslie Knope, Tami Taylor, etc. In fact, it’s so popular that Netflix has a category specifically for media “featuring a Strong Female Lead.”
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So with all of these options, why is my favorite show on television, Game of Thrones, constantly criticized for it’s harsh treatment of women?
Game of Thrones is a cultural phenomenon. Based on author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, its the biggest thing on television, with the largest budget, most sprawling sets, and hottest actors (Kit Harrington, I’m looking at you). The three or four people that don’t watch the show can still feel the it’s impact – specifically when it kills of a beloved character and social media promptly explodes, which happens around 12 times a season. For the past five years, it’s also had some of the most brutal depictions of violence against women on television.
[Spoiler Alert]
While violence against women has always been on Game of Thrones (the first episode included a not-in-the-books rape of a fan favorite), this season the show has come under fire for it’s treatment of women. The fifth season found a girl burned to death by her own father, and another take a literal walk of shame naked through the crowds. But the absolute worst was the rape of the universe’s punching bag, Sansa Stark, by the psychotic Ramsey Bolton.
Many fans ands critics alike said that this was the breaking point. Not only does the show constantly use gratuitous sexual assault as a storyline, but also they use it primarily to further the character development of the males, marginalizing the females who are actually getting assaulted. For example, during Sansa’s rape, the camera focused on Theon, an outsider forced to watch, as if to say, “Look! Isn’t the rape of Sansa so terrible for Theon? Don’t you feel so bad for him?”
Everyone was angry at the show after that. The episode, “Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken” is the lowest rated in the entire series. The show’s producers and actors have responded to the criticism saying that that the terrible treatment of women reflects the time period of the show (late-medievalish?). Emilia Clarke, who plays BAMF Daenerys Targaryen, says that the show is “make-believe,” appreciating the dialogue it’s creating but not the anger it’s generating.
Here’s what I think. Game of Thrones takes place in a land where there are centuries-old dynasties, dragons, ice zombies, and most unbelievably, people who still read books (Is that still a thing? I thought people stopped reading after Netflix appeared). Yes, while the show does depict gratuitous violence, it never once advocates for nor encourages that violence. While it does, unfortunately, marginalize the victim’s reaction, it never once ignores that fact that she is a victim of a terrible thing (something that many politicians today refuse to do). I appreciate that, as well as the show’s multiple well-rounded female characters, including the aforementioned BAMF Daenerys Targaryen and Sansa herself.
We live in an age filled with gratuitous violence, from video games to movies to television to reality. There have been over 23,000 incidents of gun violence in the US this year alone. A mass shooting is on the news almost every month. And yes, while we acknowledge the tragedy, the majority of the public is sad for a moment and then on to the next thing, resigned to the idea that nothing will change. Even with the Charleston shooting, we focused more on getting a flag down than enacting gun control.
But when Game of Thrones rapes a character, the entire audience erupts in anger. And that anger gives me hope. Hope that we are still not desensitized to violence against women. Hope that we are so passionate about fixing this problem, even fictional depictions sparks lengthy discourse about it.
At the risk of patting myself on the back, I’m not a bad feminist for watching Game of Thrones, but a good one for understanding what it’s showing is bad and taking part in the conversation it’s creating.
Valar Morghulis means “All Men Must Die.” But as BAMF Daenerys Targaryen says, “We are not men.
