George R.R. Martin is creepy.
There! I said it! In days of yore, before the Striding Elves sailed West to Sygmagfhdflkglll, and giants did waylay travelers throwing stones carved from the mighty Tghfarghfr Mountains, and yon Good Queen Sady had not yet been assailed in that great war known as the Rage of Nerds, led by those black-hearted, dishonorable brigands known as the Knights of Rowling, joined later by those who would overthrow the land of Tiger Beatdown itself in the name of the Nameless King called Who — I will NEVER! READ! TIGER BEATDOWN! AGAINNN!!!! rang their rallying cry, feared of all who stood at the Gate of Twitter @ Replies — I maybe would have tried to downplay this conclusion a little.
But, nope! Today is a different day, my friends. Because here’s how it goes, when you criticize beloved nerd entertainments: You can try to be nuanced. You can try to be thoughtful. You can lay out your arguments in careful, extravagant, obsessive detail. And at the end of the day, here is what the people in the “fandom” are going to take away: You don’t like my toys? I hate you!
So, get it out of your system now, because, guess what, George R.R. Martin fans? I don’t like your toys. Deal with that. Meditate for a while. Envision a blazing bonfire in a temple, and breathe in its warmth and serenity. Then, imagine me dumping all your comic books and action figures and first-edition hardback Song of Ice and Fire novels INTO the bonfire, and cackling wildly. Because the fact of the matter is, in my ever-masochistic quest to be hip with what is happening in pop culture these days, I read the first four novels in the series. And my conclusions were: Dear God, George R.R. Martin is creepy. Quite possibly the creepiest author I’ve read in QUITE SOME TIME.
I could get into the reasons why, here. I could try to construct some kind of nuanced argument for you. I could talk about how the impulse to revisit an airbrushed, dragon-infested Medieval Europe strikes me as fundamentally conservative — a yearning for a time when (white) men brandished swords for their King, (white) women stayed in the castle and made babies, marriage was a beautiful sacrament between a consenting adult and whichever fourteen-year-old girl he could manage to buy off her Dad, and poor people and people of color were mostly invisible — or how racism and sexism have been built into the genre ever since Tolkien. I could acknowledge the plotty, cliffhangery aspects of Martin’s writing as a selling point: So-and-so was dead! But now he’s alive! But now he’s dying! But now he’s a zombie! But now he’s the Prince of Sblarghlhaar, because he was IN DISGUISE! I could try to look at the positives, before I get to the criticism. But you know what? I’m still going to criticize the books. And if these are your toys, you’re going to be mad no matter what, because criticism of your favorite things exists. On the INTERNET, no less! SCANDAL!
So why don’t we just cut to the chase, here? George R. R. Martin is creepy. He is creepy because he writes racist shit. He is creepy because he writes sexist shit. He is creepy, primarily, because of his TWENTY THOUSAND MILLION GRATUITOUS RAPE AND/OR MOLESTATION AND/OR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SCENES. And I could write a post about those, to be sure. But you know what would be easier? I could just count them. One by one by one.
And, if you’ve gotten this far? Spoilers.
1. A Game of Thrones, or, The One That Got Turned Into A TV Show
Major Female Characters: CATELYN STARK, The Hero’s Wife; SANSA STARK, The Hero’s Prissy Daughter; ARYA STARK, The Hero’s Tomboy Daughter; CERSEI LANNISTER, The Evil Queen Who’s Fucking Her Brother; DAENERYS TARGARYEN, The Blondest Girl In The World
PLOT SUMMARY: Everything was going fine for Ned Stark, until he got promoted to be Vice President of Westeros, and his son Bran got pushed out a window. Turns out, Bran was peeping on the Queen’s royal fuck times. They were with her brother, gross! Bran is now in a Soap Opera Coma. Regardless, Ned and his daughters have to move to the capital of Westeros, where there is a dark fuck-times-related mystery which he must investigate. Intrigue ensues. Meanwhile, Bran awakes from his Soap Opera Coma. He has Soap Opera Amnesia! And is paralyzed! How will he ever tell anyone about the queen’s fuck times now? Ned is still with the intrigue. After approximately 700 pages of intriguing, Ned solves the mystery. Turns out, the queen was having royal fuck-times with her brother. Which we found out 700 pages ago. But still! Ned is shocked at this illicit use of royal fuck times! He is going to expose this corruption! Ned promptly gets his head chopped off. Meanwhile, in an apparently unrelated plotline, The Blondest Girl In The World hatches some dragons.
FEMALE CHARACTER SCORE CARD:
Meet Catelyn! She’s a dutiful, obedient wife and mother. Also, her husband is the hero. She will, therefore, be a sympathetic figure. Catelyn’s an all-around swell gal, and seems pretty sharp and competent, too, except when she is (a) getting all hysterical and non-functional because HER CHILDREN, (b) stupidly kidnapping members of the royal family on a whim because HER CHILDREN, and (c) being a total bitchface to Ned’s illegitimate son because he is not HER CHILDREN. Remember, kids: Women are meant to be wives and mothers. Also, they are meant to be kept away from sharp objects and heavy machinery at all times. Because they are always thinking with their baby-makers! Oy!
Meet Sansa! She’s 13. She likes gossip and parties and pretty dresses and handsome boys. We are meant to believe that, for these reasons, Sansa completely sucks and deserves everything that’s coming to her. Which is unfortunate, because what’s coming to her is inadvertently betraying her entire family for her crush Prince Joffrey and/or learning in the final pages of the book that Joffrey enjoys beating girls up and threatening them with rape. Sansa’s entire plot, from this point forward, will consist of an ongoing competition to molest Sansa, in which every male character in her immediate vicinity will participate. Ha ha, serves you right for being such a girl, Sansa!
Meet Arya! She’s 9. Arya is not girly. She likes her Dad and swords and wolves and rough-housing. For these reasons, she does not suck as much as Sansa, because girly things suck and we hate them, right? Nothing sexist there, for sure! Arya trains to be a sword-fighting ninja. She’s going to be fine.
Meet Cersei! Cersei is fucking her brother. She also hates her husband, King Robert, and won’t ever give him the good sex. Sooner or later, she schemes to kill him and/or Ned. Oh, coincidentally? King Robert beats Cersei up. One slap that we see, a long history of beatings disclosed by Cersei. Never mind, though. She won’t give him the good sex. Also, she talks sometimes. Totally worth a slapping.
