WTF Friday: In Which I Rant. Again.
Trigger warning: this is an entry about the prevalence of sexual assault in a specific fantasy series. Which is representative of the genre at large. If the topic of sexual assault is disturbing to you for any reason, please stop now. I want people to read, but not at detriment to their sense of peace and security.
Many people find it surprising that this good little geekling has neither read the Game of Thrones novels nor indulged in HBO’s adaptation.
Why?
It started with nerd rage.
Hubs read the first several books and enjoyed them quite a lot. And then he caught up. And had to wait. And wait. And wait. And by the time the next book did come out, he couldn’t remember what had happened and had to go back to the previous installments. Which amounted to several thousand pages. For which he did not have time. He was also concerned that Martin would, as he phrased it, “pull a Robert Jordan.”
After a couple more years of hearing good things, however, I thought maybe I would jump in, at least with the HBO version. I mentioned this to a friend one night. And she said, “I started the books but it got to a point where I just couldn’t handle another rape scene.”
Hubba wah?
I did some asking around. According to several of my very reliable sources, Game of Thrones is rife with sexual assault against both genders.
Gratuitous sexual assault.
I brought this up to yet another friend who said, “Well, it’s the pseudo-Middle Ages.” I called bullshit on it then and I’m calling bullshit on it now. That is bullshit. The weakest of weak excuses.
Some authors, be they survivors or the loved ones of survivors, need catharsis. Sometimes the incident is integral to the character’s history, present, or future. Perhaps the author is seeking to bring attention to the topic. Yes, yes, and yes. The topic of sexual assault needs to be in the harsh light of public scrutiny. There is no excuse for the act and a great need for survivor support.
Sexual assault is not entertainment. It is a terrible violation. And authors who toss it around casually need to reexamine their choices.
Sexual assault should never be casual.
It should never be gratuitous.
It is a soul crushing act perpetuated on people by those who thirst for power.
Sexual assault is not a device.
I don’t care how famous the writer is. I don’t care how much revenue his books generate.
Sexual assault is not a game. Of thrones or otherwise.
Marvel has done pretty well without it (movie wise anyway but the above holds for comics as well). T & A? Yes, plenty of each. Do I love it? No. But I can’t claim never to have ogled Thor or Loki and to pretend otherwise would make me a hypocrite. But no one has been raped. No one has been threatened with sexual violence, not by Loki or by aliens or by gods. Not by frost giants. Not even by Nazis (granted, not a super accurate portrayal of Nazis).
That’s right, George R.R. Film Nazi’s show more restraint than your pseudo-Middle Ages peeps. And this from an Eastern European Jew.
People need to speak up.
This is me. Speaking up.
Add your voice.
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