I don’t have a problem with the sex in Game of Thrones, I just find it……oh, you know, really? I guess my real problem with it is not that it’s in the show, it is what it is I suppose, but that it’s just so predictable. Bloodthirsty gang of killers hold up in an ale house and, along with not paying for said ale, plan to ravish the tavern keepers daughters, who fortunately for them are all nubile teenagers who clearly had the choice between working as a tavern slattern, or a career as Miss Teen America. Gosh, isn’t it lucky that none of them are dog ugly, or they’d have had to ravish them, wouldn’t they, and that wouldn’t be nearly so photogenic?
Then of course there’s the almost obligatory brothel scene where again, a line up of slender eighteen year olds get to go naked, but it’s ok because there’s another woman being as unpleasant as the men, only she’s not in a position of power either, she’d another, superannuated mistress who is performing for the will of her royal lover - oh well, better luck next time.
But there are strong women, the cry goes up - yes, some of them have to get married when they don’t want to, or have their hearts broken by Jon Snow,or moon after the one who had his hand cut off and act as the butt of jokes about how big she is, because, goodness, every other woman there isn’t - oh, and what about the one with the dragons, she’s pretty cool, right? Yes, the one who was sold into marriage by her brother and just happens to have some dragons, without which she’d have no power, and who half the time is mooning after all the various men who are vying for her attention - and isn’t it lucky she’s impossibly beautiful, because otherwise she’d not have been able to command nearly as much male attention as she has, now would she?
Alright, you spoil sport, this is just how it would be, how it was throughout the history of the human race - it’s always been like that and GOT is just being true to life.
But that’s why it annoys me.
Because, and I hate to break this to you, but GOT is a fantasy. That means it’s not actually confined by anything other than the limits of the imagination of the writer. In a fantasy book, you can do what you like, you can gift people with powers they wouldn’t have in the real world, you can re-adjust relationships and traditions - and this just has not happened. Goodness me, even the accent Greeks could conceive of a race of warrior women, even if they were basically terrified of them - but, you know this world of GOT could be a bit different because, well, it could be. What if only women could inherit the throne, as their blood line is the only one that could be guaranteed? What if the society practiced polyandry, like they do in Tibet? What if woman had rights and respect and a different set of outlooks than wife or slave or whore, or had a jobs, or were skilled crafts people, or scholars, you know, like they have been throughout history?
And yes, I’ll keep watching it I expect, not that I can remember who everyone is and who they’re related to, because after a while one nubile girl being made to get her tits out kind of looks like another, but it will still niggle at me that this is, in my less than humble opinion, a bit of a waste and actually, could have been a lot more interesting. Thank God for Diana Rig.