Meet Daenerys! Oh, brother. Here is my problem: I really want to like Daenerys. She’s molested by her brother; she’s sold, at 13, into “marriage” with a grown man; she emerges from all this as a hardcore warlord, and one of her first actions is to ban rape, and I really want to like that particular story. And yet, there are these two leeeetle problems. Problem One: CREEPY PEDO SHIT. Despite being effing terrified of her grown-assed adult husband, we’re led to believe that Daenerys really gets off on being fucked by the guy. At least, at first. Subsequently, he maybe rapes her a little. But then they fall in love, so that’s fine. Again: DAENERYS IS 13 YEARS OLD. We are treated to several graphic, eroticized scenes of a 13-year-old child “having sex” with and “falling in love” with a grown man. In other words: Creepy pedo shit. But even if you got rid of that, you would still have to deal with Problem Two: BLATANT MOTHERFUCKING RACISM. Daenerys, you see, has been exiled to “the East,” where everyone has “bronze skin” and “almond eyes” and is “savage.” Her husband, Drogo, is pretty much modeled on Genghis Khan. The Easterners’ religion is mystical and magical and barbaric, the way religions from “the East” tend to be when white people make them up, and at their weddings, they engage in “savage dances” and public gang rapes. When they win a battle? ALSO public gang rapes, surprisingly. The savage mystical barbarous brown Eastern people: Always gang-raping! And Dany, as The White Lady In These Scenes, has to educate them that rape is wrong. So when your Daenerys scenes are NOT composed of Creepy Pedo Shit, they are comprised of Enlightened White Savior Shit and/or How Will I Ever Communicate With These Superstitious Natives Shit and/or After Our White Women Shit. What I’m saying is, I want to like Daenerys. But her scenes? They are shit. They are shit. They are shit some more. And then there are dragons.
2. A Clash of Kings, or, The One That Was Really Boring
MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS: CATELYN STARK, The Hero’s Mother; SANSA STARK, The About-To-Be-Molested; ARYA STARK, Sword-Fighting Ninja Runaway; CERSEI LANNISTER, The Evil Queen Who Fucked Her Brother; BRIENNE, Ser Restrictive-Beauty-Standards; DAENERYS TARGARYEN, The Chosen Blonde.
PLOT SUMMARY: What’s more interesting than medieval battle tactics? If you answered “LITERALLY EVERYTHING,” you’re going to hate A Clash of Kings. So, anyway, it turns out that Recently Headless Ned had a variety of sons who did not get pushed out of windows. One of them is Robb, and he wants to be King of Mystical Dragon Land! But Cersei has a son, Joffrey. He is the current King of Mystical Dragon Land! So Robb has to overthrow Joffrey, but also, Dead King Robert had brothers, who have figured out that Cersei’s babies were caused by illicit, brother-in-law fuck-times. And you’re not going to believe this, but Brother One (Renly) and Brother Two (Stannis) BOTH want to be King of Mystical Dragon Land! Then there’s Daenerys. She, too, wants to be Queen of Mystical Dragon Land, but is currently side-tracked, what with her being worshiped by various non-white populations. And yet! Robb had a foster-brother, Theon, who comes from a disgraced house of Viking equivalents. Theon is convinced that Viking equivalents should be the Kings of Mystical Dragon Land! Who will emerge victorious as the One True King of Mystical Dragon Land? I sure hope you didn’t want an answer to that, because it turns out there are like five more books in this series. Meanwhile, in an apparently unrelated plotline, Headless Ned’s other son Jon is fighting zombies.
FEMALE CHARACTER SCORE CARD:
Catelyn is a dutiful mother to Robb. Since she mostly focuses on attaining a man’s goals for him, rather than assuming leadership or decision-making power for herself, she remains competent and non-hysterical.
Arya is being taken away to safety by the Night’s Watch. It doesn’t work out. She gets kidnapped! She escapes! She runs away! She gets kidnapped! She escapes! She runs away! There’s an interlude of particularly gratuitous rape-threatening. Then she gets kidnapped! WILL SHE ESCAPE? Yes! Other likely events include: Running away! You guys, Arya will be fine.
Cersei: Still evil, not currently being beaten by her husband.
Daenerys is still in “the East.” Refreshingly, we learn that there is more than one skin tone in “the East,” and in Mystical Dragon Land; somewhat less refreshingly, we learn that everyone in the East is still very mystical and decadent and barbaric and Orientalist-stereotypey, and they are still cultural Others, and they all have racialized/Other-ized names like “Pyat,” “Xaro Xhoan,” and “Jhogo,” as opposed to Dragon Land names like “Ned,” “Catelyn,” and “Jon.” Also, the Other-ized Easterners seem kind of unsettlingly eager to worship the little blonde foreigner. So, there’s that.
Meet Brienne! She’s ugly. So, so ugly. If you saw her, what you would think would be: “She’s ugly.” Catelyn feels super-sorry for her, because of how ugly she is. Very, is how ugly she is. Also? She’s the only female knight that we’ve met thus far. Because female competence can only evolve in the absence of sexiness, or if you are a nine-year-old girl. Did you know that most of the women in the Fortune 500 are in fifth grade? Well, that is because I just made that up! Go with it. Anyway, Brienne is a knight because she has a crush on Renly, and this was the only way to get close to him, because he’s hot, and she is, as previously stated, an uggo. Also, Renly’s gay. And recently dead. Really, this relationship is doomed on any number of fronts. Meanwhile,
Who’s Molesting Sansa Stark? Thus far, the leading contender would appear to be Prince Joffrey, who has his men beat her up, strip her naked in front of him, and then beat her up some more for his amusement. Strong showing from bodyguard Sandor Clegane, however, who climbs into her room and plans to rape her! He changes his mind, however, thus yielding the field to Joffrey once more.
3. A Storm of Swords, or, The One Where Everyone Is Dead
Major Female Characters: CATELYN STARK, The Hero’s Mother; SANSA STARK, The Perpetually-About-To-Be-Molested; ARYA STARK, The Frequently Kidnapped; CERSEI LANNISTER, The Queen Who Used To Fuck Her Brother; BRIENNE, Ser Self-Destructive-Dating-Patterns; DAENERYS TARGARYEN, Hail The Conquering Whitey.
