Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2017)

An Examination of Audience Perceptions of Sexual Violence and Misogyny in Game of Thronesâ„¢

  • Ariella Thompson
Submitted
December 31, 2017
Published
2017-12-31

Abstract

This research examines how representations of sexual violence and gender based discrimination equate to misogynistic perceptions.  Game of Thrones™ (GoT) has been branded wildly misogynistic by critics yet is often praised for its strong female characters and feminism by fans.  This research responds to calls to seek audience views about sexual violence and misogyny in GoT.  Using a qualitative, inductive approach, ten participants were shown clips from GoT, framed with quotes from the literature, and afterwards were asked to discuss their responses. This research suggests that audiences respond negatively to obvious incidences of sexual objectification of women.  Participants justified the sexual violence and misogyny in GoT as ensuring historical accuracy or realism. Audiences believe representations of rape can have a prosocial value. The findings raise questions about men’s perceptions of internalized misogyny. This work provides new information on audience perceptions of misogyny and sexual violence in GoT.

References

  1. Alfieri, T., Ruble, D.N. and Higgins, E.T., 1996. Gender stereotypes during
  2. adolescences: Developmental changes and the transition to junior high school. Developmental psychology, 32, 1129-1137.
  3. Bartky, S. L., 1990. Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York: Routledge.
  4. Bearman, S., Korobov, N. and Thorne, A., 2009. The Fabric of Internalized Sexism. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, 1(1), 10-47.
  5. Bell, J. and Waters, S., 2014. Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers [online]. 6th Edition. Berkshire: Open University Press.
  6. Benokraitis, N.V. and Feagin, J.R., 1995. Modern Sexism: Blatant, Subtle, and Covert Discrimination. 2nd Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
  7. Berwick, I., 2012. Lunch with the FT: George RR Martin. Financial Times [online]. Available from: https://www.ft.com/content/bd1e2638-a8b7-11e1-a747-00144feabdc0 [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  8. Bohanan, R., 2016. My Feminist Opinions Ruined Game of Thrones for My Boyfriend. Huffington Post [online], 25 May 2016. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-bohanan/my-feminist-opinions-ruin_b_10131462.html [Accessed 27 May 2017].
  9. Bonomi, A.E., Nichols, E.M., Carotta, C.L., Kiuchi, Y. and Perry, S., 2016. Young Women’s Perceptions of the Relationship in Fifty Shades of Grey. Journal of Women’s Health, 25 (2), 139-148.
  10. Borgia, D., 2014. Twilight: The Glamorization of Abuse, Codependency and White Privilege. The Journal of Popular Culture, 47 (1), 153-173.
  11. Breines, J.G., Crocker, J. and Garcia, J. A., 2008. Self-objectification and well-being in women’s daily lives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 583-598.
  12. Brennen, B., 2013. Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies. New York: Routledge.
  13. Brigley Thompson, Z., 2017. Happiness (or not) after rape: hysterics and harpies in the media versus killjoys in black women’s fiction. Journal of Gender Studies, 26 (1), 66-77.
  14. Brownmiller, S., 1975. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. New York: Bantam.
  15. Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2003. Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  16. Buchwald, E., Fletcher, P. and Roth, M., 1993. Transforming a Rape Culture. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.
  17. Carpenter, R.C., 2012. Game of Thrones as theory: It’s not as realist as it seems – And that’s good. Foreign Affairs. Available at: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137360/charli-carpenter/game-of-thrones-as-theory [Accessed 30 April 2017].
  18. Chesler, P., 2001. Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman. New York: Nation Books.
  19. Clapton, W. and Shepherd, L.J., 2015. Lessons from Westeros: Gender and Power in Game of Thrones. Politics, 37(1), 5-18.
  20. Cowan, G., 2000. Women’s hostility toward women and rape and sexual harassment myths. Violence Against Women, 6, 238-246.
  21. Cudd, A.E., 2006. Analyzing Oppression. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  22. Don, K., 2014. Dimwits and the Dark Ages. In These Times [online], 6 May 2014. Available from: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16649/dimwits_and_the_dark_ages [Accessed 27 May 2017]
  23. Easteal, P., Holland, K. and Judd, K., 2015. Enduring themes and silences in media portrayals of violence against women. Women’s Studies International Forum, 48, 103-113.
  24. Flood, M., ed. 2007. International Encyclopaedia of Men and Masculinities [online]. London: Routledge.
  25. Fontana, A. and Frey, J. H., 1994. Interviewing: The art of science. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 361-376.
  26. Frankel, V., 2014. Women in Game of Thrones: Power, Conformity and Resistance. North Carolina: McFarland and Company.
  27. Fredrickson, B. L., and Roberts, T., 1997. Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206.
  28. Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M. and Signoriell, N., 1980. The “mainstreaming†of America – Violence. Journal of Communication, 30(3), 10-29.
  29. Gilmore, D. D., 2001. Misogyny: the male malady [online]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  30. Glaser, B. G. and Strauss, A. L., 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research [online]. New Jersey: Rutgers.
  31. Gubrium, J. F. and Holstein, J. A. (eds) 2002. Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
  32. Heath, L., Gordon, M.T. and le Bailly, R., 1981. What newspapers tell us (and don’t tell us) about rape. Newspaper Research Journal, 2(4), 48-55.
