Am I being too sensitive when I comment on the A Game of Thrones series and point out the subtle elements of misandry and gynocentrism in it? No. Misandry in the media reinforces misandry in our culture and only exacerbates the problems we face. Do we need more "girl power" messages like Arya Stark's arrow in a society where boys are already so denigrated, in a society where boys are already expected to behave like good little girls, while female teachers celebrate femininity and demonize masculinity?
It starts immediately after birth, when many baby boys are circumcized, an issue that's recognized as genital mutilation and a human rights issue of the utmost importance when it happens to girls, but is quite legal and even celebrated here. The misandry continues on through boys' early years and throughout their lives as men.
Only 42% of college graduates are male. Single men are almost four times as likely as single women to be homeless. Males are 93% of workplace deaths. Males die at least 5 years younger than females on average. Males who choose to marry stand almost a 50% chance of their wives divorcing them or forcing them to file for divorce, and a very high chance in these cases of losing the ability to be a parent to their children.
We treat boys and men like dirt, and we always have. (Who went to war? Who worked the coal mines?) Women and girls have always been the privileged, protected sex. (Who stayed home? Who was allowed to live on the Titanic?) It's called chivalry.
Feminism has only made things worse - so bad, in fact, that men and women alike are waking up to the injustices men and boys face. And we will no longer stand for nonchalance in the face of sexism.
Showing posts with label gynocentrism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gynocentrism. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Continuing my assault on the feminization of A Game of Thrones
Arya Stark, the young daughter of Lord Stark in A Game of Thrones, doesn't know how to use a bow and arrow in the book, but of course in one of the earliest scenes in the TV series the writers just had to show how strong-willed she is - by having her embarrass her slightly younger brother while he plays target practice by shooting an arrow past him with a perfect bullseye. Of course, he chases after her in anger afterwards.
So the message to boys- Girls are better than you, and all you can do about it is whine like a little baby and go chasing after her, you little shits. And everyone will laugh at you just as they laughed at Bran in the TV series. You can't win. Girls are better. Even at the things boys are supposed to excel at. You little sissies. HA HA HA.
If you don't think children read into these things, you're wrong.
Also, the man they call The Hound is supposed to have half his face burnt to shit, but it seems as if they try to hide it. Tyrion is supposed to be an ugly little bastard too, with a grotesque, misshapen face. But because the series, as with all things these days, must cater to women and their delicate sensibilities, The Hound's injuries are minimized when possible, and Tyrion is pretty damn good looking for a "dwarf". Ridiculous, and disappointing. The TV execs care about ratings (profit) - not accuracy, not honesty.
This is gynocentrism at its finest - consistently catering to women and girls while lambasting men and boys.
Martin's original novel is pretty honest when it comes to the relationships between the sexes, but it tends to have an absurd number of "strong, independent women" with very few weak-kneed damsels. In this sense Martin's original novel caters to women and girls. The only girl who actually acts like a girl in the novel is Sansa, who is the vacuous ditz of the novel. Most women I've ever met, even if intelligent, are not headstrong leaders at heart. Women tend to allow themselves to be led and protected by men, and they always have. In Martin's characterization of women, almost all women and girls are strong-willed leaders who fend for themselves, which has no basis in reality.
Martin also glorifies a mother's protective nature of her children, and shows Lady Stark and Lady Arryn as very protective of their children and in Stark's case, jealous of her husband's bastard son. He does clearly show that in a lot of ways, women care more about their own status than about the lives of their children, however. And that's honest. But with his focus on "motherly love", and lack of any focus on "fatherly love", he perpetuates the myth that women care for their children more than men do. After all, women kill their children far more often than men do. [NOTE: I had to find this through Google search since the government has since removed the study showing that female murderers of their own children vastly outnumber male murderers of their own children. I wonder why? Here is a copy of the image.]
Martin even recognizes false rape claims in the novel, and the injustice of being born poor, due to the evil deeds of the elite. And he certainly understands the complex dynamics of relationships between people, including men and women, as demonstrated by his original account of the relationship between Daenerys and Khal Drogo, which the screenwriters utterly corrupted by changing consensual sex to rape so they wouldn't have to hear complaints from feminists.
