Are There Any Strong Women In Game Of Thrones?

[Lollis]

2 pages and no one mentioned the sand snakes...

I was going to before I saw your post.

It's a little bit spoiling for those that haven't read the books but the sand snakes and their cousin Arianne Martell certainly are strong female characters. Ok it is true that they get imprisoned for a time by the ruling Prince Doran (Arianne's father) but that isn't because of their gender, more about going against Doran's wishes, something that would get either gender imprisoned.
Perhaps you can argue that they are imprisoned because they are women or simply because they are relatives of Doran and that something more sinister may have happened if they were male and/or unrelated. But that is conjecture.

[Mormolyce]

Sansa is not a weak woman just because she is... historically accurate? The series has a nuanced portrayal of many different kinds of women who are all different. Mannish Brienne, cunning Arya, devious Cersei.

So I've been avoiding game of thrones for a while because I was under the assumption that most of the women in the show were being portrayed as helpless sex slaves.

This is not true at all.

However, portrayal of women will be the least of your concerns. Don't get into ASoIAF/GoT unless you have a strong stomach for sudden horrific main character deaths.

[Pum]

Some of the strongest characters in the series are women.

Yeah, apart from the women who are servants or whatever (tbh qualities unknown) pretty much every woman who gets a line in the show are very powerful characters, and at least for some of those women who start off as measly and weak characters, it is delightful to see them transform into some of the most formiddable personalities in the entire series.

Don't let preconceptions hold you back, Game of Thrones has everything you could ever need.

[apepi]

You guys are forgetting Melisandre. She has like a cult.

[Lollis]

I think with a character like Arianne Martell, if they can get the right actress and get the writing correct, the show will gain another strong female character that people will begin to admire.

Even though the likes of Arya, Daenerys, and (well, admire is a little too nice) Cersei, will have had quite a lot of character development from the audiences point of view, if they do indeed get Arianne 'right' a new favourite will most certainly be on the way.

There are female characters in the show that are perhaps not portrayed as strongly as in the books (Meera Reed does spring to mind) but that is one of the limitations of this kind of visual media, not everything can translate properly.

[Deleted]

I think with a character like Arianne Martell, if they can get the right actress and get the writing correct, the show will gain another strong female character that people will begin to admire.

Arianne won't be in the show .

Anyway, to the OP - yes the female characters in GoT and ASOIAF are very well written. The show is a little worse imo - it has more gratuitous sex scenes which objectify women (almost always nameless one-off prostitutes), and the show-runners seem to favouritise the female characters which fit their idea of a strong woman, namely the action girls and femme fatales. The show doesn't do nearly as good a job portraying the more feminine women.

But even then the core of the books remain, and the vast majority of female characters are well written with agency. It's important to keep in mind that this is a sexist setting - so yes, some women are getting raped, are prostitutes and sex slaves, or are being forced into marriage arrangements. That's simply reflective of the setting the series is based on. This actually allows sexism to be more deeply explored.

[khalltusk]

Yes some women get raped or use sex to get ahead in the show. Thats part and parcel of the medieval setting. However many strong female characters exist. I like the mix of characters we get in the show.

[Thelxi]

So I've been avoiding game of thrones for a while because I was under the assumption that most of the women in the show were being portrayed as helpless sex slaves. I thought about giving it a shot but the idea that the women are helpless kinda irks me. I'm hoping that there are at least a few of them willing to stand up against their masters. Is there a fair amount of women in the show that don't dance to the wime of their masters or no?

You couldn't be more wrong in you assumptions. Daenerys is a badass queen who is conquering things left and right, not to mention she controls DRAGONS. Also Arya's storyline is pretty badass too, but she is only a girl not a woman.

[Blur4stuff]

so if the show is mostly men getting used and murdered that's fine? this complaint would make no sense even if it were true.

women in GoT get raped and murdered, sure. guess what? plenty of horrible shit happens to men too.

