(Second Reader) MA Film Studies
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Sara Moeniralam 10384022 Dr. E.S. Martens (Thesis Supervisor) Dr. M-A. Baronian (Second Reader) MA Film Studies: MA Thesis University of Amsterdam 29 June 2018 18880 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Chapter I: Theoretical Framework 6 Chapter II: Representation of Females and Femininity in Game of Thrones: 16 The Illusion of Progressivism II.I White Female Multidimensionality and Non-White Female One-dimensionality 18 II.II Progression of the Female Gender and White Race Through the Use of Slavery 26 Chapter III: Representation of Males and Masculinity in Game of Thrones: 31 Eurocentric View on Geographical Masculinity and Toxic Masculinity III.I. The Validation of Manhood and The Culture of Entitlement 34 III.II Hypersexual Brutes 37 Conclusion 41 Bibliography 44 Appendix 50 2 ABSTRACT This thesis problematizes the representation of gendered and racial identities within the American hit television fantasy series Game of Thrones. This thesis argues that the series provides a Eurocentric view on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, resulting in the unequal depiction and negative stereotyping of non-White people. This thesis tries to interconnect the concepts of gender and race by using the concepts of intersectionality, (geographical and toxic) masculinity, femininity, Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Whiteness and performativity as key concepts. Many academic texts have been written on Game of Thrones, however when it comes to gender the focus is mainly put on female characters and the debate whether the series can be deemed feminist or not. Masculinity is used as a tool to oppose and compete with femininity, while masculinity, and especially toxic masculinity itself is problematic. Furthermore, Game of Thrones has been researched thorough when discussing Orientalism and race, however interconnecting race and gender with the focus on masculinity and femininity has been done seldom. This thesis analyzes the fictional worlds through the use of discourse analysis and concludes that the series is racist, sexist, and works on White supremacy and White privilege, resulting in the series unequal depiction of non-White people. Keywords: Postcolonial feminist studies, masculinity, intersectionality, Orientalism, Eurocentrism, Game of Thrones, discourse analysis 3 INTRODUCTION Since April 2011 HBO has aired the television series Game of Thrones. The series became a worldwide hit and is deemed controversial, because of its content being shocking, vile, unexpected, and cruel (Frankel 2014, Gjelsvik and Schubart 2016, Hassler-Forest 2014). Game of Thrones is a fantasy series set in the Middle Ages and revolves around the Iron Throne. Whoever sits on this throne rules the Seven Kingdoms, making that person the ruler of an entire continent, Westeros. In the series there are two main continents, namely Westeros and Essos. Westeros is presented as the ‘White land’, the fictional Western world, representing the European and British world. The North of Westeros is a cold, snowy and dark place, while the south is a warm sunny place. Essos is a warm dusty place where non-White people live and where the architecture and ornaments reflect a Middle-Eastern world (Hardy 414, 2015). The types of buildings in Westeros, such as castles, towers and pubs use architecture of the Western world, while in Essos pyramid buildings, sand colored stones, bricks and statues use architecture of the Eastern world (Hardy 414). The settings are very distinctive of one another which is amplified by the languages spoken and the music associated with these places. Dan Hassler-Forest claims ‘[…] that the distinction between the ‘normal’ space of the kingdoms of Westeros, as a fantastical hybrid that fuses the British isles with continental Europe, systematically privileges the Eurocentric perspective over its available alternatives’ (23), especially because Essos is seen through the perspectives of White characters. The fantasy world of Game of Thrones resembles and reflects the present geopolitical world. The series lacks in its racial depiction of non-White people, resulting in a Eurocentric view where the Western world is the center, making those customs and cultures dominant. Richard Dyer discusses the phenomenon of ‘Whiteness’ and claims that ‘As long as race is something only applied to non-white peoples, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a human norm. Other people are raced, we are just people’ (10, 1997). The idea of Whiteness being a norm suggests racial supremacy. Whiteness being seen as ‘neutral’ is a privilege solely for White people, making their race not ‘neutral’ or ‘normal,’ but supreme. White superiority can be challenged by equal representation of people, such as creating series on platforms like HBO, criticizing Whiteness instead of exerting it. One of the problems of Eurocentrism, is that it reflects a world where White people are presented in positive stereotypes, such as the White hero and White savior/messiah (Hardy, Hassler- Forest, Young 2014). These archetypes reflect strong and fearful men and women who are admired. Multidimensionality of characters is connected to the White race, resulting in an unequal depiction of 4 races, where the non-White race is depicted one-dimensional through the use of negative stereotypes, such as savagery, barbarism, and unintelligence. Hardy addresses Orientalist tropes within television and film of the West. He claims that ‘Through the 20th century film and then television followed this path of presenting a standard set of Arabian fantasy tropes’ and that ‘the result of these generations of Orientalist interpretation is that the Westerner has little trouble associating certain motifs with an imagined Middle East – albeit a likely conflation of Arabic, Ottoman, Persian and Moghul cultures and locations’ (410). This conflation of cultures is problematic, because it results in a generalization of the ‘other.’ In an interview of July 2017 with Time’s Magazine, co-creator David Benioff said ‘This is Medieval times — it might not be our world, but it’s still the same basic power dynamic between men and women in this Medieval world,’ when asked about a controversial rape scene. Benioff and D.B. Weiss emphasize that inequality between men and women should not exist by exercising precisely this inequality to create controversial and horrific incidents where women and men are trying to survive in Game of Thrones. Benioff explains in this interview what their interest was in adapting the book series by George R.R. Martin: The thing that drew us to George’s books and makes them so relevant whether the time they were written or now is that it’s about people, and power, and the pursuit of power, and how that affects those without power. Benioff and Weiss conveniently leave the factor of race out when discussing power relations. By discussing gender and race as separate concepts, these concepts are not being interconnected, even though that through gendered identities, racial identities are represented in the series. Intersectionality is key when drawing connections between social and cultural concepts, such as race and gender. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined this term in the 1980s and identifies herself as a Black feminist, meaning that this term originated in Black feminist studies. Since the concepts of race and gender are perceived separate, it discards the interconnections between them where gender has an effect on race and vice versa. Especially non-White people and females are marginalized, ‘Because of their intersectional identity as both women and of color within discourses that are shaped to respond to one or the other, women of color are marginalized within both’ (1244, 1991). Crenshaw focuses on the social position of the Black female, where intersectionality is key in order to reveal structural racism and sexism. By using the concepts of masculinity, femininity, and intersectionality the gendered identities of characters can be linked to their racial identities. This results in the unequal depiction of races, where the distinction between femininity and masculinity in Game of Thrones is striking within non-White cultures and blurred within White cultures. This thesis considers 5 interconnections between gender and race, by arguing that Game of Thrones (re)produces Eurocentric discourses on femininity and masculinity that sustain stereotypes of – and thus unequal power relations between – the East and the West. To analyze interconnections between race and gender this thesis provides a discourse analysis of Game of Thrones. Discourse analysis provides analyses where multiple factors are taken into consideration, such as race, gender, stereotypes, setting, clothing and speech. This method is most appropriate for this thesis, because of the focus on several concepts and factors that are interconnected. I will conclude that Game of Thrones works on gender and racial inequality by analyzing a Eurocentric view that is supported by an Orientalist continent. This thesis seeks to fill a gap within Game of Thrones studies, by interconnecting gender and race and revealing the structural racism and sexism, and the illusion of progressivism in Game of Thrones. This thesis is structured as follows. The first chapter is a theoretical framework where the thesis is positioned in several fields of study, where postcolonial media studies will be the point of departure. The second chapter of this thesis revolves around the representation of females in Game of Thrones where the