PLOT SUMMARY: Oh, man. This thing is 1,500 pages long, so take a deep breath. When last we visited Mystical Dragon Land, there were approximately 900 candidates for King. You know what that means? Yup. Time to die, everyone! Renly? Dead. Theon? Apparently dead. Robb? He’s doing fine, except for the fact that he pissed off that old dude whose daughter he was supposed to marry, but that’s a fairly minor slip-up and I’m sure it won’t… oh, shit, that old dude killed him! Robb is dead!!! Catelyn is dead! SO MANY PEOPLE ARE DEAD! Anyway, that leaves Daenerys, Stannis and Joffrey, and since Stannis’s forces are decimated and Daenerys is currently busy conquering every single Eastern civilization she can get her hands on, I guess Joffrey is the undisputed King of Mystical Dragon La… oh, shit! Joffrey’s been poisoned! Joffrey is dead! But we all know that the power behind the throne is Cersei’s dad Tywin, so this shouldn’t disrupt… OH MY GOD CERSEI’S DAD IS DEAD??? I guess that means… whoa, that means Cersei is in charge of everything! Woo-hoo! I’m sure we won’t be given any unfortunate, sexist lessons on the evils of irrational/slutty/catty/bitchy female leadership. Especially now that Catelyn has emerged… as a vengeful zombie!!! Meanwhile, in an apparently unrelated plotline: The 9,000 other characters in this book.
FEMALE CHARACTER SCORE CARD:
Catelyn, unfortunately, attempts to do something in this book: Setting the Queen’s captive brother/boyfriend Jaime free, under Brienne’s guard, in exchange for HER CHILDREN (subset: Sansa and Arya). Like all independent Catelyn operations, it immediately backfires. Later, she gets hysterical and rips her own face off because of HER CHILDREN (subset: Robb), tries to avenge HER CHILDREN (subset: Robb), and dies. Sorry, Catelyn! You know bad things happen when you try to do stuff! Try to be more careful next time. Because there will be a next time. Because you are now a zombie.
Arya is still getting kidnapped. And escaping. And running away. And getting kidnapped. And escaping. And… you know what? Arya’s going to be fine. Let’s not check in with her again unless something changes.
Brienne gets her own plot line. Or, rather, JAIME, the queen’s brother-boyfriend, gets a plot line with Brienne in it. In this plot line, we learn that Jaime — recently seen pushing a seven-year-old child out of a window — is really a good guy, at heart! He’s just in really, really into having consensual royal fuck-times with his sister! That’s not so creepy, right? Yeah, no, it’s creepy. Anyway, we learn that Brienne is valorous, honorable, and pure of heart. We also learn that George R. R. Martin’s favorite thing to do with Brienne is to surround her with guys who attempt to gang rape her, at which point, she requires rescue. By Jaime. The guy who pushes kids out windows. On whom she now has a crush. Yeah, I KNOW.
Cersei is evil, eeeeeevil. How do we know she’s evil? She’s consensually fucking more than one dude, OBVS. Also, she’s saying things like “that time you betrothed me to a guy when I was a kid, and then I had to sleep with him even though I didn’t want to? That was basically rape” and “there’s no reason I shouldn’t be allowed to exercise power just because I’m a woman” and “nobody has any problems if a DUDE sleeps around, but when I do it it’s somehow the most damning evidence against my character” and “given the patriarchal slant of our society, sometimes I wish I was a guy!” So, just to be clear: The only female character who consistently levies an institutional critique of sexism in these books? Evil. Eeeeeevilllllllll! You surprised?
Daenerys: Oh, here we fucking go. Daenerys, you see, has discovered that the mystical, barbaric cities of the Orient have one particularly barbaric custom of which she disapproves heartily. That custom? Is slavery. And so, Daenerys must save these other cultures from themselves, by going city to city and systematically destroying them, imposing her own standards upon them all. Here’s a problem, though: We, the European and/or American readers, also know slavery to be a bad thing. And here is how we know this: White people enslaved people of color. For generations. We brutalized people of color, we institutionalized the rape of people of color, we committed genocide against people of color, we devastated the cultures of people of color. And here is how we white people rationalized that: We told ourselves that these people of color were barbaric, that they were savages, that European standards should be universal, and that we were saving these people from themselves. So, for those keeping track: The rationale behind Daenerys’s campaign to abolish slavery? IS THE RATIONALE THAT CREATED SLAVERY. Daenerys: Mystic Dragon Land’s leading producer of UGH.
Who’s Molesting Sansa Stark? A very competitive round, here! Joffrey, the returning champion, is still in the lead here, until a stunning second-quarter turnaround, in which Sansa is force-married to Tyrion “Raging Dinklage” Lannister himself! Tyrion gets total boners thinking of Sansa, who is STILL 13 YEARS OLD, but refuses to actually rape her (what a guy), and Joffrey is cleared from the field with poison! My god! It’s anyone’s game now! Sansa escapes the castle, and… could it be that NO-ONE is going to molest Sansa this season? What an upset! Wait, no, who’s that I see… why, it’s Littlefinger, that wormy guy from the first book! After a brief fumble in which one of Littlefinger’s servants attempts to rape Sansa and nearly takes the goal, Littlefinger emerges as a clear winner, as he instructs Sansa that he intends to care for her as a father, and then totally Frenches her! Wow! A thrilling conclusion to a great game of Who’s Molesting Sansa Stark! Be sure to tune in next installment, for more long-running plots constructed entirely around child molestation.
4. A Feast for Crows, or, I’m Sorry I Forgot To Write The Next Installment Of My Book
MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS: BRIENNE, Ser Author’s-Excuse-For-Feminism; ARYA STARK, She’s Going To Be Fine; CERSEI LANNISTER, The Evil Queen Who Broke Up With Her Brother; SANSA STARK, The Still-Being-Molested-After-Four-Solid-Books; ARIANNE MARTELL, The Filler Content. Special Guest Appearance by ZOMBIE CATELYN.