I've only watched the first episode thus far, and part of the second, and the show is very good. It's just too bad our cultural misandry has seeped into the series even moreso than in the original novel. I'm sure that over the course of the series, we will see countless maimed and murdered men in graphic detail, while the most we'll see of a woman or girl will be a body, no blood, or maybe a boob here and there. And women and feminists and white knights alike will complain about how the show is sexist for showing too much sex and a few instances of embellished violence against women and girls (a slap here or there), while everyone ignores the minimization of extreme violence against men and boys. And then we'll hear how A Game of Thrones contributes to "rape culture" and "our culture of violence against women," ignoring entirely that 300,000 male rapes occur each year in American prisons and jails, that rape accusations by women are extremely common, that men are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than women, that women kill their children far more often than men, and that women are the perpetrators in domestic violence at least as often as men, and women are 70% of sole abusers.
So the message to boys- Girls are better than you, and all you can do about it is whine like a little baby and go chasing after her, you little shits. And everyone will laugh at you just as they laughed at Bran in the TV series. You can't win. Girls are better. Even at the things boys are supposed to excel at. You little sissies. HA HA HA.
If you don't think children read into these things, you're wrong.
Also, the man they call The Hound is supposed to have half his face burnt to shit, but it seems as if they try to hide it. Tyrion is supposed to be an ugly little bastard too, with a grotesque, misshapen face. But because the series, as with all things these days, must cater to women and their delicate sensibilities, The Hound's injuries are minimized when possible, and Tyrion is pretty damn good looking for a "dwarf". Ridiculous, and disappointing. The TV execs care about ratings (profit) - not accuracy, not honesty.
This is gynocentrism at its finest - consistently catering to women and girls while lambasting men and boys.
Martin's original novel is pretty honest when it comes to the relationships between the sexes, but it tends to have an absurd number of "strong, independent women" with very few weak-kneed damsels. In this sense Martin's original novel caters to women and girls. The only girl who actually acts like a girl in the novel is Sansa, who is the vacuous ditz of the novel. Most women I've ever met, even if intelligent, are not headstrong leaders at heart. Women tend to allow themselves to be led and protected by men, and they always have. In Martin's characterization of women, almost all women and girls are strong-willed leaders who fend for themselves, which has no basis in reality.
Martin also glorifies a mother's protective nature of her children, and shows Lady Stark and Lady Arryn as very protective of their children and in Stark's case, jealous of her husband's bastard son. He does clearly show that in a lot of ways, women care more about their own status than about the lives of their children, however. And that's honest. But with his focus on "motherly love", and lack of any focus on "fatherly love", he perpetuates the myth that women care for their children more than men do. After all, women kill their children far more often than men do. [NOTE: I had to find this through Google search since the government has since removed the study showing that female murderers of their own children vastly outnumber male murderers of their own children. I wonder why? Here is a copy of the image.]
Martin even recognizes false rape claims in the novel, and the injustice of being born poor, due to the evil deeds of the elite. And he certainly understands the complex dynamics of relationships between people, including men and women, as demonstrated by his original account of the relationship between Daenerys and Khal Drogo, which the screenwriters utterly corrupted by changing consensual sex to rape so they wouldn't have to hear complaints from feminists.
I've only watched the first episode thus far, and part of the second, and the show is very good. It's just too bad our cultural misandry has seeped into the series even moreso than in the original novel. I'm sure that over the course of the series, we will see countless maimed and murdered men in graphic detail, while the most we'll see of a woman or girl will be a body, no blood, or maybe a boob here and there. And women and feminists and white knights alike will complain about how the show is sexist for showing too much sex and a few instances of embellished violence against women and girls (a slap here or there), while everyone ignores the minimization of extreme violence against men and boys. And then we'll hear how A Game of Thrones contributes to "rape culture" and "our culture of violence against women," ignoring entirely that 300,000 male rapes occur each year in American prisons and jails, that rape accusations by women are extremely common, that men are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than women, that women kill their children far more often than men, and that women are the perpetrators in domestic violence at least as often as men, and women are 70% of sole abusers.
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