  33. Hibberd, J., 2016. Game of Thrones: Emilia Clarke crushes sexism debate. Entertainment Weekly [online], 26 March 2016. Available from: http://ew.com/article/2016/03/26/game-thrones-emilia-clarke-season-6/
  34. [Accessed 27 May 2017].
  35. Hjarvard, S., 2008. The mediatization of society: A theory of the media as agents of social and cultural change. Nordicom Review, 29, 105-134.
  36. Johnson, A.G., 2000. The Blackwell dictionary of sociology: a user’s guide to sociological language [online]. Oxford: Blackwell.
  37. Kaschak, E., 1992. Engendered lives: A new psychology of women’s experience. New York: Basic Books.
  38. MacDonald, P. and Charlsworth, S., 2013. Framing sexual harassment through media representations. Women’s Studies International Forum, 37, 95-103.
  39. MacKinnon, C., 1979. Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination [online]. London: Yale University Press.
  40. Mason, J., 2002. Qualitative Researching. 2nd Edition. London: Sage.
  41. Mendes, K., 2012. ‘Feminism rules! Now where’s my swimsuit?’ Re-evaluating feminist discourse in print media 1968-2008. Media Culture and Society, 34, 554-570.
  42. Mulvey, L., 1975. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.
  43. Nair, G. and Tamang, D., 2016. Representations of rape in popular culture: Gone Girl and Badlapur. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 18(4), 614-618.
  44. O’Neil, J., 1981. Patterns of gender role conflict and strain: Sexism and fear of femininity in men’s lives. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 60, 203-210.
  45. Oxford Dictionaries, 2017. Misogyny [online]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/misogyny [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  46. Oxford Dictionaries, 2017. Sexism [online]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sexism [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  47. Oxman-Martinez, J., Marinescu, V. and Bohard, I., 2009. Shades of violence: The media role. Women’s Studies International Forum, 32, 296-304.
  48. Papp, L.J. and Erchull, M.J., 2016. Objectification and System Justification Impact Rape Avoidance Behaviors. Sex Roles, 76, 110-120.
  49. Piggot, M., 2004. Double jeopardy: Lesbians and the legacy of multiple stigmatized identities. Psychology Strand at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia: Unpublished thesis.
  50. Proctor, W., 2015. The Game of Thrones Rape Debate. CST Online [online], 12 June 2015. Available from: http://cstonline.net/the-game-of-thrones-rape-debate-by-william-proctor/ [Accessed 27 May 2017].
  51. Projansky, S., 2001. Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture. New York: New York University Press.
  52. Robinson, J., 2016. Game of Thrones Is Even More Insanely Popular than You Think. Vanity Fair [online], 19 July 2016. Available from: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/07/game-of-thrones-most-popular-show-ratings [Accessed 27 May 2017].
  53. Rowley, C. and Weldes, J., 2012. The evolution of international security studies and the everyday: Suggestions from the Buffyverse. Security Dialogue, 43 (6), 513–530.
  54. Schulz, W., 2004. Reconstructing mediatization as an analytical concept. European Journal of Communication, 19 (1), 87-101.
  55. Shapiro, M.J., 2009. Cinematic Geopolitics. London: Routledge.
  56. Street, J., 2011. Mass Media, Politics and Democracy. 2nd Edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  57. Swim, J.K., Hyers, L.L., Cohen, L.L. and Ferguson, M.J., 2001. Everyday sexism: Evidence for its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies. Journal of Social Issues, 57, 31-53.
  58. Szymanski, D., Gupta, A., Carr, E.R. and Stewart, D., 2009. Internalized Misogyny as a Moderator of the Link between Sexist Events and Women’s Psychological Distress. Sex Roles, 61, 101-109.
  59. Szymanski, D., Moffitt, L.B. and Carr, E.R., 2011. Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research. The Counselling Psychologist, 39(1), 6-38.
  60. Tatum, B.D., 1997. “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?â€. New York: Basic Books.
  61. Thomas, R., 2013. Nudity and Power on Game of Thrones. Feminist Fiction [online], 29 May 2013. Available from: https://www.feministfiction.com/blog/2013/05/29/nudity-and-power-on-game-of-thrones [Accessed 27 May 2017].
  62. Thomas, R., 2014. Why Write About Game of Thrones? Feminist Fiction [online], 23 April 2014. Available from: https://www.feministfiction.com/blog/2014/04/23/why-write-about-game-of-thrones?rq=game%20of%20thrones%20misogyny [Accessed 27 May 2017]
  63. Vance, K., Sutter, M., Perrin, P.B. and Heesacker, M., 2015. The Media’s Sexual Objectification of Women, Rape Myth Acceptance and Interpersonal Violence. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 24, 569-587.
  64. Walter, N., 2010. Living Dolls: The return of sexism. London: Virago.
  65. Worell, J. and Remer, P., 2003. Feminist perspectives in therapy: Empowering diverse women. 2nd Edition. NJ: Wiley.
  66. Videos
  67. Noble, O., 2012. ‘Game of Thrones’ Sex Scenes and Nudity: The Complete NSFW Collection [video, online]. Huffington Post. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/17/game-of-thrones-sex-scene_n_1601883.html [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  68. Giantsbane, T., 2013. S3E4 Game of Thrones: Cersei and Tywin discuss the Tyrells [video, online]. YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fPqhXZrOE [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  69. R, K., 2013. Cersei and Margaery – I’ll have you strangled in your sleep [video, online]. YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olDsY-j8W1U [Accessed 28 May 2017].
  70. Images
  71. Noble, O., 2012. ‘Game of Thrones’ Sex Scenes and Nudity: The Complete NSFW Collection [screen shot from video]. Huffington Post.
  72. R, K., 2013. Cersei and Margaery – I’ll have you strangled in your sleep [screen shot from video]. YouTube.