The arguments about women and power in Game of Thrones have never been more unsettling

"“Game of Thrones” is a series that embodies the tropes of high fantasy and subverts them. And in no area in the series has that been more clear than its gender politics. Women on “Game of Thrones” aren’t damsels, and while they are often in highly distressing circumstances, they’re largely tasked with saving themselves. Their stories have never been incidental to the narrative, either. The wars that have destabilized Westeros, the continent at the center of the series, were sparked by sexual violence and notions of female honor and autonomy. “Game of Thrones” has inspired intense debates about the difference between depicting sexual violence and sexualizing it, about whose perspectives matter in stories about rape and about consent and roleplay.

But as “Game of Thrones” has entered its third act, and as its female characters have moved from the margins to become leading contestants for the Iron Throne, the show has begun to explore a new and highly relevant feminist question."

READ ARTICLE BY ALYSSA ROSENBERG