PLOT SUMMARY: This is the book that got them mad. The one that dropped all the central plot threads, resolved none of the cliffhangers, and cut out all of the “important” characters and “fan favorites,” instead focusing on some side characters no-one really cares about. And here’s a startling revelation: The side characters no-one cares about? Were the women. Daenerys is gone, but otherwise, it’s the girls who got left over. And yes, they are boring as hell. Brienne is trying to find Sansa, which consists of wandering around asking people if they’ve seen Sansa. Arya has finally found refuge, and is training to be an assassin, which consists of wandering around in spooky caves. Sansa’s with Littlefinger. You know what’s going on with Littlefinger. The only real semblance of a plot consists of what’s going on with Cersei, who has claimed the throne for herself. Meanwhile, in an apparently unrelated plotline: The plotline. But no worries! The afterword says that the sequel will be out in a year! Wait! What’s that you say? This afterword was published… in 2004?
FEMALE CHARACTER SCORE CARD:
Brienne is wandering around all “have you seen Sansa?” No-one has. You know what they HAVE seen, though: An exciting opportunity to threaten Brienne with gang rape some more! So, that happens. As usual. Brienne fights them off and/or is rescued by the nearest male, until she is eventually captured and possibly killed by Zombie Catelyn. Catelyn is mad at Brienne for setting Jaime free and going off to look for Sansa and Arya. Which is… what Catelyn told her to do? Turns out, Zombie Catelyn is an even less effective strategist than Regular Catelyn. And you thought it couldn’t happen!
Arya is training to be an assassin. She’s going to be fine. She’s always fine. She’s…. oh, shit, they blinded her? Darn.
Who’s Molesting Sansa Stark? Littlefinger. Still. It’s gross, and Stockholm-Syndrome-y, and he keeps calling himself her father, and… oh, my God, can we please move on?
Arianne Martell is a princess of Dorne, where they believe in equal inheritance. Girls inheriting shit! Boys inheriting shit! Everybody’s inheriting, in the wacky land of Dorne! Arianne is sassy and strategic and sexy and other s-words, and she has a plan to place Cersei’s daughter on the throne and thereby run shit, which seems alarmingly non-sexist. Fortunately, this is A Song Of Ice and Fire, so she promptly fucks up, gets everybody on her side killed, and is imprisoned, at which point her father shows up to tell her he has a much smarter plan which she must now go along with. Women: Don’t come up with your own plans! Ever! Remember the sad example of Zombie Catelyn! Or, for that matter,
Cersei Lannister. Cersei is Queen. Cersei, as Queen, wants to run shit. But, guess what? It turns out that she’s just too slutty and irrational and bitchy and catty to do it right. Surprise! Cersei’s always fucking dudes, and being mean to dudes, and making decisions out of personal preference and emotion rather than logic, and refusing to bone her brother (which is now… bad? Look, it’s a complicated story), and it turns out she’s just really insecure because her seven-year-old son’s thirteen-year-old wife might be prettier than she is, and basically, what you need to know is, the woman who’s spent the past three books scheming her way into dominating an entire continent becomes an incompetent, screeching harpy the moment she actually exercises power. Women bosses. Am I right?
FINAL SCORES:
NOVELS READ: Four.
FEMALE CHARACTERS: As of Book 4, eight women have had chapters written from their point of view. Six of those women have had long-running, major plotlines. Those six female characters are Cersei Lannister, Catelyn Stark, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Brienne, and Daenerys Targaryen.
PERCENTAGE OF MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS ABUSED, RAPED, or THREATENED WITH SAME: “Abuse,” in this scenario, means “physical partner violence,” because if we had to count everyone with a dysfunctional family, the list would never end. So, as of Book 4, the major female characters who have been abused, raped, molested, or threatened with same are: Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Brienne, Arya Stark, and Sansa Stark. That is five out of six, or about 83%. The only major female character to go without a single rape, attempted rape, sexual assault or incident of partner violence? Catelyn Stark. Who, as you may recall, is dead. And a zombie.
BONUS POINTS — SYMPATHETIC RAPISTS AND WIFE-BEATERS: Sure, fine, this is a little startling. But those rapists and abusers are all villains, right? Joffrey, Littlefinger, Daenerys’s child-molester brother, etc; these are bad guys. Ah, but not so fast! King Robert, lovable but ineffectual ruler whose death kicks off the series, beats his wife. The Night’s Watch, an honorable band of brothers devoted to defending the world against zombies, is largely comprised of convicted rapists. The Dothraki are portrayed as an entire civilization of dedicated, enthusiastic rapists, because racism; Khal Drogo, Daenerys’ beloved husband, gives a speech about it. The Ironmen, Viking equivalents, are another entire civilization of gang-rapists. Victarion Greyjoy, a heroic old Ironman, beat his ex-wife to death for cheating. Sandor Clegane, who planned to rape Sansa, gets a late-stage character redemption. And then, we have Tyrion Lannister. Hero Tyrion Lannister. Fan favorite Tyrion Lannister. Author favorite Tyrion Lannister. Who has, to date, participated in the gang-rape of his first wife, gotten boners for his 13-year-old second wife, and strangled his favorite prostitute for bad behavior.
PERCENTAGE OF MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS WHO ARE LITERALLY CHILDREN: Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen; 50%.
PERCENTAGE OF FEMALE CHILDREN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED or THREATENED WITH SAME: Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Daenerys Targaryen; 100%. Arya is threatened with rape only once; Daenerys and Sansa are successfully molested by multiple characters. Daenerys falls in love with one of her molesters (Drogo) and Sansa gets a crush on one of hers (Sandor Clegane).
