Does GoT need to G-O for What Happened to Sansa?

The internet is abuzz with the recent episode of Game of Thrones. Much like everyone else, I have my own opinion on the matter

SPOILER ALERT

I completely agree that the writers of this show use rape as a plot device and it needs to stop. It perpetuates rape culture and normalizes the behavior to the general audience. I’ve considered more than once walking away from the show because of it. A variety of fans, bloggers, and the like have publically walked away from the show because of Sansa’s rape at the hands of Ramsey. I completely respect and support their decision.

That said, the writers had to do some major character condensation to keep the storylines flowing. There are already so many side narratives and characters that they don’t all fit in one episode anymore. According to multiple sources, Jeyne Poole (the condensed character) gets it much worse in the book than Sansa did on the show.

The Washington Post has an excellent piece that says the show fully acknowledged this was a rape and did as tasteful a job presenting it as possible. We know Ramsey is a monster and knew he’d torment his bride. I respect the show for not victimizing the character with how the scene was treated.

The show is on thin ice with me personally but this is not what will break it. The writers were trying to do as accurate a job as possible while condensing characters. That is not easy.

If we’re going to attack anyone about this incident, let’s go after Martin for creating such a monstrous character. I’ve read enough of the books to suspect that Martin writes with the male gaze even when it’s a female point of view character.

If we’re really going to attack the writers, let’s attack them for making all of the kidnapping slavers black. We finally get more than a few token characters of color and they’re all bad guys? Really GoT? Really?

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 18 or Paws Up

For nonhuman characters, I went whole dog and read The Unscratchables by Cornelius Kane. It’s a take on the noir detective genre but all the characters are various kinds of cats and dogs.  It opens with a messy murder and Max “Crusher” McNash on the case. Soon, Cassius Lap of the Feline Bureau of Investigation is called in to assist.

I had trouble telling what the time frame was supposed to be. Based on Crusher’s past, it seemed like it might be post-WWII or possibly Vietnam since the main genre focus is on the 1950s detective genre. But there were references to Wizard Whelp, Jack Russell Crowe, and other more modern pop culture phenomena. It was hard to tell.

Kane did a good job painting it like an animal’s world with language: janglers instead of phones, bobblers instead of heads, chasing tails instead of going in circles, etc. I enjoyed the puns like the street names, PAVLOV, and various character names. Kane included several different jokes that were fun to discover.

It’s a light and easy read. Given the time of year, perfect for the beach.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 17 or So Much Stupid

For a book that got bad reviews, I went whole hog and read The Feminist and the Cowboy by Alisa Valdes. I was always curious but I shied away once the negative reviews start pouring in both before and after it came out the relationship ended. This book earned every negative review.

This is definitely one of the worst books I have ever read. If you want to appreciate how much I hated it, feel free to look at my status updates on GoodReads.

I’m going to start with why I hated it. The fact that she calls herself a feminist is insulting to me and everyone else who believes feminism is a fight for equality. Here are some of her thoughts on feminism:

“Like so many children of second-wave feminism, I began to subconsciously equate being the dominator with being free.”

“I had been, for my parents, less a daughter than I was a chance to create a brave new deserialized female citizen immune to discrimination. I was not alone; there were millions like me. I was one in a confused, skirtless army of girl Frankensteins, the first postfeminist prototypes of the All-American un-Girl.”

"I was really good at blaming men for my shortcomings as a person."

"I was so insanely radical that I couldn't honestly imagine being sexual with men because it seemed like such a betrayal of the cause to, like, open up and let them in."

That last one is so incredibly not normal. If you feel that being heterosexual and having a relationship makes you a traitor to feminism, you need so much therapy. Of course her interpretation of feminism screwed up her life. It has precious little to do with actual feminism.

Despite her own issues, Valdes spends a great deal of time researching how men and women are fundamentally different. None of the information is cited for our benefit but it was enough to fuel her to become a ‘difference feminist’ who has its ideas rooted in the Catholic Church. If your feminism is based in tenants from a religion that is notoriously for negative attitudes toward women, you may want to ask some serious questions about what you actually believe.

At one point Valdes catches the cowboy in a lie he told so smoothly that it’s close to sociopath levels of deception. When she calls the other woman to get the full story, he’s upset that no only has he been caught in a lie, he’s been caught in all of it. When Valdes dares to speak to the other woman again, the cowboy goes from ‘I’ll do anything to fix this’ (except end things with the other woman while you can witness it, let’s not get carried away) to ‘we’re done’ in a matter of hours.

