In the critically acclaimed five-book series, "A Song of Ice and Fire", by George R.R. Martin, there is an overwhelming depiction of violence against women, sexism, and sex being used as a weapon. In the TV adaptation of the books, dubbed simply "Game of Thrones", there are several rape scenes that do not appear in the book series in order to increase the level of sheer brutality of the fabled world of Westeros, Essos, and beyond.
Although the books are quite violent, the meaningless inserts of rape is certainly not a necessity to the plot. The rape scenes are rarely told by the victims themselves (only in two instances) and are used as a plot tool to develop the male character who is either the rapist, the passerby, or forced to watch. The rape scenes are there to further show sex as a demeaning, heinous, non-consensual act of violence against women.
The world in which "A Song of Ice and Fire" dwells is not ours; it is a made up land filled with dragons, magic, zombies, and the like. The way in which their world operates is reminiscent of Medieval Times with their dress, government, and way of speaking. Westeros, where most of the story takes place, is a vicious, cruel country where murder is not punished unless it is a crime against the throne; killing a commoner is as shocking as stepping on a spider.
Consider for a moment, "Beowulf": this epic poem has transcended time and is evocative of an ancient way of living that focuses heavily on one’s birth. Countless times throughout the poem, male characters introduce themselves as “X, son of Y,” indicating that to know their father is to know them. Similarly, in the realm of "A Song of Ice and Fire", one’s “house” name is what defines someone as a person. There are the Starks in the North, known for their coldness, seriousness, and justness. The Lannisters are a cunning family, but known for their mantra “A Lannister always pays his debts.” The Boltons are the most terrifying house in the entirety of Westeros, Essos, and so forth; the Boltons’ coat of arms is a man flayed, hanging upside down on a wooden “x.”
Fairly medieval in depiction, the environment of "A Song of Ice and Fire" has, due to the popularity of the television show, received many negative reviews for their relentless counts of rape. George R. R. Martin, the author of the series and co-director of the show, has been interviewed many times about this topic. He is recorded, saying:
“The books reflect a patriarchal society based on the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were not a time of sexual egalitarianism… Now there are people who will say to that, ‘Well, he’s not writing history, he’s writing fantasy…’ Just because you put in dragons doesn’t mean you can put in anything you want… I wanted my books to be strongly grounded in history and to show what medieval society was like” (Kane).
I am not convinced of this argument. Although there are scores of cases of violence against men in the books and television series, the rape scenes are the ones most vile. Within the book series, which I have not quite finished yet, though I have kept up with the TV series, there are apparently over two hundred counts of rape (Anders).
Judith Halberstam in the Literary Theory: An Anthology text, addresses the problems with masculinity and the true implications of using masculinity to dominate. The idea of masculinity is so primitive; all it is, is a competition of who has the (figuratively) bigger penis. And that is exactly how it is used in "A Song of Ice and Fire" Halberstam is the only theorist who seems to be on the same wavelength as this paper, so she will be the only one that will be used.
As far as articles go, I was able to find quite a lot surrounding the topic of sexual violence in A Song of Ice and Fire. Although a good deal of these articles focus on the television series, the series does not diverge terribly far from the books. In the first article, named simply, “Someone Has Done a Statistical Analysis of Rape in ‘Game of Thrones,’” by Charlie Jane Anders, she takes an in-depth analysis performed by Tumblr user tafkar, who says that she has read and analyzed all of the books for a long while. In a conversation between Anders and tafkar, tafkar throws this bit of information out there:
“I have been reading the books for a long time, but I managed to push many of the rapes out of my brain. The thing that shocked me the most was the realization that only two rape victims in books tell their own story rather than having a man tell it for them – and they’re both villains. One is Mirri Maz Duur and the other is Cersei Lannister” (Anders).
And she is exactly right. The rape of Cersei is only in the television adaptation, so unfortunately I will not cover it (even though it is an absolute outrage), but Mirri Maz Duur is greatly considered a villain in the series and television show. Even though she is brutally raped by four men, she is still considered a “bad guy,” because she takes revenge on her rapists – and on one of the main characters, Daenerys. It is a greatly intricate story and would take far too much plot summary to get to the point, but Mirri Maz Duur, whom I had also previously hated until I found this article, is a victim, too – not just our beloved Daenerys. She takes revenge on what happens to her and is eventually put to death for it, further pushing the idea that there is no justice for rape in A Song of Ice and Fire.
