I also agree with LillyEvans and mynameisbob.
I haven't read the books, but my roomie has, and as I don't care about spoilers we talk a lot about both the tv show and the written story. So this is my understanding of Sans'a polemic scene.
I might have spoilers on the entire tv show and all books, so be aware.
I haven't read the books, but my roomie has, and as I don't care about spoilers we talk a lot about both the tv show and the written story. So this is my understanding of Sans'a polemic scene.
I might have spoilers on the entire tv show and all books, so be aware.
I don't think the rape scene was there just for the sake of the spectacle. As Lilly said, Jayne Poole is the one who gets married to Ramsay. Theon, who also grew up with Jayne, is forced by Ramsay to stimulate her clitoris, which for me is WAY more dark-an-twisted than the tv show scene. If they were aiming for the free shock of it, they would surely include this sadistic detail.
Also, there is something the feminist film critic call "positive images". It was one of the first propositions on how to evaluate if the movies endorsed or not the patriarchal culture. This proposition stated that movies (and I extend it to audiovisual languages in general) HAD TO show women freeing themselves or building strong relationships with other women and so on. Only "positive images" would be allowed. Soon enough, other feminist critics responded saying that 1) is not only the plot/the action (in this case, the rape) that defines if the movie endorses patriarchal culture or not; 2) movies should not show ONLY the world we want to live in, but also the world we actually live in (this choice must be the author's only) and, finally, 3) women spectators do not need to be overprotected and if you do so, you might be patronizing them.
I haven't watched the scene again (and when I watched it for the first time I was so overwhelmed that my critic self wasn't at all awaken) to actually analyze whose point of view is the main one (most people said it should be Sansa's, not Theon's), but I think (not at all sure), they use Theon's point of view as an intermediate to the spectator's point of view, regarding Sansa's gaze. So in the end, we don't have Theon's reference anymore and it's only "us" watching, as if we were him. (But these are technicalities I will no longer bother you with.)
And.... well, if you want a TV show that privileges women character's point of view every single time it's possible, you should be watching American Horror Story Coven, not Game of Thrones.
(But I do love the women in GoT and I also surely think we should have more options on tv shows that focus on female characters points of view)
Also, there is something the feminist film critic call "positive images". It was one of the first propositions on how to evaluate if the movies endorsed or not the patriarchal culture. This proposition stated that movies (and I extend it to audiovisual languages in general) HAD TO show women freeing themselves or building strong relationships with other women and so on. Only "positive images" would be allowed. Soon enough, other feminist critics responded saying that 1) is not only the plot/the action (in this case, the rape) that defines if the movie endorses patriarchal culture or not; 2) movies should not show ONLY the world we want to live in, but also the world we actually live in (this choice must be the author's only) and, finally, 3) women spectators do not need to be overprotected and if you do so, you might be patronizing them.
I haven't watched the scene again (and when I watched it for the first time I was so overwhelmed that my critic self wasn't at all awaken) to actually analyze whose point of view is the main one (most people said it should be Sansa's, not Theon's), but I think (not at all sure), they use Theon's point of view as an intermediate to the spectator's point of view, regarding Sansa's gaze. So in the end, we don't have Theon's reference anymore and it's only "us" watching, as if we were him. (But these are technicalities I will no longer bother you with.)
And.... well, if you want a TV show that privileges women character's point of view every single time it's possible, you should be watching American Horror Story Coven, not Game of Thrones.
(But I do love the women in GoT and I also surely think we should have more options on tv shows that focus on female characters points of view)