Written by Lady T.
Much has been said about the gratuitous nudity on Game of Thrones. Several feminist critics (such as yours truly) have written about the objectification of the female characters, and how the writers use naked women as objects for male fantasy or to develop male characters.
Challenging the use of nudity in a TV show or film will predictably result in accusations of prudishness and pearl-clutching, as though feminist critics are nothing but live-action versions of Helen Lovejoy.
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| “Won’t somebody please think of the children?!” |
It’s easy to assume that critics are ranting because they’re too squeamish and repressed to look at pictures of naked women without feeling embarrassed. Leaping to that conclusion is much more comfortable than acknowledging the problematic aspects of using naked female bodies as decoration and masturbatory fodder.
The accusation of prudishness is also a strawman argument, assuming that viewers who object to objectification can’t tell the difference between gratuitous nudity (where naked bodies are used for spank bank material) and nudity that serves an artistic purpose.
In fact, the difference between gratuitous nudity and artistic nudity is not that difficult to discern. Even Game of Thrones, the show that puts the word “tit” in “titillation,” occasionally uses nudity in a way that isn’t exploitative and adds to a scene rather than detracting from it.
One such example can be found in the story of Daenerys Targaryen, a character who is more frequently naked than most other characters on the show. The very first time we see Daenerys, she is a pawn in her brother’s game to earn the throne he feels is rightfully his. Stripped naked, Daenerys steps into a bathtub, her eyes haunted and her expression blank. She is the sacrificial lamb and she knows it, and her nakedness is symbolic of her status as an object.
The last time we see Daenerys in the first season, she’s naked again–except this time, she has just emerged from flames and hatched three dragon eggs. The fire that consumed her enemy and her clothes has left her skin smudged but unburnt. Her nakedness is no longer a symbol of her vulnerability–it’s a symbol of strength.
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| The Mother of Dragons, Daenerys the Unburnt |
Daenerys doesn’t have to be naked for the viewer to understand the change in her character, but the nudity in both scenes highlights and reinforces the dramatic growth she’s had over ten episodes.
Another scene that includes purposeful nudity takes place in the third season, where Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, captive of Stark family allies, bathe in the tub (though sitting on opposite sides). Jaime, having lost his swordfighting hand, is even more sarcastic than usual, insulting Brienne’s prowess as a fighter and implying that her former king died because she wasn’t a good enough knight. At this, the maid of Tarth leaps to her feet, completely naked in front of the Kingslayer, staring him down until he apologizes for impugning her honor.
This is a great moment for Brienne’s character–only moments before, she was embarrassed to share a bath with the Kingslayer, but when he insults her, she wastes no time in asserting herself. When she rises to her feet, naked as the day she was born, she isn’t subject to the same male gaze as the chorus of nameless prostitutes on Game of Thrones. She’s still a warrior, and being stripped of her armor doesn’t change that fact one bit.
And the scene only gets better from there. Jaime Lannister, used to being the strongest and most skilled person in the room (in both swordplay and wordplay), is stripped in every sense of the word. He’s vulnerable in a way he’s never been before, confessing the truth about his reasons for killing the Mad King, and he eventually faints into Brienne’s arms, whispering, “Jaime. My name is Jaime.”
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| Brienne hears Jaime’s tale of killing the Mad King |
Much like Daenerys’s scenes at the beginning and end of season one, the nudity in this scene represents both strength and vulnerability. In this scene, Jaime Lannister reveals more of himself than he’s revealed to any other person, and this only works if they’re both literally stripped bare.
Now imagine how much MORE powerful these scenes would be if the frequent use of gratuitous boob shots hadn’t turned this aspect of the show into a running joke.
Despite strawman arguments that claim the contrary, it’s really not all that hard to discern the difference between gratuitous nudity and nudity that serves an artistic purpose. People who claim otherwise are not confused; they’re deliberately disingenuous.
Lady T is a writer with two novels, a play, and a collection of comedy sketches in progress. She hopes to one day be published and finish one of her projects (not in that order). You can find more of her writing at www.theresabasile.com.
It is worth noting that the two examples of nudity that works used here come from the books. I stopped watching mid-season 2 because the most gratuitous scenes (of violence as well as sex and nudity) are fabricated entirely for the show and do little to nothing to advance the plot or character development.
