Sexism has undermined Game of Thrones’ wide appeal
The seventh season of Game of Thrones is well underway and has been met with much rejoicing from fans.
In a society where people often feel powerless it’s easy to see why some of the characters are so popular.
Take Jon Snow for instance—he started out as a “bastard” child who was treated as a second class citizen and became a leader, defying all expectations.
One of the other aspects that has kept people watching is that any of the characters can die at any time. The show is extremely violent and this reflects a society that has become accustomed to everyday violence.
Even as an activist who is against war and state violence, I found myself getting excited when characters I hate meet a gruesome end.
The show has also shown itself to be quite sexist. Graphic rape scenes are completely unnecessary and the sexualisation of women’s bodies over those of men adds nothing to the plot.
Although characters like Arya and Sansa kick ass and grow in confidence throughout the series, that doesn’t justify showing women’s bare chests in every other episode.
The fact of it is, the show doesn’t actually need to objectify women to get ratings and this really shows us there are still huge sexist divisions in society.
I honestly don’t know many people who watch it to see women naked.
People are more interested in the plots of revenge or seeing if the underdogs can come out victorious.
There is still a long way to go in the fight against women being objectified for entertainment.
Let’s hope one day HBO gets the message and can produce a show that doesn’t feel the need to constantly feature women as sexual objects.