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There's been a lot of hubbub about the "excessive" female nudity and explicit portrayal of sex in GoT all over the internet and mass media too. A lot of people are saying it's overboard, unnecessary and out right offensive. Some even making veiled and not so veiled allusions to the creators of the show being misogynists.

As a outspoken, female fan of both the books and the tv show I adamantly disagree.

Someone compared GoT and Spartacus, saying that at least Spartacus shows naked males bodies as often as naked female bodies, (which is actually NOT true). I will argue that GoT is on par with Spartacus with how it represents women and utilizes sexual content. They both do a great job of showing the ugly, less erotic side of sex/nudity. We see it shown as commerce, manipulation and humiliation, as well as showing emotional intimacy through sex.

In fact, I would argue that sex and female nudity in GoT has been used rather effectively and subtextual narrative, giving us insight into characters and their impact on those around them. For example, it is used to reveal the loathsome nature of certain characters. Joffrey, Theon and Little fingers to name a few. Seeing Joffery's treatment of the two prostitutes after his public humiliation of Sansa seemed to be a very pointed statement about how truly damaged he is and the real danger that Sansa is in by being with him. When a boy his age is faced with two women ready to do what every he wants, one even being naked and all he wants to do is torture them…yeah, that says something. Theon fucking the daughter of a ship captain in a disgustingly graphic way, while telling her to keep her mouth shut to cover her bad teeth and disregarding her pleas to be taken as his salt wife…yeah that says something too. Little Finger, shit, dudes his treatment of EVERY OTHER WOMAN BUT CAT tells us so much about who he is and how complex and fucked up he is.

One of the things I have always loved about the ASOIAF books is how it shows the hidden power of women. I'm not just talking about empowerment, I'm talking about the DAMAGE that women can inflict upon the men in their lives. The damage that the absence of their mother wrought upon all three of the Lannister siblings (Tyrion, Cersei and Jaime) is evident in their relationships with each other and choices they make during the corse of the series. Cersei's mistreatment of Tyrion, manipulation (and sexual exploitation) of Jaime and coddling of Joffery horribly damaged all of them. Cat's denial and inability to address Little Finger's feelings for her keeps him in the torturous delusion about them, that damages all his relationships with other women and could be argued is the root of her husbands eventual death.

I'm not saying the root of all evil in the world of GoT is the fault of women, but rather that GRRM shows the IMPACT of women in his world more fully than any other creator I have ever seen. This includes positive impacts as well. Like Cat's positive effect upon her children. The strength and love she gave to both her sons and daughters help them through the horrors they endure throughout the series.

[I know there is debates in the ASOIAF fandom about her choices, but no one can deny that the Stark children are resourceful and resilient as fuck, and you can't say that all of it is because they had Ned as their father. In fact, you could argue that in the end Ned proved to be far less resourceful and adaptable than any of his children, so a large part of that must have come from their mother. A woman who after the death of the man she loved, dutiful moves to a strange land to marry a complete stranger, her beloved's brother. Yet through all that Cat found love and made a life for herself, and her family. But I digress...]

I will also argue that we get plenty of powerful women in respectfully erotic scenes as well. Take the transformation of Dany and Drogo's relationship. At the start we have her naked and vulnerable, but when the power shifts in their relationship she is on top, her body is covered and yet it is one of the most erotic sex scene in the entires series. Dany's effect upon Drogo powerful and immediate. Through that scene we are shown (as is Dany) that her strength and courage can have a positive effect upon the men around her and herself as well. Let's not forget that is was another WOMAN that empowered her with this knowledge.

The women of ASOIAF & GoT are PRESENT both as victors, villains and victims, naked or clothed in armor they are fully realized. So I don't mind the Tits and Ass, because it comes with Swords and Dragons. Because woman are all these things and part of fair representations is the FULL representation of the female experience. Queens, Whores, Swordwomen, Virginal Maidens and even rape victims are all part of the world of ASOIAF & GoT and on this show ALL their stories are told.

After all, in real life nudity isn’t always sexual, consensual or respectful. If the creators of GoT are attempting to show a 3D view of this world, these cultures and characters, part of what that entails is showing the inherent sexism and exploitation of women to better highlight when they are strong and empowered.

I’m not saying that GoT or HBO are perfect, but I also don't believe that they are misogynists. I think that as we examine the shows representation of women, we should do so with an objective eye and look at the story/character based reasons for the nudity and sex. We should be the last people to look at a naked woman and only see her breasts. As women we know better than anyone that a every breast is connected to a human being with a name and soul. We know that we have more meaning and value than just sexual objects. I believe that the creators of the show know that too.

So, put down the score cards and enjoy the show. That's kind of the point of watching in the first place, isn't it?

I see a lot of chatter on Twitter from fandom authors working on original fiction manuscripts. This news is awesome to me, but there is one trend among some of these authors that worries me. Many are posting pictures teases, play lists and even pinterest boards about their unpublished manuscripts. 

Now, there is wrong with collecting pictures, making notes on character's quirks or even creating playlists for your stories. These things often keep writers on track and motivated them to write. They are great tools for a writer and could later serve to be fun little nuggets of information for readers, but to share this information before publication seems like a premature distraction, to me. Then I took a second to remind myself that many of these authors are from fandom.

It is common place, especially in the Twilight fan fiction fandom, for authors to share the writing process with others in a public forum. We tweet music, images and share teasers both before and while posting a fan fic. It's how we drum up buzz and reader excitement for our fan fiction, as well as keep ourselves motivated to write. There's a kind of positive feedback loop created between the writers and her readers/friends that many of us grown dependent on (though we may not have realized it) to keep us writing and working on a story.

While all of this if great for writing fan fiction, it kind of breaks down when you use the same practices for original stories. Why? Because the rest of use don't know your characters? We don't love them and aren't as motivated to know every little detail about them. That's not to say that your characters and books are not as good (or better than Stephenie Meyers, I'm sure many are), but it means we don't know them and won't have the same motivation to know things about them until we've actually read your book. 

So while your tweets about a playlist for your Edward/Jasper fic may have got a ton of responses, you shouldn't expect a similar response for tweets about a playlist for your unpublished manuscript. Don't get pissed at your followers for "not being supportive." Take a deep breath (and reality check) and realize that people have a hard time getting excited about characters and stories they don't know. That may change after your work is published, but until then you should focus your energy on writing and leave the playlists and pictures till after your manuscript has been accepted by a publisher. 

Of course if collecting these images and making playlists help you write, do it. I would just advise against expending too much time and energy on sharing it with the world before they have point of reference to inspire the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for what you're sharing. Someday you'll be big, not just in fandom and when that happens fangirls will clammer for every scrap of information you want to share about the story, characters and your writing process. So save it until then and focus on writing and editing.

Here's a motivational quote to lift any spirits that I may have pissed on.

Title: Sanctuary
Fandom: Twilight/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Faith/Edward
Summary: Giles reaches out to an old friend for help with training new Slayers.
Timeline: After the end of BTVS season seven. Before the start of Twilight (The Cullen's never left Alaska).
Author's notes: This is a teaser, meant as a present for mjinaspen's birthday. The full story (only a one shot) will be up as soon as I have time to finish it. Thanks to mskathy for giving this a quick once over with her red pen.

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