A NOTE ON ARRANGED MARRIAGE and CHILDREN: Yes, it’s true; in Ye Olde Medieval Europe, female tweens were oft wed to the grown-ups. A Song of Ice and Fire is known for being “gritty” and “authentic,” so really, aren’t I just objecting to the realism? Reader, here are the things that George R. R. Martin changed about Ye Olde Medieval Europe, when he set out to write A Song of Ice and Fire: Religion. Geography. History. Politics. Zombies. Werewolves. Dragons. At one point, when asked why his characters were taller, healthier, and longer-lived than actual Medieval people, George R. R. Martin explained that human genetics and biology do not work the same way in Westeros as they do in the real world. So George R. R. Martin considered that he could change all of that while maintaining “authenticity.” Here’s what he left in, however: Institutionalized pedophilia. So:
WHERE WILL YOU END UP IN MYSTICAL DRAGON LAND? If you are an unmarried woman, it is 100% certain that you will be raped or experience attempted rape (4/6: Arya, Sansa, Daenerys, Brienne). If you are married or engaged, there is a 75% chance that your husband or fiancee will beat or sexually assault you (3/4: Sansa, Cersei, Daenerys). If you are an adult woman who exercises authority, you will be killed (Catelyn) or imprisoned (Cersei), because your attempts to exercise said power will backfire (Catelyn, Cersei). If you are a child who exercises authority, you will not be killed or imprisoned, and will be seen as competent (Daenerys). It helps if your subjects are cultural Others, in which case your superiority is assumed (Daenerys). As with all female children, however, you will be sexually assaulted (Arya, Sansa, Daenerys). If you have a traditionally male role, with traditionally male skills, you will merely be threatened with rape (Brienne, Arya); if you are traditionally feminine, or occupy a traditionally feminine role, attempts to sexually assault or beat you will be successful (Sansa, Cersei, Daenerys). If you are the rare character who is an adult, occupies a position of authority, exercises power, and has not been sexually assaulted or beaten by her partner (Catelyn), don’t worry: You’re not getting out of this story alive.
VERDICT: George R.R. Martin is creepy.
YOU: Can be as mad about that as you want. It will still be true.
25 Comments
Kiturak – That point wasn’t about GRRM in particular. It was that I’d spent a lot of time saying that Robert wasn’t sympathetic, without making it clear that I didn’t agree with the underlying premise that portraying sympathetic abusers is necessarily problematic. I think he could act as an effective undercut for some readers – as the more you learn about him the less awesome he is – but I think the character is pretty open to different readings (hence my objection that he’s supposed to be sympathetic). Although I do think the point of showing sympathetic abusers is not just about subverting their ‘niceness’ – there are heaps more complex and important messages that (I’m thinking Half Nelson as an example).
“GRRM punishes/rewards characters through his narrative, and that is what shows in the fan reaction.”
As I’ve said earlier – I don’t agree with that interpretation of the book. I don’t think the worldview of the book is that people get what they deserve. As I said fundamental to my worldview is to reject any idea that people get what they deserve – so if there’s an alternative way of reading media I will understand it that way. But in this case I think it’s hard to support textually. At the end of the 5th book the person who is doing best is Littlefinger. Characters who act in a moral way, and characters who act in an immoral way (whatever definition you use of those concepts) have had suffering and death rain down.
Love, love, love your critical SNARK and your awesome insight in replying to comments! I’ve read all the books except the last, and I’ve always been too bothered by them overall to purchase them. And now I can do a better job of articulating why. 🙂
I think what a few people are missing is that we LIVE in a world that is racist and sexist. We all like to think that we aren’t….
I’m a woman myself **not that it should matter**, and I’m not a fan of rape, murder, and injustice. The most fantastical aspects of the books lie within the creatures and sorcery. As for sexism, well, it isn’t only the men that subdue women. Cersei tries to be powerful, but she destroys herself because she has such insecurity and paranoia. She is out of her element because it is “crazy” for a woman to have power. She ruins herself in her lust for power. Theon did the same thing to himself.
Secondly, even in our society- there are women that look down-(and keep down)women that take on untraditional roles.
Last, as far as gratuitous sex and violence… I think the books are waaaaaaay more realistic in they address how evil people and circumstances can be. Watch a few documentaries about Katrina or Iraq or better yet- read a history book about The Crusades.. you don’t see the petty looting or violent murders that DO occur during tumultuous times on Cable News or the Times. “Night” is the only book I have come across that touches on portraying the horrors of a concentration camp.
What I find completely “realistic” is nobody (so far) has won a “golden ticket.” It has been up and down (in varying degrees) for every single character. Furthermore, (so far) I cannot name a truly “good-not-evil” person. Also, some characters I thought were complete jerkfaces- I have come to love like crazy (Jaime, Melisandre, Stannis) and the opposite is true. It seems to me to be a story about the “ice” and “fire”, the “opposites” that make up a human being.
Anyways, while I don’t agree with some of the author’s and everyone’s comments- I think this is a great discussion, and I’m pleased to have read and examined every nuance of this series to the point where it makes me think about such important issues.
When a friend convinced me to start reading ASoIaF, my first subsequent question to her was “George RR Martin: obsessed with sex, or obsessed with freaky sex?” This was early on, before the rape started getting piled on with a shovel.
Despite that, I have read all the previous books, and am partway into ADWD. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to care what happens to most of the POV characters, and after reading this I think I’ve got a better understanding of why. Yay Sady!
The plot twists and all stopped surprising me a long time ago, when I realised that GRRM was actually more formulaic than most of the fantasy I’ve read – to design his plot twists, he takes whatever people would expect to happen and then does the opposite. Every time. Kill the obvious protagonist, have the underdog get trapped, have the noble champion lose their trial by combat, et frakking cetera. All to distract from the rules he won’t break (the universe will bend over backwards to make sure Tyrion, Jon, and Dany survive). Part of me thinks he’s just piling on more rape in the hopes that it will still surprise readers.
154: I don’t think there was any racial implication in Small Gods.
I would tend to think not; weren’t the Omnians and the Ephebians close-ish neighbours essentially the same ‘race’?
161: Besides the racism and sexism and pedophilia, I’m surprised no one has mentioned another way GRRM is creepy: food.
Wait, really? ‘Not only does he integrate so much bigotry and abuse into his novels that it becomes incredibly difficult to believe he’s not totally in favour of some of it, but also he really likes food’? One of these things is not like the other.
Excellent criticism. There’s a very weak attempted rebuttal up over at ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/08/29/305723/feminist-media-criticism-george-r-r-martins-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-and-that-sady-doyle-piece/
It is painful to read, but it had the side effect of pointing me here, so I’ll give it credit for that much.
