True, full-frontal of a woman includes her lower half uncovered, not just her breasts. However, full-frontal of a man also includes his lower half uncovered, which exposes his genitalia. Just because the woman’s genitalia is covered by hair, while the penile part of his is not, does not mean that a naked man is full-frontal while a naked woman is not. Fully naked = full frontal, for both men and women.
Point being: GoT is sexist because full frontal of women is common, while full frontal of men is not. Not to mention how naked women are objectified as props far moreon the show than naked men are.
I don’t think that’s entirely true. Certainly we are shown many more examples of unnamed and unclothed female bodies in the show, but did we never catch any worshipful glimpses of anonymous bare-assed man-candy, either in Loras Tryell’s bedroom or Littlefinger’s brothel or perhaps amusing Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand in King’s Landing?
Well, perhaps not. And yet this is a show about a society that objectifies and degrades everyone who lacks the power to fight back. Sultans and shepherds’ children alike are objectified as Purina Dragon Chow. Arryns and Starks are objectified as hurdles blocking the way to a throne. Smallfolk are objectified as military assets or mere cannon fodder. Dwarves are objectified as amusing little munchkins. The men who take the black are objectified as “crows” by the wildlings, and as mere disposable bricks in the Northern Wall by everyone south of it. The whole show is about a “Game” and the main titles reinforce the idea that every last character in it is objectified as a game piece… as literal pawns.
None of this is to say that there exists no problem with gratuitous nudity (what my brother used to call “gratudity”) or the objectification of women in our culture. But looking to Game of Thrones to make any inroads at correcting that problem strikes me as counterintuitive. The show is nothing but one big bad societal example, lit beautifully and set to stirring music.
men’s chests can be pretty titillating too, in fact many male characters in the media, not just GOT are shown shirtless specifically for sex appeal. The only difference is no one freaks out or calls it “nudity”. That’s the real double standard here…
Game of Thrones is a brilliantly presented meal. The atmosphere, the aesthetic, the course selection, people who knew how to run a fine restaurant all coordinated to make the experience exquisite. And the food itself is good, perhaps a little flamboyant (the flavors don’t rely on subtlety) but quite enjoyable. But if you glance back in the kitchen you’re going to see the classic crutches, a lot of salt, butter, cream and bacon! And to me that’s fine. As I see it, the nudity in GoT is like the use of butter in this context, overplayed but its because it works.
There’s a tricky nuance to the larger argument because there is plenty of gratuitous male nudity in the show, it’s just not from the extras. It’s not “set piece” nudity and I can see how that could lend concern to the concept of seeing specifically women as objects, but this is balanced against the notion that extras very much are objects. Having worked both as an extra and with thousands of other extras from every side of the fence on hundreds of shoots, I feel no shame in saying that one of the worst things you can do to an extra is let them get the notion in their heads that they’re real people.
I think compared to the books, which I feel does a much better job illustrating the problems for women in a sexist society (or the objectification of human beings more generally in this constructed society), the show sort of glosses that over much more, and indeed plays it up for the male titillation. I think the key is the scene with Cersei and Jaime in the sept… that sort of sealed my view that the show is much more problematic then the books on this issue. You’re still getting women who are trying to negoitate a sexist society, but it feels undercut by the “sexposition”.
accept it’s usually not pubic hair covering the woman’s genitalia, it’s a specially designed pubic wig so her lower half isn’t really uncovered. When men can have their genitalia obscured by similar items then it might be sexist, until then women have an advantage in this regard.
Sadly, while the estate of JRR Tolkien retains control over the copyright throughout the multiverse, we will never have the parallel universe which has LOTR with lots of nudity, to see if it is as popular there. (I wouldn’t watch it, but then I didn’t watch any of the LOTR films without nudity.)
