Feminist Responses to ASoIaF

[owlmoose]

So I've been meaning to write my own big long post on this topic, but I'm holding off until I finish the first season of the HBO series (which, if my current schedule holds, should happen a week from today). Meanwhile, though, I've been busy mulling over Sady Doyle's recent takedown of the series in Tiger Beatdown. It's been frustrating to me, because I'm hard put to actually argue with much that she says there (except for some factual errors regarding who is claiming to be king of what), and yet the whole thing doesn't sit right with me, for reasons that I was unable to fully explain.

Fortunately, Alyssa Rosenberg of Think Progress does a really excellent job of explaining them for me. I don't agree totally with everything in the Think Progress critique, but there is a lot in here that helped me see why I found the Tiger Beatdown piece reductionist and disappointing. Definitely recommended.

As for my own thoughts... I'll come back with them next week. I hope.

Comments

[lowkey]

(I've only seen the HBO series, too, but I think I read that the series up-aged some of the younger characters, and Martin was fine with that, because in hindsight he realized he'd made some characters a little too young?)

[sarasa_cat]

A quick google search turn up this review: Game of Thrones: Sexual Politics. Daenerys was aged up to 16 for the mini-series. Interesting fact from the review is how the mini-series amped up the sex but banished the rape, leaving the violence mostly as a series of many beheadings.

That explains why, by the 6th episode, I started wondering when we'd get a scene that featured a character getting beheaded WHILE having sex. =D

Started reading the first book today at lunch.

[owlmoose]

Hey, you beat my answer with actual research? Not fair. ;)

It is true that there is somewhat less overt rape in the show. Although one major change from the books is that Daenerys and Drogo had consexual sex on their wedding night -- or anyway, as consensual as sex between a grown man and his 13-year old contracted bride is likely to be.

[sarasa_cat]

At lunch today I got just at the start of the wedding chapter although reading it will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow.

One thing that struck me is how much sexy naked boobilicious sexsexsex HBO has added to to the story. In retrospect, HBO's treatment created a very different tone to the story by finding every excuse possible to have a half naked person (usually female) walk past the camera.