Amanda Peet Thinks You Should Can Your 'Misplaced' 'Game of Thrones' Misogyny Complaints

By Cindy Davis | Game of Thrones | June 24, 2015 |

By Cindy Davis | Game of Thrones | June 24, 2015 |

Listen up, people. Amanda Peet is married to Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff, and she’s got something to let us in on — sorry, it’s not about who survived the fifth season finale.

Rather, Peet seems to be adding her voice to those who feel the show’s violence against women is of the imagined historical time. Instead of focusing on that negativity, we should be grateful for the strong women we see depicted. The Togetherness actress calls public outcry about the series’ misogyny “really misplaced.”

“They write some of the greatest female characters that are on television. It’s a misogynist world, this world that George R. R. Martin created, but we have to experience it without thinking that people are condoning this.

It’s much more insidious to have middling, ancillary female roles where the women are not part of the plot — where they don’t advance anything. Wife roles, girlfriend roles, there are very few of those in Game of Thrones. If someone takes their clothes off and it’s a massive part of the plot? So be it.”

Oh, so that’s how it works? Look, I love that the series has characters like Cersei Lannister, Margaery and Olenna Tyrell, Brienne of Tarth and Ellaria Sand. They’re cunning and clever, fierce warriors, and they play the game as well as any of their male counterparts. But, does that mean we should ignore or deny the series’ missteps? (Cersei’s crucial nude scene can hardly be singled out as the only example of nudity; the show’s reputation for sexploitation was earned. Adding rapes that had no purpose do give reason to think “people” condone.) There seems to be this mindset that one either has to love or hate Game of Thrones; if you love it, you must accept it unconditionally, and if there’s something you don’t like, then WHY DON’T YOU JUST STOP WATCHING IT? Come on, now. We’re reasonable people, aren’t we? We understand that the complicated show we watch can have good and bad sides, and that making critical observations doesn’t mean we must give up on it entirely. Likewise, because it has strong female characters, we aren’t going to ignore excessive violence and rape. We’ve been with this series five years. We know the time and place; we realize the inherent horrors, and we don’t need to be slapped in the face every five minutes to be reminded. How about instead of throwing in a few extra rapes, we spend that time watching those great female characters actually “advancing?”

As for Peet’s own complaints about her husband’s show, she has only one — taken very personally. That character who died at the end of the finale did make her rather angry:

“I was furious. He [Benioff] was already in Belfast, he’s back to work now on the next season, but I texted him and said, ‘I’m single now.’”

(via The Wrap)

Cindy Davis, (Twitter)