[Gallahadd]

so if the show is mostly men getting used and murdered that's fine? this complaint would make no sense even if it were true.

women in GoT get raped and murdered, sure. guess what? plenty of horrible shit happens to men too.

Funny thing, when the show first kicked off and there was all the complaints about sexism, one of my friends (a girl) summed if up perfectly "If this is a show that hates women... It must fucking DESPISE men" Basically everything bad that has happened to a woman, happens to a man as well at some point and FAR worse. Need we mention... The Dick in a box?

Honestly the level of rape in GoT is SERIOUSLY oversold. There's one scene in I think epsode one or two... possibly episode one and two... that the writers have actually said they would remove if they could, other than that it's threatened a lot, but very rarely happens.

Put in this way... in 2014, I think Eastenders had more Rape scenes than GoT.

It had one.

[Rabblexthree]

So I've been avoiding game of thrones for a while because I was under the assumption that most of the women in the show were being portrayed as helpless sex slaves. I thought about giving it a shot but the idea that the women are helpless kinda irks me. I'm hoping that there are at least a few of them willing to stand up against their masters. Is there a fair amount of women in the show that don't dance to the wime of their masters or no?

I have absolutely no idea where you would have gotten that impression from.

[Deleted]

Funny thing, when the show first kicked off and there was all the complaints about sexism, one of my friends (a girl) summed if up perfectly "If this is a show that hates women... It must fucking DESPISE men" Basically everything bad that has happened to a woman, happens to a man as well at some point and FAR worse. Need we mention... The Dick in a box?

Honestly the level of rape in GoT is SERIOUSLY oversold. There's one scene in I think epsode one or two... possibly episode one and two... that the writers have actually said they would remove if they could, other than that it's threatened a lot, but very rarely happens.

Put in this way... in 2014, I think Eastenders had more Rape scenes than GoT.

It had one.

In all fairness, the sexual violence against women is far more common than that against men. It happens, and is threatened to happen much more often with the female characters. So I can see why some people might cry sexism. But again, a sexist setting does not equal a sexist author.

[Anium]

Dude, basically all the women in that show are strong and level headed.
They make the men look whimpy.
All my favourite characters from that show are women, apart from the imp of course

[Deleted]

So I've been avoiding game of thrones for a while because I was under the assumption that most of the women in the show were being portrayed as helpless sex slaves. I thought about giving it a shot but the idea that the women are helpless kinda irks me. I'm hoping that there are at least a few of them willing to stand up against their masters. Is there a fair amount of women in the show that don't dance to the wime of their masters or no?

[Sky High]

lol if you bothered to look at the GoT tag on tumblr you would know there are plenty of strong female characters in that series. and don't tell me you don't frequent tumblr OP.

[Constellation]

If sex scenes are an issue for you I wonder what your sex life is if you cannot handle the portrayal of a medieval sex life.

And F yeah does GoT have strong female characters, shit loads of them. Never seen such strong female characters at all in any other series.

[Dasffion]

snip

Ha! Did he actually say that? That's awesome.

[Revi]

As ridiculous reason as I think that is to avoid a show, you have been very misinformed, the show has a lot of great (and strong) women, more so than the vast majority of media, tbh.

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In all fairness, the sexual violence against women is far more common than that against men. It happens, and is threatened to happen much more often with the female characters. So I can see why some people might cry sexism. But again, a sexist setting does not equal a sexist author.

Well yeah, it's a harsh world where the strongest decide. The women are threatened, raped and have to prostitute to survive, and the men are sent off to be slaughtered in war. Would be weird if it was not like that, but it's not portraying regular women as being weaker or lesser in any other way than physical, and of the main characters the women seem overall stronger and more competent than the men.

[Tradewind]

In all fairness, the sexual violence against women is far more common than that against men. It happens, and is threatened to happen much more often with the female characters. So I can see why some people might cry sexism. But again, a sexist setting does not equal a sexist author.

I think you've been watching a different show than I have.

[Deleted]

Brienne, Daenerys, Arya to name but a few.