The next article examined is blogger tafkar’s own post on A Song of Ice and Fire:
“Several rapists in ASOIAF are point of view characters. They are given voice to tell their stories. They usually don’t consider themselves rapists and the scenes are written so that there’s an element of plausible deniability to the rapes. The rape victims are not POV characters; they are not given the agency to tell us their stories, their feelings about the rape, through inner monologue or even through telling their own stories during the narrative” (Tafkar).
The rape scenes in the books are usually shown through the eyes of the rapist, thus morbidly legitimizing the act and rendering the victim less valid, or the victim is shown to have developed an affection for their rapist. There are usually nine to eighteen different points of view, with male characters being the primary storytellers. It was difficult to choose the worst examples of rape in these books because very little is shown through the victim’s eyes. I chose the first two examples from Daenerys Targaryen’s point of view and two from Theon Greyjoy’s point of view.
The first instance is 21-one-year old Viserys Targaryen threatening his 13-year-old sister, Daenerys, after she shows merited hesitation in being sold to a warlord. The second instance is how Daenerys’s married life to the warlord is progressing, in lieu of the terror that her brother threatens her with. Both of these instances are from the first book, A Game of Thrones.
In the first book, 13-year-old Daenerys Targaryen is sold to a Dothraki khal (king-like title), Drogo, in order for her brother, Viserys Targaryen, to attain an army to take back the throne of the Seven Kingdoms in Westeros. Viserys is a shaky, sadistic young man and has no love for his sister. That becomes clear when he proclaims to her, “I’d let his whole khalasar f**k you if need be, sweet sister, all forty thousand men, and their horses too if that’s what it took…” (Martin, A Game of Thrones 38). Clearly, like all counts of rape, this threat is not about sex; it is about violence. Viserys is attempting to assert his dominance and instill fear into his sister, forcing her to comply with his wishes. This is a common flaw in the ideal of “masculinity.” Viserys, and, obviously, many other male characters in books, shows, and movies, feels that in order to assert his dominance, aka his masculinity, over a weaker party, he must resort to violence. Judith Halberstam says in her piece, Female Masculinity, that, “… ‘heroic masculinities’ depend absolutely on the subordination of alternative masculinities… female masculinities are framed as the rejected scraps of dominant masculinity in order that male masculinity may appear to be the real thing” (Halberstam).
Daenerys’s first sexual interaction with Drogo is consensual, but it is clear that that is not the case for the other occurrences. “… [he] would come to her tent and wake her in the dark, to ride her as relentlessly as he rode his stallion… [she] would lie beside him, her body bruised and sore, hurting too much for sleep” (Martin, A Game of Thrones 228). Although Daenerys is clearly not consenting to any of this, she looks for ways to “please” Drogo and, after finding a way to please them both, she begins to fall in love with him. “The way that it’s written has caused many readers to think of this as a love story rather than a Stockholm Syndrome story” (Tafkar). The entire notion is ridiculous and it twists Daenerys’s story – she is no longer seen as a child victim of this brutal tribe lord, but a happy little wife to him. Drogo eventually dies from a romp with a severe infection and Daenerys goes on to free slaves from scores of cities and rises to an amicable position of power. In this case, Daenerys transforms from a victim to a hero. In other cases, victims transform into villains, like Mirri Maz Duur mentioned earlier.
I could go onto mention instances from the fifth book, A Dance With Dragons, are shown from Theon Greyjoy’s point of view. Theon, an inherently controversial character, has already been tortured, flayed, and castrated by the tyrannical and psychopathic Ramsay Bolton. A young girl, under the guise of a Stark girl, named Jeyne Poole, is forcibly married to Ramsay as a political move. Both instances involve Jeyne’s gruesome assault and her pleading with Theon as she and Theon try to escape Ramsay’s clutch – however, this could lead to spoilers for the most recent seasons of the television show and would lead to a much longer, angrier article.
I am indeed a huge fan of this series, as it is compelling and very character-driven. As a writer, I was completely enraptured by the way Martin was able to create so many characters that his audience easily fell in love with and became so very involved in. However, there is this moral piece that we have to consider. There is no denying that this series, books and television adaptation alike, has increased usage of sex as a weapon. What does this say to the readers? What image of women does this leave the younger viewers with? That answer, I think, is pretty clear.
