THE WOMEN OF A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE

Danaerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons and last of the Targaryens (Emilia Clarke)

By Amanda Leigh

For a good many years, I refused to read stories in which women were not equal to men. I was sick of epic medieval fantasies that included a select few ladies breaking gender barriers while the rest remained stuck in certain roles laid out for them by history (and are still woefully prevalent today). In my mind, authors have the ability to create whatever world they want, so why write women in these tired roles? Then I discovered A Song of Ice and Fire.


The books (and subsequent HBO series, Game of Thrones) should have been exactly what I hated: a few breakout women in a world where women are inferior. Except I didn't hate them. I realized that for modern audiences, it can be inspiring to see women making a place for themselves in a world where they had even fewer rights. 

Catelyn Stark, Lady of Winterfell (Michelle Fairley)

 When I started the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I did not think I was going to get through it (I'm not completely caught up yet). I cringed at Cat's chapters when her concerns centered around being a mother, and Dany's when she was abused by her brother and pretty much sold to a warlord, and Arya's when she was forced to be a lady and got in trouble when she couldn't do it right. Every time GRRM's characters make a casual comment about rape, I put the book down and refuse to go back to it for weeks (one of the reasons why it's taking me so long to read the series). In A Clash of Kings, I actually threw the book when I read how Sansa was being treated. It made me sick to read that grown men were beating a child.

Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner)

And yet, I kept reading. After thousands and thousands of pages, I have grown to love these female characters. I root for them when they achieve incredible things and cry when they die (because it's a GRRM series and everyone will inevitably die). Even though these women are not given control over their own lives, they try to take it anyway. They fight for their autonomy. They will do what it takes to get power over their own lives. Despite living in a world where the odds are stacked against them, they do not question their own voices as women. In their minds, they are just as good as the men, and in that respect, they remind me of the women I know and love in my own life.

Cersei Lannister, Queen of Westeros (Lena Headey)

 The women Martin writes are good characters, not merely good female characters. Their stories are rich and complicated in a way that has nothing to do with gender. The women of ASOIAF are not fundamentally good or bad. They aren’t simply mothers or daughters or heroes or queens. They have desires, take action, make mistakes, pay for their wrongs, and try again when they fail. They are loyal and selfish and brave and loving and will do whatever it takes to survive in a world that is often cruel to them just because they are women. These characters are also diverse in terms of age, social status, personality, and aspirations. Many throughout the series slip in and out of different social classes or gender roles.

Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and her sword-fighting instructor Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou)

 GRRM’s women characters are so compelling because they make the audience to love them or hate them, to share in their dreams or wish for their demise. They are confident and complicated and are as close to real people as fictional characters can be. Perhaps these women do not have complete control in the male-dominated world in which they live, but in the story, they seek to gain command of their own lives. I love the female characters of the ASOIAF series because they are so relatable. In the end, whether we’re male or female, aren’t we all trying to do something similar – obtain some power over our own lives?