Last week, Esquire posted what is in my opinion one of the most baseless and misguided take downs of a TV show I’ve ever seen. Maybe it was for clicks, as the subject of the article, Game Of Thrones, is the most popular show on television, or maybe this was the author’s true opinion. Regardless, here we are to discuss it anyway.
The basic thesis of the article is that while Game Of Thrones is a good show its reputation will be forever tainted by its treatment of women and it will become less and less watchable in years to come.
I truly had trouble digesting this opinion at first due to the fact that I’ve actually always been in awe of how many strong female characters there were on GOT. A large criticism of modern television has been it’s inability to write deep female characters and I’ve always believed that GOT was succeeding at what so many other shows were not. The women on the show were powerful, smart, and independent survivors while the men continued to be killed off due to pride, overzealous courage, or political mistakes. Thus, this opinion baffled me. So I dug further.
It seems like the authors opinion is based in the fact that the majority of the female character’s have experienced sexual abuse. While this is obviously horrible, the immediate response is that the series is striving for realism. The show isn’t set in 2019. It’s set a long long time ago where this behavior was rampant and often accepted. I mean one of the rapes she is referring to is literally between a brother and sister so I think it’s pretty fair to say the show depicts things that are not accepted by today’s standards. Regardless, the author takes umbrage with this argument so let’s dive into some of her points.
The author believes that there is an inequitable distribution of assault and sexualization between the genders. First, why would a specific thing such as “being overly sexualized” need to be equal between the genders? Seems a bit arbitrary. Do we need to have complete equality in all aspects? How about equality in the “heads chopped off in front of daughters” department?
But let’s keep going because this is argument is insane to me on more levels. Let’s take the “too graphic” piece of her argument. Rape is gruesome. So is the slitting of throats, the drinking of poison, and the occasional arrow to the face. War is gruesome and this show is about war. Cersei’s lowest moment is when she gets humiliated and is forced to walk the streets nude as a punishment. Her brother’s lowest moment is when his hand gets chopped off abruptly and his days as a fighter are effectively ended. One fate seems worse to me. Oh yeah and everyone involved in Cersei’s walk of atonement was blown to bits in a fiery explosion that she set up. Jamie never sought justice.
But wait, there’s more. If we’re truly only going to look at the abuse experienced in sexual incidents then it would be unfair to ignore the treatment of the men on the show. Cersei forced her nephew to have sex with her. Arya murdered Meryn Trant while he was at a brothel. Oberyn Martell treated the men in the brothels like objects. Oh and something happened to Theon Greyjoy but I just can’t remember.
Finally, there’s a quick part in this article that points to how the series shows respect to minor male characters, such as Jorah Mormont, while disrespecting major female characters. Well I’m so glad that the author brought up Jorah because he may be the perfect example of someone who doesn’t fit into her overall thesis. Jorah was absolutely humiliated and dejected when he was banished by the only person he cares about. But I actually prefer using Jorah as an example to speak to another one of the author’s points. The author tries to combat the argument that the sexual assault being portrayed in this series is meant to set the story in realism by saying if that were true then there would be more disease and sickness. Well boy do I have got some news for you. Sir Jorah Mormont comes down with one of the grossest and deadliest diseases I could ever imagine: Greyscale. You find a more unpleasant fate. I simply can’t.
But enough about equality. Let’s talk about the women. The author of this Esquire piece references something called the”Arya Exception” which points to the fact that Arya is the only female character who is not sexualized. She then follows it up by discussing the existence of the “Brienne Corollary” which if you ask me kind of defeats the purpose of Arya being the one exception to this rule. Anyway, I’d like to put forth my own exception: The Sansa Exception. In my opinion, every single female character exhibits immense strength, independence, and power except for Sansa in the beginning of the series. Daenerys. Cersei. Brienne. Arya. Margaery. Lady Olena. The Red Woman. Lyanna. All badass women taking exactly what they want from whomever they want. I mean you can’t look at this list and not be in awe of the absolute power each of these women wields. Cersei is the most feared person in Westeros. Brienne took on the most dangerous man in the seven kingdoms, The Hound, and won. Arya is one of the bravest and most skilled swordsmen in the entire show and she’s still a young woman. Margaery manipulated her way through three different kings in order to gain power. Lady Olena was fearless and didn’t take shit from anyone. The Red Woman had full control over Stannis and essentially turned him into a mere figurehead for her to use to wage war. Lyanna is a child and yet she consistently makes a room full of grown men cower. And last but definitely not least there are not enough strong adjectives to describe Daenerys. At least nothing that is better than Mother Of Dragons, Khalessi, or Breaker Of Chains. Daenerys and Cersei may be the strongest characters in the history of TV among both men and women. So that brings us to Sansa, the exception. Or at least she was. In the first couple of seasons Sansa was foolish, weak, and prioritized royalty over her family and morals. And even this has changed. As Tyrion told her in episode 1 of season 8, “Many underestimated you. Most are dead now.” She survived many horrible experiences and showed the audience how strong she actually is. Now grown up, she has become wiser and more strategic. This became solidified when she had Little Finger executed. She’s come a long way and may just end up on the Iron Throne.
This show is so good because of how complicated both the male and female characters are. Their strengths and their weaknesses are on full display. Many shows fail to develop rich characters but GOT simply isn’t one of them. I understand anyone who doesn’t like this type of content and may deem certain scenes as too graphic but the answer is not to protest. You can just not watch. If enough people don’t watch a program then they will cancel it but don’t force your agenda onto a show that is enjoyed by many (especially the most popular show in the world).We can’t live in a world where the vocal minority dictates what gets made. That’s more dangerous than Daenerys Cersei Brienne Arya Margaery Lady Olena The Red Woman Sansa any of the female characters.
