I already wrote some about the complaints regarding supposed sexism and racism in Game of Thrones, but with more and more commentary along those lines cropping up—not the least from, alas, overly PC commentators in Sweden—I find I have more to get off my chest.
Take this little gem, for example. Of course, its in Swedish, which makes it a bit odd for me to write this in English, but…its just a habit of mine. The gist of it is that while the book is exciting plot-wise, its horribly sexist and clearly written by a man, with an awful lot of focus on how good it is to be macho and manly. Oh, and it doesn’t “problematise” any of the gender roles it presents.
Can I start by saying I am somewhat allergic to the word “problematise”? Its one of those handy words that teachers—especially Lit. teachers—love to throw in when they don’t have other, more specific instructions to give about an assignment. It makes it all sounds so important and academic. Which is fine, for the most part, in an academic setting, but that’s the place for taking apart books and ascribing meanings to them by studying them through an arbitrarily chosen literary theory which you’re determined to make use of, never mind how poorly suited it is to the task. And where authorial intent doesn’t count for anything. Oops, is my annoyance with my current class showing? Just a little, maybe. But in any case, I do not want every book that I open to “problematise” whatever subjects it deals with. I want it to present those subjects as part of the story and without the addition of big red flags to draw my attention to them. Instead, I want my involvement with the characters, the plot and the world to lead me to think about the underlying themes of the story. I hate being preached to.
So, no, I do not think it is a problem if there is a lack of “problematising” of gender issues in A Song of Ice and Fire. In fact, I am glad there isn’t any overt attempts to do so. I do not need to have it pointed out to me that from a woman’s point of view (or from a peasant’s point of view, for that matter) the world of Westeros can be a pretty sucky place where the fact is that you are often reduced to just a brood mare. If you are interested in the characters and their stories, you will be affected by their plight, whether they are women or men, lords or peasants. The story can speak for itself, especially when populated by characters who are anything other than one-dimensional. Yes, some of them may seem that way initially, but the whole story is very much like an onion; layer by layer, you learn new things and your early perceptions are challenged.
Then all the complaints about the prevalence of rapes and of whores in the story, and the complaints about the language (what’s wrong with “manhood”, anyway?)... So, what do we want? Do we want sexless fantasy or do we want gritty fantasy that doesn’t shy away from the realities of war? Or does it have to be middle-of-the-road? How about we’re allowed to have a bit of everything, actually? Combining the high and low in the way that is done in A Song of Ice and Fire, how is that not an interesting stylistic and narrative choice? One that goes through much of the story? This ties into the complaints about the “macho” feel of the story. Uhm, hello? Medieval-inspired world, a heavily chivalric culture? What the heck do you expect? And that, I might add, places demands on female as well as male characters. In fact, earlier during my current class (Literature B, at the University of Gothenburg), we read an early Swedish biography by a woman and one of the articles discussing it noted how sexist towards men the chivalric ideals could be. Living up to the demands placed on them by other men as well as women was probably not easy and we see that in A Song of Ice and Fire as well. There are scenes that one could say glorifies the knightly culture of courage and violence and there are scenes that clearly show it in a very different light.
Oh, and when it comes to Dany’s scene with Drogo…I don’t have any problems with seeing how that scene works in the books. She’s a woman—albeit a very young woman—in a precarious, frightening position. Someone taking their time to make her comfortable, when she was fearing something terrible, would make a big impact on her. But she would still be frightened and emotionally sensitive, which means she would be very easily influenced. I have no problem at all seeing how Drogo could, essentially, seduce her, even if it wasn’t with a romantic dinner for two.
The final nail in the coffin of “is this reviewer worth listening to” for the post linked above would have to be the conclusion, a recommendation to read Robin Hobb. Contrasted with note right before, that GRRM is a man, it stinks of sexism. I love Hobb, but please, can we not care about the gender of the writers?