Atlantic Article on the female characters of GoT

[PhoBWanKenobi]

Fantastic article linked by Brandon Blatcher to metafilter.

As the first season unfolded, I have to say that I couldn't help but think of it, increasingly, as a feminist show--one of the central conflicts seems to be how women are subjugated and apparently powerless in their society, and how they all struggle to carve out identities and some semblance of independence despite that. Despite the flack it's gotten for "sexposition" (and I'd say that there's a focus on male bodies that's nearly as objectifying as the focus on the female form), even Shae seems to be a subversion of the typical "whore" of her world--though I do hope that as she develops over the next season she remains more than just a typical "hooker with a heart of gold" (I like her chemistry with Dinklage, but I think it really remains to be seen).

[Ms Harriet Vane]

That's a great article, and there are new characters later who continue the theme of how women deal with this society. I absolutely think of it as a feminist story, although I have no idea if that was Martin's intent. I think he's covered just about every possible reaction to a patriachal, pre-industrial-revolution society, which is easier when you've got a whole world of your own making to play with.

And most of the female characters are three-dimensional, too. Not all, as there are obviously too many to allow us to get every POV. But the ones where we do get an insight to their motivations are all realistic and unique. It's not just a line-up of generic Females with different hairstyles.

The male characters are great too, of course. Which is another reason I think of this as a feminist story - the women really are given equal importance with the men, both in terms of plot and author attention. There's rape scenes, slavery, wife-beating, torture and so on, but none of it is for giggles, and people react to them in individual ways rather than bleating Martin's opinion on whether they're good cultural practices or not.