Wonderful post. Agree wholeheartedly. Seeing Daenerys naked in the first scene you mentioned made me uncomfortable–but it was the vulnerability attached to the nakedness that made me so uncomfortable. When she’s transformed at the end of the season, that was gone. I loved seeing nakedness as a symbol of strength for once. (Other example: Irene Adler in Sherlock. Her “battle dress”.)
Seeing all the other nakedness in GoT mainly annoys me. Do they really think we don’t know what they’re doing? Am I supposed to pretend I don’t realize they’re doing this just to nab male viewers?
THANK YOU for explaining clearly and simply how good writing works and the problem with gratuitousness. I also hear allllll the time the reasoning that “women would have been treated as object during that era” (in other words, HISTORICAL ACCURACY (in a fantasy series?)). Or else something about how liking whores is part of whoever’s character.
Problem is, unless your audience has a terrible memory or is incredibly dumb, you would only need to have the one scene full of prostitutes, maybe two. At this point, on season 3, WE GET IT. We understand that there are lots of prostitutes in Westeros and we know who likes them and why. Now throwing naked prostitutes on screen is just masturbatory material and actually detracts from the story, reducing the bite from the scenes that you pointed out where the nudity has meaning.
You have to EARN your nude scenes, HBO.
Well said! The gratuitous nudity drives me absolutely bonkers, but the scene in which Daenerys emerges from the pyre with the dragons… Incredible! It’s the most evocatively potent scene in the series to date. I still get chills recalling it.
I get the feeling that the majority of gratuitous nudity defenders really couldn’t care less whether or not the T&A serves an artistic purpose or is wedged between purposeful scenes for “spank bank material”. They’re grasping at straws to justify their voyeuristic appetites, or they want to be the Cool Girlfriend/Wife to the boyfriend/husband with an insatiable appetite for female objectification. I used to be one of those, so I get how male sexual entitlement plays merry hell with your self-esteem and the extent you’ll go to to justify it in your head.
On a happier note, I was pleased to see the equal treatment of male/female nudity in the bath scene with Jaime and Brienne. *Finally*, finally, finally! Finally, there’s a balance present and the nudity serves an actual purpose. It would be great if the writers could maintain that state of mind and get their act together for the rest of the series.
Why do they need to nab male viewers, is what I want to know. GoT is a testosterone-fueled sausage party even without the gratuitous nudity.
He does have a rather dark and twisty mind, doesn’t he? It’s a common misconception that violence and brutality were rampant during the medieval era. It was no more violent than modern times- less so in some ways, actually. They had a fully functioning judicial system that even peasants could take advantage of. People simply weren’t running around willy-nilly, raping, pillaging and carving each other up with broadswords. I wonder what it says about us that we, collectively speaking, get off on these fantasies of medieval barbarism.
I don’t read the bathtub scene as you do. There’s a very interesting shooting plan just before Jaime gets in the bath: we only see his carves, ankles and feet, and we see his robe drop, while we see Brienne sitting in the tub. Now picture that same shooting plan with a spa, a man in the spa and the carves, ankles and feet of a woman who drops her robe, and you get a huge cliché, a scene I’ve seen at least 50 times in a countless number of movies. Just like in this “Beauty and the Beast” pair, she’s the Beast and he’s the Beauty, Jaime is kind of the “woman” in this couple. He’s renowned as much for his agility with a sword as he is for his beauty, which is probably a bit of a handicap to be taken seriously as a man, for this is a womanlike quality in GoT world; while she’s a knight taller and stronger than most men. When he tells her the truth, he gains her respect, and since she’s obviously started already to get fond of him a bit but can’t allow it because she despises him as kingslayer, she doesn’t reveal herself as a warrior – he’s seen plenty of her like that already. She reveals herself as a woman. That for me is a scene where they swap roles in the pair they make, she accepts him as a strong and fair man whom she can respect, and therefore can like – or love maybe. And to whom she can stop pretending being just a warrior, and reveal herself entirely, warrior AND woman. They both become both whole again in each other’s eyes in this scene.
By truth, I mean the highlight of this scene, the fact that Jaime only killed his king because he was on the verge of burning down the whole town and all its inhabitants, which sheds a whole new light on the character and everything we saw of him from the very beginning.
And I think it’s “calf” in fact, lol, sorry, I’m French.
Brava!