I am a dudely white dude who often finds himself whiningly defending male “privilege” (note the ocndescending scare quotes) on the Internet, all in the name of Feminism, of course. I am good at justifying adherence to sexist genre conventions for various reasons. I often get my panties in a twist (note the misogyny) over what I see as counterproductive or unfair feminist critique of pop culture. But in this case, I couldn’t agree with you more. Martin, and Tolkeinesque fantasy literature generally, are overdue for this kind of drubbing.
One observation re: the critique of racism, which is actually what I found most disturbing about Martin’s work (I didn’t read the books, just saw the HBO show and read some horrifying interviews with the author). While Tolkein’s work was certainly racist and sexist, I think it’s inaccurate to locate the genesis of “fantasy” literature’s race and sex problems with him (viz.,”racism and sexism have been built into the genre ever since Tolkien”). Look back another 20 years in the genre at the pulps, and you’ll find racism and sexism of an entirely different calibre: savage African cannibals with bones through their noses and grateful half-naked sex-slaves were pretty much the bread and butter of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and the rest of their cohort.
None of which is to say that I don’t enjoy reading pulp novels or even watching HBO’s trashy TV series. I just feel dirty while doing it.
I liked long involved books, but The Game of Thrones was one that I never got into. I found it boring and repulsive and decided I didn’t want to let my mind spend much time in that particular fantasy world.
I have to take issue with the idea that “that’s just how things were for women in medieval times.”
Funny, when I think of medieval times, particularly in England, I think of the great matriarchs who were the most dominant political players of the time. The first one who came to mind was Cecily Neville, the wife of Edward III and the mother of Edward IV and Richard III.
Women and children had a protected place in the medieval world, particularly upper class women. Cecily Neville ran many defenses in her day, accompanied by her minor children and grandchildren. They were sometimes imprisoned, but never harmed, and always given safe passage elsewhere.
Widows in the time had excellent inheritance rights, and with war being the major occupation of men, there were a lot of widows. Widows ran businesses, and were often the strategists behind war campaigns. A seasoned 70-year-old grandmother knew an awful lot more about war than the teenaged grandson who was the eldest male in the family.
Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine? Who was Margaret of Anjou?
Abbesses and mystics also could wield a lot of power in the Middle Ages. Hilda of Whidby, Hildegard of Bingen, Heloise d’Argenteuil, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, etc.
There were quite a few reigning women: Isabella of Spain, Eleanor of Aquitaine (again), Joan of Navarre, Queen Matilda, Isabelle of Angouleme, Catherine of Valois, Melisende of Jerusalem, etc, etc.
It doesn’t take a lot of looking to find these names, either. If you read any medieval history at all, you stumble over the names of powerful women, interesting women, women with ideas.
Sure there was some forced marriage. There was rape. There was an awful lot of economic exploitation. But the lot of women was no more monochromatic then than it is now.
@Heather
Well, I think usually the response is that SOIAF also contains many female characters in positions of power, though not so many POV characters. (I hope that Sansa and Arya’s stories will eventually lead both to being strong characters with significant influence on the turn of events. We’ll see!)
But, there are issues there too. Sady pointed out how some of the strong female characters are strong by acting “like men”, which was interesting.
It’s a little bothersome that two of the strongest female characters, Cersei and Melisandre, are mentally unstable and/or self-delusional. (Cersei both, Melisandre the latter.) But, there it is. You don’t really see a lot of them until after GoT, though.
Overall reading the comments, it seems that the “this is realistic medievalness” defense just doesn’t hold up. Which means that ASOIAF should probably be read more as a kind of epic horror novel in a medievalesque setting. Which would make sense, since Martin wrote horror at one point.
So, the realism defense is out. The depiction and frequency of rape then needs to be defended on literary/artistic merits, not because of faux-realism, I guess?
@Picador, I dunno, I liked that response. It’s how I found my way here too. I think there are valid points raised. Not sure what’s painful about it, except that you don’t agree… Though I do think that it’s responding very much to the tone of the original post, esp. at the beginning, which seemed to be anti-nerd and anti-fantasy etc. (Regardless of whether the post was or wasn’t, that’s what was being responded too, in part.)
Hmm. I wall of texted 🙁 Hopefully I’m making sense, heh… just trying to engage with the discussion in order to understand it better!
Thanks, Sady. I am a very big fan of the books, but you have at least convinced me that many of Martin’s depictions of female sexuality are probably misguided and “sexist.” I certainly suspect that some of Martin’s audience may be getting off on scenes where they shouldn’t…for example, the desire by many women and cultures to be forcibly seduced (the Ironborn (Asha), Dothraki, and the wildlings come to mind). There are probably a lot of people (especially adolescent boys and young men) in the geek fanbase who fantasize about having that type of sex, and the pervasiveness of it in Martin’s books possibly reinforces their appetites, and may even convince some less-enlightened readers that forcing a woman to have sex is ok if the woman eventually gives in and enjoys it.
Nevertheless, I think it is a dangerous habit to begin labeling authors and other artists “creepy” because you think they have depicted something repulsive in too forgiving a light, or in a one-dimensional or ignorant manner. Artists often “miss the mark” on what they are attempting to do, and it is simply impossible to depict a harsh and complex world, as Martin has done here, without certain failures. On another level, it is simply not important what Martin himself thinks, as I believe that a work of art should be interpreted on an objective level, regardless of the author’s intentions. (If Shakespeare intended Hamlet to be a comedy, would that make it any less a masterpiece of tragedy?).
Art has the potential to influence, especially when it is attempting to promote or address certain ideas. But often, art is just meant to entertain. I don’t think that Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is meant to be a thought-experiment on human nature, nor do I believe the author condones all of the actions that take place in his story. This is fiction, and you may find its portrayal of human nature unrealistic or disgusting…I can even understand why. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is work of fiction that is set in a fantastic world. Many people enjoy these books simply because they are fun to read. I know I do.
And to think I almost bought the box set! As always, hilarious writing Sady.
SINCE THIS IS STILL GOING ON: Yes, your comment could get deleted. We’ve deleted what feels like about half the comments on this thread.
Comments in support of this post have been deleted. For example, if you write that George R. R. Martin is probably a rapist, or if you write that he is so misogynist he is “practically Muslim,” we delete you for (a) accusing a stranger of a crime, or (b) blatant motherfucking bigotry.
