Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on Tuesday slammed the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones” for airing a “gratuitous” rape scene in Sunday night’s episode.
McCaskill tweeted that the episode’s final scene, in which the young Sansa Stark is raped by her new husband on her wedding night while a former childhood friend is forced to watch, was so “disgusting and unacceptable” that she would no longer watch the show:
Ok, I’m done Game of Thrones.Water Garden, stupid.Gratuitous rape scene disgusting and unacceptable.It was a rocky ride that just ended.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) May 19, 2015
The senator, who is known for her efforts to combat sexual assault in the military, became perhaps the highest-profile “Game of Thrones” fan to voice a complaint that’s become increasingly common among viewers disenchanted with the show’s weekly parade of sexual violence. Male characters have forced themselves on their female counterparts since the show’s first season, and one incestuous rape scene that aired in the spring of 2014 sparked particularly vehement critical backlash.
There’s something to the criticism that the rape scenes on “Game of Thrones” are “gratuitous,” as both the scene McCaskill objected to and the incest scene mentioned above were departures from the books on which the show is based. George R.R. Martin, the author of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, addressed fans’ outrage Monday on his blog without taking on the rape scene itself.
“Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements. David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can,” he wrote. “And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can. And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose… but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.”
Claire, you nit-wit. I hated the scene and what I feel is violence porn on this one charater on this massive show, but get a frikken grip already. Also, lay off Warren. But, that’s another story.
It’s a tv show that offers a fuck ton more than just this one character getting raped.If you don’t want to watch it don’t watch it but turn down the hysteria already, yeesh. Whatta a maroon.
Bull Phucky, it is the general tone that I am sure she objects too and so do I. seems to be the standard fair and has been for far to long.
Number of years ago when my children were still quite small my wife and I would take turns putting them down for the night while the other turned on HBO. More than once about 9:15 the one putting the kids to bed would come into the living room and ask, “how’s the movie” and very frequently the answer was “only three sex scenes so far”. At the time we had it all, Showtime, HBO, etc, etc. Was not long before we would say, “boring, I’m for bed”. Soon it was cutting back, not to save any money but because you could almost guarantee that what was on one network would be on the other the following month. Why waste the money. Since then we have cut the cord completely as about all that is on, in the evening especially, is sex and violence, differing mix but very rarely is there a story line that would hold ones attention. Today we watch maybe 3 hours of programming per week, about a third of the news programs of the past. We would much rather be out doing things or reading. Yea, we are way past the demographic the networks are looking to exploit, however, our daughter is smack in the middle of that demographic, she watches even less than we do.
Claire, sweetheart, if you want Happy Time, don’t watch Game of Thrones. Rapes and beheadings are fairly common events, with more violent deaths than you can shake a stick at.
There’s a simple solution. If you don’t like the show, don’t watch it.
The rape scene in the book was much more violent, with Theon joining in. The difference was, the bride wasn’t Sansa.
I watched the first season of the show and I am still baffled by people enjoying it. My friends kind of made fun of me pointing out that the over abundance of heterosexuality probably had a lot to do with it, but honestly, I found the show to be…bleh. I tried reading the books…I got about a chapter in.
Thing is, the more I hear about how horrible the show can be towards women (as opposed to the books at times)…I’m glad I never bothered.