Bonus 10 - Game of Thrones and Rape by JJ Leath

Bonus 10

            I have not watched the show Game of Thrones, but I have read the books. The books are brutally violent, and there is a good amount of sexual violence. I have never gotten the notion that Martin was using this violence for cheap shock thrills, however. As Martin said in the quote given, these books show realistic depictions of human travesty against other humans. I think that this is the main theme in Game of Thrones. There are monsters and supernatural enemies, but the acts of terrible villainy are done by humans. This is important social commentary that Martin is making, and I agree with Martin’s use of it in the books. However, I disagree with the film adaptation’s likening of these acts to pornography.

            If you compare Game of Thrones to The Lord of the Rings, I think that Martin’s social commentary really shines through. At the surface, Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings are very similar series. The message is vastly different, however. The violence in The Lord of the Rings is minimal in comparison to Martin’s epic. There is absolutely no sexual violence at all. Humans are the “good guys”. To quote Martin, “orcs and dark lords” are the bad guys. The Lord of the Rings is a story about the human spirit (or Hobbit Spirit, but for all intents and purposes, Hobbits were analogous to humans). It is a story about how the goodness of Man can overcome any evil. It is a feel-good story that largely romanticizes war.

            Game of Thrones, however, does not romanticize war. All of the retched things that have plagued humanity’s history are graphically depicted. People do horrible things to other people. But this is exactly the point – monsters are not found in fairy tales, they are found inside us and are entrenched in human history. To exclude sexual violence would be to inaccurately describe war, and the commentary on the human condition would be diminished.  As my only experience with the series has been the books, I can speak for the books that the sexual violence is used for a deeper purpose than cheap tricks or titillation.  However, from what I know about the show, it seems like it does use the brutality for cheap tricks and it does sound like it exploits the actresses to simply use their bodies to attract a heterosexual male gaze. 

            The film adaptation of the series has perverted many of story lines from the book in my opinion. The gruesome acts done in the books, the disturbing incest, and the sexual violence against women has seemingly been turned into soft-core pornography. From the articles, it seems like one of the most highly sexualized characters is Daenerys, who in the books is a child. That is definitely concerning. I think that this is just further commentary on humanity. We might not be as evolved as we think.