Disagreements have been published in the comment section. It’s true. The only way to miss this is to miss the entire conversation because you are in love with the sound of your own voice. We don’t love your voice as much as you do, so there’s no guarantee you’ll get published here.
Comments that are irrelevant are deleted. Sorry. You show up to call names and rail at people, you’re out. Also, if you show up and write a comment that is basically, “I like this series of books,” with no engagement with the post or subsequent discussion, you get deleted. Comments wherein you complain about being deleted always get deleted. Nobody made you come over to this post, nobody made you comment on the post, and nobody told you that you were going to get your very important thoughts about how some stranger is a bitch/cunt/”rape-envying”/skank/Nazi/Communist/whatever published on some stranger’s blog in the first place, so your entitlement and subsequent irrelevant comments about your own comments are not something we have to spend time considering. This is not the All About You show. So calm the fuck down, and, if you don’t want to engage reasonably, leave. It’s a simple thing to do.
Whilst we’re on the topic, can I point that Martin is also one of those neo-liberal capo bastards that insists on writing massive door-stoppers that just suck the money of consumers’ pockets??
In others words, completely lacks the sort “Aristotelian” economy that true might be argued ought to have.
There ARE alternatives however.
Eg. Jack Vance, Andre Norton and Ursula LeGuin were all capable of economy, in both the material and artistic senses of the word.
correction to above:
2nd sentence should have read:
“In others words, completely lacks the sort “Aristotelian” economy that true ART might be argued ought to have.”
Every time someone writes a really intelligent critique of BLATANT, EROTICIZED MISOGYNY in a book/show/movie, somebody always has to pipe up with “Well, how do you know the author didn’t intend his WORK OF ART to be a critique of aforementioned misogyny? Just because the ‘critique’ is so subtle as to be imperceptible. you think it doesn’t exist!”
THAT’S BECAUSE THE AUTHOR IS BLATANTLY EROTICIZING MISOGYNY, NOW STFU FOREVER.
Honestly, I appreciated ASOFI for being different and portraying a world that was quite different than what you expect from your average fantasy setting. Don’t get me wrong, I like those too but I thought it was cool of Martin to break the mold and actually try to make something that in some way resembled real life while adding fictional elements to it that gave its own flavor. I don’t think its nesscarily bad when scfi/fantasy authors puts elements of the real world into a fictional setting, on the contrary I find that it can make it more relatable than your tolkienesk fantasy world. As for the descriptions of rape I don’t actually remember there being too much of them; a lot of sex yes but for instance the 100 men raping that one woman that someone brought up earlier I do not remember. Maybe thats because I find George Martin’s world kinda of tame compared to some of the other dark fantasies out there (I am reading Beserk, Japan’s longest adult manga series out there which is loosely based off Medivial Europe and it pretty much puts Martin’s world to shame)Futhermore, I like how Martin gives his characters nuances, very few of them are actually “evil” rather he goes out his way to show they are flawed human beings like most of us are who are entrusted with positions of power/or have no power and how this effects who they are. If people don’t like the series for the reasons listed above than I respect that despite the fact I disagree with some of the interpretations listed here. For those of you who do like Martin’s series has anyone read Malazan Book of the Fallen? It’s along similiar lines but in some cases is very different and i think is ultimately more complex than Martin’s world and possibly more diverse as it takes place over a number of contienents. anyways ive said my peace.
Somebody had to say it. Thank you for doing so.
DEAR GOD I can’t believe I read all those comments….
…but actually I am quite glad I did. I read 2.5 books of the series six years ago and enjoyed them. I found most of the female characters to be strong within a misogynistic world. But that was six years ago, and somehow, I don’t think I would be able to handle it now. I particularly liked what you said in #68, Sady, about the total lack of non-rape-filled storylines for women. That definitely qualifies as Not Okay.
In a stunning display of the “Fuck it, I like it” rule, I generally enjoyed the HBO series, despite the excruciatingly terrible constant sex scenes, the transformation of one of the book’s few consensual sex scenes into a rape scene, and the extravagant racism. Which, I had hoped since the Dothraki all, like, died horribly or abandoned the Really Blonde White Chick or whatever, maybe there would be less racism later because there were just no people of color to be barbaric and simplistic and terribly written? Or maybe Dany would be a saviory-ass white person and lead the Dothraki to a glorious victory over Westeros or something. But apparently it all actually gets WORSE? I do not trust GRRM to write about colonialism!
Also thank you, Sady, for leveling criticism without going, “Ah, you NERDS and your awful NERD SHIT!” like that terrible NY Times review of Game of Thrones a few months back. Incidentally, if anyone is interested in some great nerdy stuff that is cool and smart and fun and not totally objectionable from a feminist perspective, that is why we have people like Tamora Pierce, Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes, Octavia Butler, and Kristin Cashore!
So: I must ask: Is it in any way shape or form okay to show violence/sexual violence towards women? I mean in George’s work men do not fare better than the women. Granted they have a place of power but that does not help them they suffer as much as the women. The world he depicts is very cruel to everyone. But let that not distract from the Question: When is it okay to show sexual violence towards women? Because it seems it is not at all okay to do so at least thats what I gathered from your post. And I find that line of thinking ludicrous. I think you are trying to cloud your distaste into an ideological veil and try to present us with the following: sexual violence is a grave offense and depicting it is anti-feminism because it is bad. And I find that line of thinking to be lacking any real explanation.
@Doppel: That’s ridiculous. “Mad Men” has shown sexual violence against women, and has (with one notable exception, which I had problems with) not eroticized or glamorized it. “Room,” by Emma Donoghue, is largely about a woman who is kidnapped and raped. It’s a good book, which I just read. “Battlestar Galactica,” another TV show, shows that sexual violence can be used as a form of torture and warfare, and does this in a way that puts a lot of focus on the agency and psychological process of the people who are raped. Just because I have problems with Martin’s cartoonish, gratuitous use of the event does not mean that the event cannot be used in fiction. All I require is that the female characters aren’t fridged, that it’s not sensationalized, that it places a significant amount of emphasis on the women and their psychological processes, and that they’re shown dealing with it in a realistic manner. Just because I think these books are bad art, and have bad politics, does not mean that your strawman arguments can be used to dismiss that.
