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f, like me, you start cheering —while in terms of illegal downloads, when the month of April rolls it’s been the most pirated TV show around every year, I’m guessing over the past three years (torrents of you’re one of several million Mother’s Mercy were estimated to BREAKING people eagerly awaiting the have hit the 10 million mark). Inewest season of HBO’s vastly It’s not a series for the faint of successful Game of Thrones heart: when Game of Thrones was television series, with its twists and first launched, it was marketed as turns, compelling characters, and Tolkien-esque fantasy with added razor-sharp dialogue. sex and violence, and the show has So popular has this adaptation of continued to deliver on that promise, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice to the point that explicit content has and Fire novels proved that 8.11 almost become a trademark of the million Americans tuned in to watch series. Personally, I don’t mind the this year’s final episode of Season odd sword fight or nude courtesan THE 5—the show’s largest audience so far —heck, I whooped like a Dothraki WHEEL With fantasy kingdoms, dragons, and enthralling plotlines full of political intrigue, Game of Thrones has become a blockbuster cultural phenomenon. Its explicit scenes of sexual violence, however, have left the series open to accusations of misogyny – so how do female viewers continue to enjoy the show?By Renyi Lim Cersei’s rape and downfall was the subject of many feminist observations. 68 MARIECLAIRE.COM.MY April 2016 when Daario Naharis dropped trou both the TV series and the books. In in Season 4 – but as a female viewer, five television seasons, she counted there’ve been moments when I’ve 50 rapes and 29 rape victims, while shifted uncomfortably in my seat, the books have so far amassed a namely due to the show’s portrayal staggering 214 rape acts and 117 of sexual assault. victims. There is, I should point out, an It’s worth noting that every rape awful lot of rape that takes place victim in the TV series has been throughout the labyrinthine female, with only one male character storyline – so much so that one fan – Theon Greyjoy – ever experiencing Daenarys is made a statistical breakdown of the the threat of sexual assault. No one one of the ever said that the show was going to strongest number of acts of sexual violence in female protagonists in the series most controversially, Sansa Stark being raped by her sadistic new Rape, unfortunately, is still a husband, Ramsay Bolton. Although there was (sensibly) no nudity part of war today. It’s not a involved and the camera focused entirely on Theon’s face as he looked strong testament to the human on in horror, you could still hear race, but I don’t think we Sansa’s moans of fear and pain. should pretend it doesn’t exist. o many viewers, it was the season’s most flagrant cheap thrill, designed to shock and outrage its audience. The backlash following the episode Thoned in on the fact that Sansa’s be a Disney cartoon – George R.R. story is entirely different in the Martin’s fictional world is a brutal, books (by rights, she should have frightening one where no character’s remained safely by Petyr Baelish’s safety is ever guaranteed – but it side in the Vale), with some fans seems that in the game of thrones, accusing the series’ writers of using you win or you die… And if you’re a rape to spice up the plotline of a woman, there’s a chance you’ll be major female character – and not for raped as well. the first time, either. “I wish that ‘deviating from the books’ didn’t UNBENT, translate to ‘find excuses to sexually UNBROKEN? assault all the women’. Shame,” “Everywhere in the world, they hurt wrote one viewer, while another little girls,” were Cersei Lannister’s asked, “What purpose does words in Season 4 – a statement that constantly raping or threatening to reverberated throughout this year’s rape the female characters Game of episodes, in which we witnessed Thrones serve? It’s lazy writing and (warning: here be spoilers) Shireen disgusting.” Baratheon being burnt at the stake “I do not think that rape is used by her father, Myrcella Baratheon’s to develop character arcs for women poisoning, Gilly’s near-rape at the on Game of Thrones. Rather, they hands of two men of the Night’s appear more to develop the character Watch, Ser Meryn Trant’s physical arcs of men,” says Professor Valerie and sexual abuse of underage girls at L. Garver, Director of Undergraduate a Braavosi brothel, and perhaps Studies and Associate Professor for April 2016 MARIECLAIRE.COM.MY 69 the Department of History at fundamentally dishonest about that. more than once appeared to capitalise Northern