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Notice that Alex and I have on the same expression in my profile picture. Me: scientist/engineer, aspiring novelist, daring adventurer, animal lover. This is my story.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Game of Thrones




I watched the first episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. I have read the book and enjoyed it. Here is my summary of the first episode.
Dismembered people. Dramatic pause. Some guy gets beheaded. Dramatic pause. Cute puppies. Winter is coming. Dramatic pause. Random prostitute sex seen. Dramatic pause. Dramatic pause. Bunch of dirty looking people walking around. Superfluous boob shot. Dramatic pause. Grubby people dancing. Neat a wedding. Boobs! More boobs. Rape. Rape.Winter is coming. Dramatic pause. Another sex seen. Dramatic pause.

To my dear friends and family who like this, I don't know what you see in it. I found the adaptation offensive and disgusting and here's why.
In spite of the abundance of superfluous booby shots, the men are not shown even from behind-say in a but shot. In my opinion, this was done intentionally to heighten our impression of the women as submission sexual objects. Woman too old to be sexual objects keep their clothes firmly in place. Aparently we are perfectly comfortable with the depiction of a young women being raped but the depiction of an older women not wearing all of her clothes offends the eye.

The rape seen was a love seen in the book. Did I mention that? It was a plot and character altering LOVE seen. The writers for HBO pulled in out and tossed in a rape seen instead. Don't worry though. We still got to see some boobies.

 In the book, Jamie and the queen were kissing and Jamie was fingering her. Well it says he has his hand under her skin and she's moaning. In the HBO adaptation, he is depicted fucking her from behind. Her ass is showing nicely for the audience, but Jamie doesn't seem to have undone his pants. How does that work?

Let's look at the scene in which Catelyn reads the letter from here sister. In the book I believe she is naked. In the HBO adaptation, she is extremely clothed. Obviously she is too old, too powerful, too married, to in a loving relationship for us to see her naked.

Sexually women are depicted in the most submissive position possible: from behind.  In one case from behind and crying. They are shown as whores (the Dathroki and the whores) or as submissive objects Daenarys and Cersei. Men are depicted as selfish, uncaring wielders of sexual power. So the message here as far a sex is concerned?

Personal Note: I was so riled about the way this was altered from the original story that I was feeling queasy with fury. Now that I have it out in paragraphs, I feel a bit better. Sorry if the spelling sucks. It's late.

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