That is gloriously manipulative. He’s willing to do anything to salvage the relationship (so long as it’s on his terms) but when Valdes ‘makes a mistake’ he completely flips the situation so it’s her fault. I have been on the other side of this. It’s a way for him to get out of trouble for half the cost of his original sin.

He only agrees to take her back if he’s in totally control of the relationship. He wants to take care of her and be the strong, traditional man. The fact that he wasn’t interested in listening to her or negotiating is irrelevant.

Why did it get so many bad reviews other than the obvious? Because the relationship was over by the time the book came out because he physically abused her. It’s been well documented by Jezebel, Slate, Salon and New York Magazine.

I’ve read books with worse writing (although this book cracks the top 10) but I hate this one so much more. Valdes perpetuates negative stereotypes about feminists and showcases an unhealthy relationship as a good goal. I hope nobody ever wastes money on this insult to the written word again. I am impressed by how much I hated this book.

#HowToSpotAFeminist

#HowToSpotAFeminist is trending on Twitter. It is a lovely mix of things that make you want to quit the internet and give you hope. I have no idea why there is so much vitriol still surrounding this word. Do the trolls realize that attacking us on Twitter is not only not changing minds but justifying what we believe in?

Some lovely examples of why I don't want to live on this planet anymore:

There was one gem of a user I saw last night that I can't find again but that's probably for the best. He was kind of a horrible human being. Ms. Medina isn't much better. I smell an MRA.

Saying that all feminists fit into the erroneous and ugly stereotypes perpetuated above is like saying everyone who is pro-GamerGate is a doxing, hateful troll who believes in sending death and rape threats to women who dare have opinions. 

GamerGate is about ethics in video game journalism like Nazism was about politics. Not the most PC comparison but I have yet to come up with anything better. I digress.

Whenever there is hate, feminists will rise to the occasion. We're kind of used to pointless venom from the ignorant masses so we broke out the sass.

I like to think of this kind of stuff as Caitlin Moran's 'broken windows' feminist activism. If you can change some of the base things (while more qualified elected officials work on the big things), you can slowly start to change minds. Here's hoping she's right.

Music: TKO by Le Tigre

A Graphic Year Week 18

For this week’s graphic novel, I read Jesus Hates Zombies: It’s a Jurassic Kind of Life, Vol. 1 and 2. I picked this up at a very small con a while back. Do I really need to explain why?

I came into this story in the middle without totally realizing it. There were several previous stories involving the adventures of Jesus and Abraham Lincoln. It was very intriguing but because they’re so short, I’m only getting a piece of a larger story.

I did some poking around the web but I can’t seem to find what happens after Vol. 2, which is disappointing. I can find some of the earlier parts of the series but nothing after what I’ve got. I even checked the website of the comic publisher but didn’t anything new.

It was fun and just a bit silly given how farfetched it became. I really wanted to see what was tying it all together.

PopSugar Challenge Book 16 or Everything to Envy

When I decided to read a book that takes place in another country, I decided to go as far away as a book could take me. North Korea is home to a mostly dead political system and a way of life Americans can only understand by reading books like this or 1984.

I find North Korean utterly fascinating because, as an American, it's a completely alien world. I met a South African who talked about getting a book here because it was banned back home. I can't wrap my head around what it's like to be denied access to any media or not be able to find any food in your country.

I love the duality of the title. The lives of many North Koreans, especially during the famine in the 90s, is nothing to envy. It is also the refrain of a song in support of the benevolent leader who ensures they have nothing to envy from the rest of the world. 

What pushed one of the people in the book to decide to defect was a starving boy singing that song. A North Korean doctor tossed the border to China to discover that dogs were eating better than she was. 

One woman who defected at the behest of her daughter was nostalgic for the free health care before the regime went to hell in the 90s. It's the same kind of simplicity in knowing your role and place in the world I read about in Wayward Vol 1. Demick notes that many defectors don't know what to do with their new found freedom and 50 years of technological advances they've missed out on.

The epilogue details the continued hardship the North Korean populace still face. The economy has collapsed and no one in the country seems to have been well fed in the last 20 years. I learned there's a strong market for crystal meth since it's cheap and an appetite suppressant. 

I'm sure there have been changes since this book was published in 2009 but I can't imagine the mystery that is Kim Jong-un can fix everything. I'd like to do more reading but I suspect I may see the fall of North Korea.