Masculinity as a Counter:

The Female Other in HBO’s Game of Thrones

            HBO’s Game of Thrones features a variety of overlapping, and often contradictory discourses pertaining to the role of the female in a neomedieval patriarchal society. Diffused over several story timelines and characters, viewers are exposed to a network of female fantasy constructs (and their exceptions) navigating the heteronormative cultures of Martin’s fantasy world. Notable individuals like Yara Greyjoy, Olenna Tyrell and Ygritte offer possible inflections of female autonomy in the world of the Seven Kingdoms and beyond.

            Others like Brienne of Tarth and Cersei Lannister work within the male-dominated systems of knighthood and politics respectively, striving to embody the precedent of male silhouettes. The latter also defies notions of patrilineal inheritance by ultimately claiming the iron throne as Queen. Yet another potential is offered in the form of Arya Stark, the perfect assassin able to assume faces of the dead; she wrecks havoc on the battlefield as well as strict gender binaries and biological constructs. For her, Death is the ultimate equalizer and the only constant in a world of rampant political, cultural, ideological, and theological strife.

            However, Game of Thrones also appears to affirm patriarchal notions of masculinity through the blatant application of gendered violence and othering. Alongside the aforementioned host of subversive female identities are equally numerous threats and/or applications of femicide, rape, abuse and assault that permeate all levels of the social hierarchy. In particular, scenes from season 2’s episode 4 titled “Garden of Bones” illustrate the extent in which male-centric systems of power are paradoxically invested in and begrudgingly dependent on the widespread configuration of the female other. Such sequences also underscore the performative nature of neomedieval masculinity and mechanisms of violence seemingly inseparable from gender identity. This essay seeks to examine the impossible positioning or construct of the female other in the evocative scenes depicting Joffrey’s sadistic treatment towards his betrothed Sansa Stark.

            At the 7:48 minute-mark, the narrative frame shifts from an exchange between Robb and Talisa to King’s Landing. Inside the Iron Throne room, Joffrey points a loaded crossbow at a kneeling Sansa. He claims in front of the court that Sansa must “answer for [her] brother [Robb]’s latest treasons” as his substitute; Joffrey intends to hold Robb accountable for his uprising through her body. In doing so, the scene foregrounds the patriarchal orientation of the female as both a possessed object – connoted by Joffrey’s use of the possessive in “my lady” – as well as a subject whose life is an embodiment of another man’s integrity or honour. Joffrey’s first line renders or encodes Sansa within the patriarchal framework he upholds, where the female is concurrently figured to be an inanimate possession as well as a living prosthesis of male identity.  

            Indeed, patriarchal rhetoric permeates Joffrey’s language and beyond. In this scene, his understanding of masculinity manifests most tangibly in the form of the loaded crossbow. A weapon that inflicts harm via penetration, the crossbow is implicated as a phallic symbol and suggests that masculine pleasure is connected to – or perhaps predicated on – another’s pain. As Kaufman notes, Game of Thrones’ employment of female victims as a biproduct of masculine self-actualization is problematic in its indulgence of a “patriarchal neomedieval fantasy” (59). Joffrey’s visceral enjoyment of Sansa’s helplessness underscores his sadistic desires and need for validation as both a young man and king.

            However, Joffrey diffuses the pretense of kingly authority when he withdraws the crossbow and cites that “his mother insists on keeping [Sansa] alive”. If Joffrey ignored Cersei and followed through with Sansa’s “punishment”, then he would be acting in alignment with his belief that “the king can do as he likes”. On the contrary, Joffrey uses Cersei’s advice as justification to disengage; he temporarily projects his will or agency onto his mother, effectively deferring personal responsibility. Consequently, Joffrey necessitates the presence of the othered figures in male-centric systems of power, whose discordant identities conveniently exist to be receptacles for patriarchal discourse and projections.

            Recalling the image of the crossbow and arrow, the crossbow’s killing efficacy stems from its ability to transgress the target’s physical barriers and stay lodged (without necessarily being retrieved by the attacker), unlike weapons such as swords or axes. Although no arrow pierces Sansa, on Joffrey’s orders Ser Meryn begins to beat and strip her of clothes and “honour”. By making a spectacle of the punishment, Joffrey is able to reaffirm his power over Sansa as well as the knights and court members in attendance. While he certainly seems predisposed to violence and associated fantasies, the Iron Throne generates the potentiality for such fantasies to be realized.

            Furthermore, Joffrey’s masculinity (or the ideal he subscribes to) is externally validated and requires constant maintenance, as communicated by the subsequent scenes where he makes Ros beat fellow prostitute Daisy. These scenes in succession reveal how power is performed, and to whom. Joffrey sends a message to other men – Robb Stark and Tyrion Lannister respectively – through the psychological, social and physiological abuse of female persons. Although his uncle Tyrion did not have such violent intentions, harm befalls the two women because they were sent by him. Robert Baratheon’s rebellion against the Mad King Aerys Targaryen was in part (amongst others) facilitated by male interrelations, or rather, the competing male desires for Lyanna Stark in both Rhaegar and Robert. Above all, the primary threats to Lannister rule in seasons 1 and 2 – Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, Robb, Bran, Stannis and Renly Baratheon, to name a few – are fundamentally male-centric in origin and scope.

            In the world of Game of Thrones and the Seven Kingdoms, the nature of power is ultimately rooted in violence and patriarchal narratives. In particular, the episode titled “Garden of Bones” foregrounds how the (aristocratic) female other is configured within male-centric social systems; moreover, how these systems inherently rely on such a female other to straddle an impossible position within, yet outside, the paradigms of power.

WORKS CITED

“Garden of Bones.” Game of Thrones, season 2, episode 4. Written by Vanessa Taylor, directed by David Petrarca, HBO, 2013.

Kaufman, Amy S. “Muscular Medievalism.” The Year’s Work in Medievalism, 2016, www.academia.edu/30719135/Muscular_Medievalism.

Written for ENGL 247: A Game of Thrones: a Neo-Medieval Cultural Phenomenon (Television Studies) taken in 2020S T2.

Please note that the stills, clips and links were not part of the original submission.