The Mary Sue: Throughout the seven seasons of Game of Thrones, audiences are shown a variety of gruesome sequences of violence and gore. Most of these are so fantastical that no audience members are likely to experience them in real life: being burned to death by a dragon, giving birth to a shadow monster, or having one’s head explode after a giant presses really hard on one’s eyeballs.
7 comments:
I think this article posed an important argument about the constant use of sexual assault in films and tv shows. I can see why the director might have argued that using sexual assault is for historical accuracy; however, this particular show is specifically fantasy and doesn’t follow any other kind of historical accuracy. If the director was to hold true to the historical accuracy he would’ve added body hair and bad teeth, but god forbid actors look gross and unidealized. I don’t think we should just look at Game of Thrones but at all kinds of films and even novels. I read somewhere about this same argument of sexual assault being portrayed in entertainment as “OK” but other things are considered not. This just promotes rape culture and the idea that sexual assault is socially acceptable since it’s constantly being portrayed everywhere. These films and shows don’t show consequences for sexual assault either so men are really being taught that they won’t face repurcussions.
This article failed to mention a point that I think is entirely valid and that we as an entertainment community should be talking about more. That point being: male creatives who write these plot lines fetishize rape and do not see it as an evil and inexcusable act. One rape scene is one thing. A rape or assault scene for every character is a fetishization that needs to be resolved through therapy. I also have a big problem with the overarching false assumption that seems to be behind giving every female character a rape story: that it is what makes them strong and fierce. I call BS on that entire idea. A person's strength is not measure by how much abuse they can withstand. Creators who feel the need to include this kind of abuse in every story they write are uncreative and also shouldn't be hired anymore because they are misogynists.
I think that the use of sexual assaults in “Game of Thrones” are glorified in a way that is not just for the sake of any “historical accuracy”. As the article mentioned, there was another book to tv show adaptation that was set in a similar world and in the books there were instances of sexual assault. However the article says that the tv adaptation did not have those scenes, instead detailing what happened later without visuals. I think that this is a much more acceptable way of doing this. I would prefer not to actually see the assault taking place, instead I would find it more palatable and less offensive to people would have gone through similar experiences. I hope that this show doesn’t set a precedent that this is acceptable in mainstream media. I really don’t understand the thought process of the person writing these scenes in and the people who approve them.
I think that the presence of sexual assault in a television show or movie must be included to for the reason of making the audience aware of an issue, not because of something like “historical accuracy”. The claim of historical accuracy in Game of Thrones is especially ludicrous because the series is complete fantasy and not really historical at all, even though the producers claim some elements to be “grounded in reality”. Although opinions surrounding the show 13 Reasons Why are particularly contentious, the presence of the sexual assault scenes in that series served a very poignant purpose. The main character experiences some forms of sexual harassment from her male peers that eventually lead to full-blown sexual assault, and this is one of the factors that leads to her choice to commit suicide. This is a very real situation that has very real consequences. Women who have experienced sexual assault have been shown to also express signs of PTSD and depression. This issue is not to be taken lightly, as the show 13 Reasons Why attempts to convey to the audience. Rape should not be a part of a fantasy genre that serves a widespread audience if it does not give context and meaning surrounding it. In this way, Game of Thrones capitalizes off the very tangible horrors many people face without attempting to justify the presence of it.
Over the last several years I have seen a lot of debate over whether or not Game of Thrones is a feminist show or misogynistic. I think any show that visibly degrades and assaults women cannot be feminist no matter how strong the characters are. It shows how ingrained rape culture is. That Game of Thrones is so mainstream, but also so problematic in the way the show treats women. Why does it matter if a fantasy show is historically accurate, it’s fantasy? I think there is a difference on screen when a woman is at the helm, and if there is a rape scene that is vital to the story then it is handled properly or even better leave it out entirely. The culture that drives writers to glorify sexual assault, is particularly hard to change, that presents a different problem. It is problematic that lots of people find it acceptable, and that also shows how ingrained it is into our culture.
I strongly agree with Lily C.'s argument that if sexual assault is to be portrayed in film or television, it should be to educate viewers on the horridness of the kind of act that is sexual assault, not because it will highlight any sort of particular historical accuracy or reality. The true reality is that every person's experience of sexual assault is different in its own way, and that when depicting acts as gruesome as this, there is never a point where total truth or reality can be depicted. The argument that we need to show an act of sexual assault on TV or in movies because it will be "historically accurate" reminds be of the Harvey Weinstein argument that "I grew up in a different time so I don't know how to not assault people". These arguments are stupid and irrelevant, and do not prove a deeper though process in any creator's mind. We need to stop portraying sexual assault in media as a justified act in any way, and I hope that this article has given some insight to that.
This article is very sobering and poise, especially with the stance it takes on sexual assault portrayals on television. I think that with historical accuracy, the least important part is the description of sexual assault. Anytime someone portrays those types of traumatic events on stage, they have to really consider the world of the audience member and what connotations that has with that person. The easy and more abrupt answer to this issue is that if they don't like that type of historical accuracy, but that's just not a politically correct nor morally acceptable answer because there is more to Game of Thrones than their portrayal of assault, but the last thing that the producers would want is people turning off their televisions thinking about how traumatizing the sexual assaults were for them. Historical accuracy isn't the only thing that Game of Thrones is famous for and it really doesn't have to be famous for sexual assault.
Post a Comment