#but y'all keep ignoring that in favor of petty fandom wars

[sunfyress]

so i see a lot of people talking about how the asoiaf fandom treats it’s female characters today and i figured that i would give my two cents on it (also, it gives me a reason to procrastinate writing my history essay lmao).

first off, read this post by @maesterleia because they explained my exact thoughts better than i ever could.

female characters are treated are with a double standard compared to male character -- which, unfortunately, is very typical in all fandoms but it seems to be taken to the extreme in asoiaf, a book series that does everything possible to make it’s characters as nuanced and shaded grey as possible. and while most of the male characters are analyzed with that in mind, every female character either must be a) a perfect woman that has never done or even think a wrong thing or b) an evil, scheming seductress who’s probably going to end up a worse war criminal than tywin lannister.

forget nuance, forget complexities of the human nature, forget being human -- women are not allowed to be flawed here and if they are, they must be a villain. it’s like @maesterleia wrote in their post “Why is a female character having flaws seen as detrimental? Because this mindset is rooted in the idea that only villainous female characters are allowed to have flaws. Cersei, for example, can be dissected and analyzed critically because she’s on the villainous side of the narrative. She’s complex and sympathetic, but still largely classified as a villain (generally), and therefore, she is--according to this mindset--allowed to be flawed.” 

it’s a ridiculous ideology and the cause of so many stupid and pointless fandom wars. the idea that a hero that happens to be female must be free of any flaws or arcs where they battle with their own morality when male characters like jon snow or robb stark is judged the same way makes no sense to me. 

why isn’t jon judged for the way he called myrcella “insipid” for smiling at robb and being an eight year old girl or how he was classist and insensitive to his other night watch’s recruits in the beginning of agot the same way sansa was mean and insensitive to arya? why isn’t robb talked about descending into madness or dictatorship after he ordered the execution of rickard stark the same way daenerys is talked about after she ordered the execution of the slave masters? why is tywin admired for being ambitious but cersei or margaery or arianne is called a scheming slut for having ambitions too? why isn’t ned shamed for taking a young theon away from his home and culture and forcing him to live as a hostage the same way catelyn is shamed for not being a mother to her husband’s bastard? hell, why is jaime considered to be morally superior than cersei, who yes is a very bad and terrible person, when he tried to kill an eight year old boy and still shows no remorse, why he is the good lannister and worthy of redemption but cersei is not?

the unfair and ridiculous double standard is of no use when it comes to analyzing the female characters and the only thing it does is caused the fandom to pit women against each other. the “sansa vs daenerys” debate or the “arya vs sansa” or the “elia vs lyanna” debate, all discussion full of misogyny -- deciding which character is better by saying who hasn’t done any wrong things (all of them have done some not-so-great things and all of have them done even more great things, give it a break guys) or who’s better by who’s more feminine or who’s less feminine (ridiculous AND sexist, especially considering it’s possible to be both feminine and masculine and not just one or the other). This also goes hand in hand with the idea that there is only allowed to be One female character that can be the hero in the series and all the others must be either be their enemy or something to prop them up -- all while most of the fandom can find it in themselves to have multiple complex male characters in their heart.

the whole ideology that male characters can have flaws and make mistake and still be considered capable of redemption, or capable of learning, or still a good person while such ideas can’t be afforded to female characters is fucking toxic and a great way to make a fandom unbearable to be in.