Regarding the posts I see from A Song of Ice and Fire fans regarding the controversial scene.... I think a lot of it is misguided.
. Violence towards women in Westerosi society(which tries to reflect our own history to a certain extent) is one of the themes of the book series and it's a much bigger theme in the show. The rape is hardly the first one they've shown in the show.
I think where the show fails is that it has this sort of glorification of brutal power. All other forms of power are irrelevant in the show., The Sansa of the books shows a different kind of power, a power reliant on her feminine charms. She soothes the raging Hound a number of times. She takes on the role of Queen to comfort the scared women and children (even though she herself is pessimistic and terrified, she instinctively does it as a kindness to the others) by singing the Hymn to the Mother during the Battle of the Blackwater. She even is able to soothe and convince a quaking, palsied boy into taking a dangerous journey down a dangerous mountain path . And in the sample chapter which GRRM recently published on his blog, she seems to be using a more self-aware sexual element to achieve her desires and wishes. This is power. How you achieve your desires, wishes and goals is power. Which is actually also historically accurate. I mean, historically, women were not *just* victims. They also had their own forms of power, and I'm not talking about the handful of medieval queens who wielded incredible political power in more traditional ways. More on this later.. . By cutting Sansa's storyline and throwing her into Ramsay's arms they have taken her power away. I'm not sure if it's a conscious decision to excise that view of power from the story but there is a pattern that has emerged over the five seasons that leads me to suspect that it might be partially that, which I'll get into below.
Now, Sansa is arguably the most feminine character in the series; not only is she pretty, not only does she have exquisite courtesy, but she also exemplifies a sort of medieval feminine ideal: she sews well and straight, she plays the harp, she sings, she dances. It's not that Sansa is anti-feminist;, that is just who she is. She is a girly girl. That's her natural state. So by taking her storyline away, they are in a way saying, that 'the feminine', as a sort of Jungian archetype, can never have any sort of power; they are saying that only traditionally masculine traits can be powerful. And that's a gross misreading of the books, in my opinion, and not historically accurate. (I say historically accurate, because, even though it is a fantasy series, there are several connections with real medieval history, and several events and characters have been inspired by real historical events and characters. See the brilliant Race for the Iron Throne blog for a deconstruction of this aspect of the (books) series.)
Yet, oddly this treatment does seem to play into a form of feminism and a view of men as victimizers and women as victims that I occasionally see in American discourse. Ultimately, I think that this and other aspects of the show* reflect the show writers' view of modern American issues. They seem to be declaring themselves feminists but there is an unconscious edge of misogyny underneath. I actually this is an echo of the USA mixed vision of women in general. (I'm not picking on the USA, other places have other problems with this.)This is very different in the book. I think GRRM has a mysogynistic bone or two in his body, like many men, but I think his own unconcious view of feminism is a much more sixties-based one, and it's much less militant and much more positive. Mostly though, and this should be underscored twice, I think GRRM's just trying to write a good story, as opposed to the show-runners who are trying to shock and yet be (barf) socially relevant .
And to some extent that is the goal of dramatic art. The Red Wedding (in book especially, but also in the show) worked because its so shocking that it causes catharsis--it's shocking because the way it's written makes it unexpected, but it's still just basically a tragic(in the classic sense) scene. But it worked because it was logical in the confines of the plot. It was not gratuitous. NOt shock for shock's sake.
They seem to be going for more and more of these moments and they are getting less justified, less logical and therefore more gratuitous.
But anyway, back to to their portrayal of women. It's not just Sansa's feminine power that they've taken from her.
By taking dany's strategic decisions in her battles away from her and giving them to her generals they also take her power away. By reducing Catelyn and even Cersei to caricatures of the 'concerned mother trope' they also take away catelyn's political smarts and her non-brutal power and strength; while the glossing over of Cersei's narcissism and paranoia and secret longing to have the sort of brutal masculine power that the show glorifies reduces her character, too. (though it does make her more likeable)
But, personally, I'm not offended. All of these elements have been in the show since the first season and they've become more pronounced over time. Ultimately it's just that the the show runners have a limited faith in complexity. There is a definite pattern over the series in(their portrayal of women and their presentation of brute, masculine strength being the only kind of power that exists. In the end they just dont understand subtle characters like sansa. And that's a real shame.
The point they are making about women is clear but it's dumb.
Personally, as a fan of the boook series I"m much more disgusted with the horribly written, horribly staged, horribly acted Dorne subplot. They cut Jaime's journey of self-growth and self awareness, his slow transformation into a hero; cut Arrianne Martell's character completely and the complex plot to place Myrcella on the throne in place of Tommen coming into conflict with Doran Martell's grander plan to supplant the Lannisters entirely and replaced it with 'The Dornish are crazy. They like to fuck and fight!' It's lame. But, you know? It's like watching Star Trek at this point. It's got a campy 'so laughably bad it's kind of good' feeling to it to me.
Lance
*for examplethe reduction of the ser Loras character to a gay stereotype, and his subsequent struggle against the Taliban-like Faith Militant, the equating of all religion to fanaticism, the glorification of the secular and the physical and the selfish...I could go on.
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