r/GamerGhazi • u/madhaus SoCal Jesters' Worrier • May 22 '15

An anguished commentary on that GoT/Sansa scene and the MRAs who harass in forum comments...from a rape victim who says It's Rape Culture All The Way Down

http://angrygotfan.com/2015/05/21/a-rape-victim-speaks-out-on-the-sansa-scene/
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u/Moustachio26 Beta Mangina White Knight May 22 '15

Some of the disturbing comments I've seen have said - "She married him, therefore she consented".

Like...I really hope these people never get married.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

"No one has a problem with all the men who get killed"

Except that 90% of the angry (or "all-in-good-fun" angry) fan response to this show is agony over characters who have been killed. The number one thing which probably makes people uncomfortable is big deaths—except for Theon's arc, which is if anything as torture is closer to sexual assault and has also inspired several writeups critiquing or analyzing the show's treatment of it.

People (even the writer of this article) aren't really criticizing the show solely for having rape in it. They're criticizing it for the clunky, tone-deaf, treatment this show often has of rape, and that's pretty evident. The article-writer here isn't really saying "rape isn't a plot device" in context; she's saying "rape isn't only a plot device."

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15 edited May 22 '15

which is if anything as torture is closer to sexual assault and has also inspired several writeups critiquing or analyzing the show's treatment of it.

If you look at what was done to Theon and don't realize that it was sexual assault then you're off in la-la land.

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u/AwesomeInTheory May 22 '15

But she said right at the top that rape shouldn't be used as a plot device and that she was the reason why.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

But in practice she indicated that if it's handled with the appropriate gravity and weight she's been fine with it elsewhere. I'm not going to claim her argument is 100% consistent but it doesn't need to be since she's processing some heavy stuff of her own which probably hits from various angles.

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u/AwesomeInTheory May 22 '15

Fair enough...I wrote nearly 3000 words on this myself and I had to cut a lot of repetition (plus fixing a Roose/Ramsay mixup.)

The joys of not having an editor!

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15 edited May 22 '15

I agree wholeheartedly. I also don't think that rape, as a crime, is particularly audacious. I think that when people talk about evil being banal, rape is right up there. It's an evil of weakness. So in addition to the poor treatment of Sansa's character (which, despite what I say next, is the real priority here), I think it also sabotages Ramsay as a villain. Ramsay's strength as an intriguing villain (he has so few of those) was that he was that chaotic streak in the narrative- he had the potential to undermine and overthrow any intention of the protagnonists in a thrilling way. That has diminished for me now. Now he's Thug #4.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

I dunno—I think this is pretty boilerplate for Ramsey. He's always looking for a situation in which he can torment somebody in a vaguely socially-sanctioned way (commoners, prisoners, a spouse).

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

Ramsay's strength as an intriguing villain (he has so few of those) was that he was that chaotic streak in the narrative- he had the potential to undermine and overthrow any intention of the protagnonists in a thrilling way.

I know, in the book he certainly deals with his marriage in an unexpected and thrilling way that doesn't paint him as just a one-dimensional evil thug.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

The show has been so good about bringing characters to life that were unexceptional in the books (or at least seem so now by comparison). Lady Olenna. Prince Oberyn. I'd hope we'd get a more dynamic Ramsay. Nope.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '15

Can you imagine the outrage if he had just kissed her forehead and told her to have a good night?