I thought your argument was valid and well made. I absolutely adore ASoIaF, but the lack of strong female characters is something a struggled with for a while. Over time, however, I grew to see the strong female supporting characters that Martin sneaks in. If you care to look there are many competent and strong females in a variety of places: the Mormont women of Bear Island, the Queen of Thorns, the Sand Snakes, the Spear Wives, Melisandre, the Dosh Kahleen, and Chataya.
All of these women are very strong. They may be the exceptions to the rule, but they have found places for themselves in a man’s world and earned respect because of it. They are not main characters because Martin thrives on creating misery for his main characters. For female character, rape and assault is a part of that misery. You may notice that no PoV character remains unscathed. They all must lose what they love most to progress.
Alright, I dig your criticisms. However, I really would like some stuff dealt with here if you are at all willing because stuff is preventing me from smoothly digesting this content.
About me:
– I have never read a GRRM book because they sound lethally boring
Here’s the problem. “Creepy” is the problem. See, I don’t know what that word means.
I mean, I know that the term “creepy” literally means “that which makes me uncomfortable and induce revulsion”, but I don’t understand what that /means/.
Child abuse and rape and misogyny all make me uncomfortable. You know what’s another thing that creeps me the fuck out? Gays.
That’s a lie. Gays don’t creep me out, but here’s the thing: when you use “creepy” as a synonym for “bad”, you’re committing a logical fallacy.
That fallacy is “wisdom of repugnance”, and using it against things that are LEGITIMATELY BAD clouds the issue. You’re obscuring the ethical dimension in favor of the aesthetic and making an issue of ETHICS into an issue of FASHION. Rape and child abuse and domestic abuse are NOT “creepy”. The word for what they are is EVIL.
Full disclosure: as an ultrafag (also a turbonerd) I am engaged in a great deal of shit that Decent, Morally Upright, Cool people would and do describe as fucking /creepy as shit/.
They’re right. It’s creepy! I can’t argue with that! That’s because my arguing with that would be an attempt to tell them how they should feel, and that shit is always going to be doomed to failure, ethical dimension aside, whether it’s telling me that boning another dude is gross, or telling a GRRM fan that they should read other books because that shit is gross, or telling you that it ISN’T gross.
I mean, sure, you can try to effect social change using Wisdom Of Repugnance and Appeal To Ridicule and all that good stuff but I have to wonder if that doesn’t sort of neglect their role in /keeping things as bad as they are/.
When I read people describing legit bad shit as “creepy” it’s like little knives going into my guts and it makes me want to turn off the internet and play video games until I don’t feel like that.
I dunno. If I’m somehow full of shit, please tell me how.
This comment should have been part of the above, sorry:
When I read people saying shit is “creepy”, I reflexively abandon ship because if they think in those terms, there’s NO WAY I could possibly do anything to make them not hate ME. That might be bullshit thinking, but it’s got a lot of personal history behind it.
OK, so first I wrote this masssssive essay and totally wimped out. My basic point was: if this series (which I have not read, but could not stand the HBO series beyond episode 3), is so gritty and errbody is a rapist, where are the male rapes?
So far out of well over a hundred comments talking about rape against WOMEN and GIRLS I have only encountered TWO incidents of sexual assault where the victims were male (Tyrion, where there is also a female victim who gets additionally gang-raped; the unwanted handjob). I think it is significant that these were also heteronormative in nature. There is the ye olde Homo Test used to induce the prejudiced squick of CisHeteroMan – to me, otherwise, it lacks the same hit. I believe women can and do sexually assault men (if I ever hear another old-lady-proud-of-deflowering-young-boy story espoused as some kind of feminist sexual agency bullshit I will hurl forever) but that it can, and is seen, as somehow Not As Bad, or viewed in a Hey! I Wouldn’t Mind I Love Vagina! way – the ~safety~ of heteronormativeness removed creates a totally different response, in my experience.
So, instead of having women instigating rape as some kind of critique of ~~man-hating feminism~~, what if all the rape scenes were replaced with male rapists and male victims (gay or otherwise)? Surely all these evil horny dudes who clearly have no boundries, would not have a problem with this? Except, somehow, I feel the author might; it reminds me of how Stieg Larsson’s avatar Blomqkvist is TOTALLY STRAIGHT, GUYS and how he manages to avoid sexual assault by a man, where his female characters do not – as if such a thing would violate them and their super straight manliness (not that doing so to their female readers seems to bother them much). I daresay the cishet!male reader response to constant, erotically detailed description of men being anally/orally raped by other men to no furtherance of the plot and often at the expense of a sideshow slew of male characters rapidly fridge’d and given no context for reflection or inner life would be drastically different.
And this was the shortened version.
PS – Anybody, recs for SF/fantasy/crime thriller novels? I am sick of this shit. Just finished the Larsson books and Jo Nesbo’s “The Snowman” (hailed as the next Larsson – oh masochism – and which I would LOVE to see TB rip to shreds) – his solo main female character (POTENTIAL SPOILERS) is ~strong~ because she, like, tells this creepy police guy to shove it, but isn’t given a history beyond tragedy and save for a husband who never appears, is male-gaze’d at every turn, is the only to cry at a murder scene because its her “period”, is obligatorily attracted to the House M.D-type “lovable addict gruff”, is revealed to be mentally ill whereupon she disappears for most of the book, but when she is mentioned and talk to, the narrative suddenly and mysteriously is devoid of sexualising her every move (nobody fancies a crazy woman!).
Ps – My(potentially) overuse of parentheses is clearly just a way of showing you HOW THE REAL WORLD IS MAN. It’s like a giant metaphor for REALITY ((((((Ultimate Devil’s Advocate Troll?))))
too many replies theatre presents a Fellow Traveller production: Whining About Shit That Does Not Matter Except To Me
I think that George R. R. Martin is evil. He is evil because he writes racist shit. He is evil because he writes sexist shit. He is evil, primarily, because of his TWENTY THOUSAND MILLION GRATUITOUS RAPE AND/OR MOLESTATION AND/OR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SCENES. would be way more truthful, direct, etc.
This interview with Martin creeped me the fuck out: http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/07/12/george-martin-talks-a-dance-with-dragons/
Especially the part where he describes the lengths he went in adapting the series just to make sure Dany would get raped.