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Original poster

To be getting fed up of female nudity in Game of Thrones ...

85 replies

samandi · 19/03/2014 12:42

Up to mid season 3 so far. Are there any major female characters that have managed to keep their clothes on? It's getting on my nerves now and starting to ruin what is otherwise a really good show.

And have there actually been any penises on display?

OP posts:
Original poster
samandi · 19/03/2014 12:42

Hmm maybe this should've gone in Feminism.

OP posts:
ZenGardener · 19/03/2014 12:42

Yes, Theon's!!

Northernlurker · 19/03/2014 12:43

I don't really watch it but I did see an episode with a penis in plain view but I think it was being eaten by somebody.......

JumpingJackSprat · 19/03/2014 12:45

Try reading the books then they are utter shite and extremely sexist and misogynistic. I cannot for the life of me see why is so popular.

Cactuar · 19/03/2014 12:47

YANBU - I was saying this to DH just the other day as we have just finished watching Season 3. I think the problem is that so much of it is gratuitous and obviously only there for titillation. The books are not graphic in this way at all and it is a shame as there are so many strong female characters in it.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 12:57

I haven't seen the tv version. Is it true there's a mysterious lack of female pubic hair?

JumpingJackSprat - they're popular because of George R. R. Martin's storytelling skill and his ability to create memorable characters but I am definitely rolling my eyes at the misogyny. A bunch of strong female characters doesn't make up for the relish with which the book creates a world where women are constantly bought and sold and raped. (Am halfway through the second book.)

Cactuar · 19/03/2014 13:03

Yes but that is because it is set in what is essentially a fantasy medieval world which is inherently misogynistic and when women would have been bought and sold. I certainly don't get the impression that the author condones this and I think he writes with a great deal of sympathy towards the situations of his female characters - even Cersei - because of their lack of power.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 13:05

You don't have to 'condone' something to use it to titillate your readers.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 13:08

It's all massively eroticised. His sympathy is neither here nor there - he's still writing it in such a way that readers will get off on it, hence the ease with which it translates into a highly objectifying tv version.

MothershipG · 19/03/2014 13:10

I agree, I love the books and enjoy the TV show, but getting really fed up of the totally gratuitous female nudity.

But it certainly isn't alone in this, it seems pretty much endemic in any U.S. TV show that isn't specifically aimed at the family market.

The pornification of TV?

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 13:14

I love this blog by Caroline Lawrence (author of the Roman mysteries) about what writers can learn from Game of Thrones.

KatnipEvergreen · 19/03/2014 13:14

I thought the books were misogynistic at first and wasn't sure whether to read on after book one. Having read all the finished books now I'd say the world is misogynistic/patriarchal, rather like medieval Europe, with bells on (and dragons) but some of the female (and indeed male) characters are so fascinating/likeable that it kept me reading.

The TV version I think inevitably has to cut things out, but IMO it does ramp up the female nudity/lesbian/whore stuff much more than the books.

It hasn't been enough to put me off yet, but I have yet to watch series 3, let alone 4!

Cactuar · 19/03/2014 13:15

I think we will have to agree to disagree Tunip Smile - I am on my third read through and cannot think of any graphic sex scenes at all in the books and have certainly not found anything titillating.

KatnipEvergreen · 19/03/2014 13:17

But it certainly isn't alone in this, it seems pretty much endemic in any U.S. TV show that isn't specifically aimed at the family market

I agree, which is why I don't bother with most of the binge viewing/boxset genre.

Vikings is a very good series with a 15 rating, no gratutitous stuff. Shows how many programmes could be done, IMO - just hold back a bit, we have imaginations! You couldn't make GoT true to the books without being an 18 though.

5Foot5 · 19/03/2014 13:18

Are there any major female characters that have managed to keep their clothes on?

Arya Stark
Olenna Tyrrel (Matilda 's Grandma)
Brienne

We are two episodes from the end of Season 3 and aiming to catch up in time for Season 4 to start. I haven't read the books and don't intend to, but I am thoroughly enjoying the TV series. I agree with Cactuar, although the created fantasy world is mysogonistic there are many good, strong female characters to enjoy

KatnipEvergreen · 19/03/2014 13:18

There are some things which are alluded to in the GoT books which are writ raw on the screen in the TV version, certainly. But there is sex in the books!

KatnipEvergreen · 19/03/2014 13:20

Also I'm glad the characters were aged for the TV version, what made me uncomfortable about the books is they were all, like, twelve. Or younger.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 13:20

Happy to agree to disagree, Cactuar Smile (The alternative would be word-by-word lit analysis of a sex scene in which I point at words and we disagree about their implications and I'm sure we all have better things to do with our time!)

(Speaking of which, I'm in awe of you reading them 3 times - I'm normally a fast reader but it's taking me forever and I'm going to have to leave the series as soon as I finish this one because it's stopping me from reading anything else and I need to stay on top of what's new in YA for work.)

Burren · 19/03/2014 13:21

I haven't read the novels, and I only saw a few episodes of the TV series (I think the last one I saw involved Sean Bean sadly killing a dog after the little royal shit (Geoffrey? surely not?) claimed it attacked him), but DH and I were distracted from the various plotty bits of skulduggery by the numbers of female nipples bouncing about all over.

Also by musings about why all the sex appeared to be doggy-style (can't remember all instances, but Cersei and her kinky incestuous brother thing being spied on by incredible climbing child, and Blonde Barbie Girl bride having Dothraki (sp?) horse boy go at her suddenly from behind on their wedding night, which looked uncomfortable, not to say unconsensual) before she had to take sex lessons from some steamy slave type to manage to get horseman to try missionary...

Yes, absolutely pornification of TV, whereby a sprinkling of actual female characters who, like talk and plot and stuff, are supposed to outweigh female breasts and asses appearing in random scenes as if they were props.

hollyisalovelyname · 19/03/2014 13:22

Katnip I'm watching Vikings. It's good but very gory.

treaclesoda · 19/03/2014 13:22

I've never seen the tv programme but have read the first book. I viewed it the same way as Cactuar, that it was set in a medieval fantasy world and as such it would have been fairly implausible for the women to not be traded, treated as possessions and sexually exploited. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how strong some of the female characters were, I was half expecting them to be only incidental to the storylines.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/03/2014 13:23

Joffrey.
They all have names that are a bit like real ones but not quite, like Borrowers.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 19/03/2014 13:25

Oh FFS. Link fail.

dong song

Burren · 19/03/2014 13:26

Joffrey, thank you. Geoffrey sounded a bit unlikely, and more likely to be in middle management and talking about 'my good lady wife' than stropping about being a royal pain in the ass in a vaguely medieval fantasy world.