Illinois University, where Rape, unfortunately, is still a part of on its boundary-pushing reputation she teaches the honors course on war today. It’s not a strong testament by displaying the humiliation and Game of Thrones, Television and to the human race, but I don’t think degradation of women onscreen. Medieval History’. we should pretend it doesn’t exist.” “Part of HBO’s brand is to depict It could be argued, however, that sexual and violent content that ansa’s rape appeared Game of Thrones does its job a little American viewers would rarely see more to advance Theon’s too well in that regard by highlighting elsewhere on television, so it makes character development. sexual violence against women so sense that the show runners depict The way the camera cut often that it tends to lapse into some of Martin’s brutality quite to Theon at the end of “Sthe scene made it seem as though the point of the rape was to start the transformation of Reek back into Theon. For this reason, I found it the When sexual assault seems like most egregious rape in the series so far, and I think the show overstepped an almost inevitable fate for any boundaries in the ways it depicted this rape and its aftermath. Using female Game of Thrones the rape of a woman solely to advance male character development character, it’s not only unpleasant is repugnant, in my opinion.” – it’s frustrating and reductive. WALK OF PUNISHMENT Stepping in to defend the series shortly after Sansa’s rape scene was prurience, rather than depicting rape graphically,” states Professor Garver. aired, George R.R. Martin reasoned, for the sake of showing how “That said, I do think they went too “If you’re going to write about war… destructive and damaging it is. Quite far in a few cases, letting the camera and you don’t portray [sexual the opposite of denying the existence linger too long on scenes of sexual violence], then there’s something of sexual violence, the series has violence in ways that made them seem voyeuristic and not only Cersei’s walk of penance included to advance plot and was excruciating to watch character development.” In five years, we’ve watched Brienne of Tarth coming close to being raped by Roose Bolton’s men, the repeated assault of the women at Craster’s Keep by men of the Night’s Watch (with the extremely questionable decision to include full female nudity in the scene), the semi- nude corpse of the prostitute Ros following her torture and death by crossbow, and one of Ramsay Bolton’s paramours being hunted down and torn apart by a pack of dogs. ost tellingly of all, Cersei’s walk of penance – an excruciating four-minute scene in Season 5’s finale where her character is Mshaved, stripped naked, and forced to walk through King’s Landing while 70 MARIECLAIRE.COM.MY April 2016 What appeals to me most, personally, is how fascinating it is to see how every female character manages to survive in the deeply patriarchal societies of Westeros and the lands around it. being mocked and spat on by a jeering crowd – tiptoed the increasingly fine line between a faithful dramatisation of the books and shock-jock style television. The other issue at hand is that Game of Thrones has made a habit of changing consensual sex scenes into ones that involve rape, most notably during Season 4, when it depicted the rape of Cersei by her twin brother, Jaime. In A Storm of Swords, the passage has Cersei enthusiastically taking part in the liaison, whereas the series shows her pleading with her brother to stop, while Jaime repeatedly tells her, “I don’t care.” It begs the question: what is there to be gained from creating additional rape scenes? Or, for that matter, what does the repetition of so many scenes of sexual violence achieve? It’s completely understandable that Even Sansa viewers are becoming increasingly Stark was not tired of rape being revisited again left unscathed in and again. When sexual assault this brutal saga seems like an almost inevitable fate for any female Game of Thrones Greyjoy who work hard for their brilliant, complex, and above all, character, it’s not only unpleasant – independence. many actively defy the assumptions it’s frustrating and reductive. and expectations placed upon them. lever, witty Margaery Tyrell With the end of Season 5, we step THE WARS TO COME and her formidable off the precipice of the books and So why, then, is it worth watching grandmother Olenna are into as-of-yet unwritten territory, the series if it approaches sexual wonderfully adept at working where book readers and television violence from such questionable a biased system to their viewers have no idea what fate befalls angles? What appeals to me most, Cadvantage.

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