GOT: Rape Culture

In the very first episode of Game of Thrones, we are introduced to what essentially seems to hold this show together. Sex. Besides the constant fighting, this is a recurring act that serves to spice up the plot, change the mood of an entire scene, or just really has no purpose it serves at all. However, when it comes to Daenerys and Khal Drogo, this is where the concept of sex in this show starts to get a little foggy. What I mean by this is establishing whether or not a sex scene is viewed as rape or consensual sex and why this is.

Originally, in the book, we read Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s wedding night sex scene as just that: a sex scene. Consensual, somewhat even romantic, Dothraki sex. So why is it that when this scene is portrayed on camera, this sex scene carries a whole different meaning? Could it be due to the circumstances of the wedding being reevaluated? Could it be due to the fact that women throughout this show are degraded in too many ways to count and they’re just following the trend? There could be numerous reasons behind this alteration of the scene, and we will explore those reasons within this post. 

(https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Drogo)

As we know, Daenerys is sold into this marriage by her brother. Not only is that bad enough, but she is apparently only thirteen years old when she’s married off to him. This is where your head might start putting some pieces together. You have a young girl being forced into marriage with a warlord. Then you have the book trying to portray the sex between the two as consensual and romantic when nothing about their marriage is consensual or romantic at all. This is where I can understand turning this scene into a rape scene in the show with it being against Daenerys’ will. I know that when I first read this scene in the book, I was truly surprised because I would have never expected that out of Khal Drogo. He was calm and gentle and seemed to truly care for her, which eventually he starts to show that he does, but on one of the very first nights he has even met her? It just doesn’t add up. This is just part of the reason I can understand why they went down the route that they did in the show, regardless of how against it (meaning the topic of rape) I am.

In her article, Nicole Silverberg discusses the question of what ever happened to consensual sex on The Game of Thrones? (https://www.gq.com/story/consensual-sex-game-of-thrones) She talks about how, at the beginning of the show, there were more scenes of consensual sex than there were rape scenes. It just seemed like the characters, mainly men, were acting in more of a caring way than in a degrading way towards the women. However, this might seem surprising since in the very first episode there were many acts of men just grabbing women and bending them over and having their way with them, mainly during Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s wedding. Men were literally killing each other because they were wanting to get it on with the dancers so badly. They were like animals to them that they were wanting prey on. Props might be a better term to describe women in this show. Plus, while consent is a strong term throughout this blog, so is the word romantic. Just because some of the scenes throughout this show are consensual doesn’t make them romantic in any means at all. Whether it is rape or consensual, so many of these sex acts are still very degrading to the women in these scenes. Nicole continues to go on about how modern culture had something to do with the sexual violence we notice throughout all of Game of Thrones. We live in a world where sex sells and this show definitely fits into this category of what sells to our generations today. However, it seems that this show transitioned to fit into this category. It seemed as though it just dappled in this category at first to get a feel for what would keep or get the audience intrigued, and once it realized that people were hooked, they soon found out what it was they were using for bait. After this, we started to notice not only more sex scenes but more of them carried out in violent or aggressive manners.

Women throughout this show are treated so poorly that, as a woman, it is somewhat hard to watch. This is another reason that I think falls behind the decision to have Daenerys raped instead of a consensual sex scene like what occurred in the book. Plus, this was kind of the leading act of the whole show with this occurring at the end of the very first episode. You watch all of these dancers just getting bent over at the middle of a wedding reception and men just doing whatever pleases themselves to these women, in public. How can you follow these acts with a romantic sex scene between a young girl who is terrified of everything that is going on, and a man who literally kills people daily? While that would be something most women would more than appreciate to watch rather than the rape scene that we are stuck with, it just isn’t realistic, especially in the times that Game of Thrones takes place during. While she doesn’t look like it in the show, she is still a little girl. Can you remember what types of things you were doing at age 13? I was still going to play outside on my bike, calling my friends off my home phone, I had barely even had a class on sex ed at this point in my life. Can you imagine being put into Danaerys’ situation at that age? It would be mortifying. Although this was the trend back in these times, I can still assure you that these girls that are dealing with being sold into marriages and being raped by men aren’t just having the times of their lives. Not all of them at least. It is also not very common it would seem for a marriage that was started with a rape ended in the two loving each other.

I am trying to help you put yourself in Daenerys’ shoes. How would you feel if at the age of 13 you were raped by a man you were literally sold to, almost as a sex slave, who raped you? I would feel so much hatred for the man, that’s for sure. However, it is common to hear about young girls getting kidnapped and being almost brainwashed into loving the person that kidnapped them regardless of them taking the girl away from her family, life as she knew it, and usually committing violent sex acts with her. In Clara Moskowitz’ article, she talks of instances in which the person who is kidnapped bonds with the one who kidnapped them (https://www.livescience.com/7862-bonding-captor-jaycee-dugard-flee.html). She talks of Jaycee Dugard, a girl who was kidnapped by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and how she developed a relationship over 18 years with her captors. She wrote that Jaycee described her relationship with Phillip Garrido as like that of a marriage. It is not unusual for victims to begin to sympathize with those who captured them, especially if they are together for an extended period of time. I feel that Daenerys and many other girls in this time end up doing the same thing over time with the husbands that they are sold to.

https://www.insider.com/jason-momoa-rape-joke-game-of-thrones-panel-2017-10

Overall, I do disagree with not only rape, but how women are treated even outside of sex throughout this entire show. But, I can understand why the show decided to go against what the book originally described Daenerys’ first time with Khal Drogo to be like. It just wouldn’t make as good of television if it were the other way around. Plus, it wouldn’t be as realistic considering the age that this show takes place in. Women are treated poorly, almost as sex slaves to their husbands, and the men tend to get whatever and whoever they want, even if it means having to kill another man for it. So, I feel that as if the meaning behind choosing to portray Daenerys’ wedding night scene as a rape scene was justified in concerns for the success of the show.