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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Game of Thrones

43 replies

teetering13 · 12/07/2013 14:15

So, I have finished watching the Walking Dead and I'm suffering from WD withdrawal depression ..

I asked my son what I should watch .. a good series that'll get me hooked and make me forget WD

Game of Thrones, he says ....

Thing is, I watched the first episode of GOT a while ago .. in it the men were powerful and the women had to sleep with them to get anything .. I slated it to the person that recommended it ... 'what a load of shite' etc etc and forgot about it ...

So, Game of Thrones watchers .... did I judge too soon? ... Is it watchable without wanting to scream 'ffs!' all the way through it ...

Shall I give it a 2nd chance?

OP posts:

kalidasa · 12/07/2013 14:18

No it is absolute unrelenting "male gaze" tosh. The second series is if anything worse. Also, the acting is mostly terrible and the scripts even worse. In fact I was so mystified at how bad it was vs. how many fans it has that I even started my only ever AIBU thread about it a few months ago!

Trills · 12/07/2013 14:18

Nobody in the Game of Thrones world gets to do as they please. They are all burdened by expectations and rules and they all have to do things that they don't like in order to try to get what they want.

TheFallenNinja · 12/07/2013 14:26

Breaking bad is great, so is Mad Men.

kalidasa · 12/07/2013 14:29

Oh yes Breaking Bad is good and we are enjoying Deadwood as well.

BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 12/07/2013 14:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Frettchen · 12/07/2013 14:32

If you can suspend your disbelief, Game of Thrones is fantastic - the plot (plots?) is so complex, there are many good characters with flaws and strengths and who go through journeys and development and all that.

But yes. It's likely to make you scream 'ffs' at regular intervals. The books are both better and worse - the tv show has fewer rape mentions/threats than the books, but replaces them with a lot of gratuitous female nudity.

I really enjoyed the books, despite wanting to scream at them, and a lot of complaining about the way they're written and the way the women are portrayed, but the underlying plot kept me reading. It's the same with the tv show - I know the source material is good, beneath the misogynistic world it's set in; and so I keep watching for the things I enjoyed reading.

If you're going into it expecting to be offended then you probably shouldn't watch it. But, if you like a good, complicated, twisty fantasy story and can look past the (numerous) flaws then go for it.

MrsTerryPratchett · 12/07/2013 14:33

DH loves GoT. I hate it. The few I've seen have extremely nasty violence towards women or endless soft core porn pitched at teenage boys; lesbian prostitutes making out for a man watching, anyone?

tobiasfunke · 12/07/2013 14:38

Deadwood is the peak of televisual achievement IMO- I love it.

Breaking Bad is also great we are rewatching all the series before the final batch of episodes is released this month. It is interesting in terms of female characters as the lead female character seems to be universally hated by men when actually I have a huge amount of sympathy for her and find her reactions very understandable.

I enjoy GOT but is definitely a medieval type world where women don't generally hold any real power except for that they can elicit through their influence.

ifitsnotanarse · 12/07/2013 15:01

GOT - stopped watching it for this very reason.
DaVinci is also heading this way.

Why has sex/naked women become a selling point of every TV series? Seriously, if a story-line is good then there should be no need for soft porn as an important plot-clincher.

Mycatistoosexy · 12/07/2013 15:11

Really? I always liked GoT because Daenerys us such an amazing, empathetic yet hard-as-nails dragon lady.

Some of the women are a bit sappy but so are some of the men.

And I don't think it's set in modern times.....

Trills · 12/07/2013 15:15

I like the fact that the women are just as flawed and complex as the men. No character is shallow.

Trills · 12/07/2013 15:16

The women have a shit time of it, but so do the men (albeit in different ways).

Original poster

teetering13 · 12/07/2013 15:49

I'm reading the replies and thinking, 'ok, I'll give it a go ... actually nah .. ok yeah .. but hmmm ..

So I've decided 3 episodes, I'll watch the first 3 and see if it doesn't boil my piss too much

I've watched Breaking Bad, loved it, but then it got boring, I tried to stick with it but it got to be a chore watching ... someone told me it gets good again ... might try getting through that bad patch

OP posts:

Trills · 12/07/2013 16:43

I think you always need to watch 3 episodes of anything before you can decide if you like it.

WoTmania · 12/07/2013 16:49

Deadwood was wonderful, as was Firefly (absolutely criminal that it got cancelled)
As for GoT - It annoys me greatly, particularly the hairlessness of the women (and in the books pubic hair gets definite mentions)

theorchardkeeper · 12/07/2013 16:58

I consider myself a 'proper' feminist but love GOT to be honest.

Danaerys (the blonde pretty one who starts off as a bit of a sap and ends up being a very strong character) is downright kick ass and Caitlyn (the Stark's mother) is another very strong female character.

There's also Sansa (stark Daughter) and Ygritte (wildling warrior) so it's not all tits and doormat-women

Original poster

teetering13 · 12/07/2013 17:07

Did Danaerys get given to some big warrior fella in the first episode, she had to have sex with him for some reason .. her brother said she had to?

It might have been that which helped me make up my mind not to watch ..

I also remember some woman screwing her brother to get him to do something (was it her brother?) ...

It was ages ago I watched it .. but those 2 events stick in my mind as to why I thought it was shite

OP posts:

maja00 · 12/07/2013 17:12

I do enjoy watching it rather like Buffy - but the sexual violence against women, nudity, objectification etc is pretty unrelenting. There are some strong female characters, but I'm not sure that they cancel out all the rather titillating rape and abuse.

Mhysa · 12/07/2013 17:23

I was nagged into watching it, and gave up after the first ep, but went back to it, and am slightly obsessed yes, a lot of boobs ect, but as theorchardkeeper says, there are some very strong woman. Watch it! You'll love it, promise I have to buy the walking dead now as DD is obsessed and wants me to watch it (took her to meet Daryl Dixon, made her birthday)

Original poster

teetering13 · 12/07/2013 17:40

ohhh walking dead is brilliant, season 3 was the best :D

I don't mind boobs ... I love true blood, loads of boobs ... it was the way women were weak and useless unless they could be used for sex or use sex to get something they wanted that pissed me off

OP posts:

lissieloo · 12/07/2013 17:41

Cersei is a great example of how warped their world is. She has been treated like a brood mare and used as currency by her family, and it's driven her quite mad.

But, there are some great female characters. Osha the wilding, Yara Greyjoy, Catelyn, Arya and Dany all hold their own and command respect. I love it and agree that you should try 3 episodes.

lissieloo · 12/07/2013 17:42

See, the Westeros of S1 is very different to the Westeros of the latter seasons.

FridaKarlov · 12/07/2013 19:47

I'm a big GoT fan. It can be very problematic from a feminist point of view, but the series is very good at portraying an extreme society in which the only value a woman has is as a pawn to be traded in arranged marriages. The ways in which the various female characters react to this society and survive within its confines is what makes it so compelling. But you need to give the characters time to develop- Dany in episode 1 is a completely different person to the one at the end of series 3.

I'm adding Brienne of Tarth and Cersei to the kickass ladies' list.

Sausageeggbacon · 12/07/2013 19:58

Have to admit to be a GoT fangirl. Yes on the surface many of the women appear weak and yet as their characters develop they hold your attention. Melisandre is just a little scarey (series 2/3). Watching Dany change and grow is fantastic and having not read the books I am cheering her on.

lissieloo · 12/07/2013 20:01

oh god, HTF did I miss Brienne! She's awesome. And, I agree about Dany. She changes so much. Marjory and Olenna Tyrell are also great women.

S4 brings a whole new group of strong women too.

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