Did Game of Thrones use rape as a tool to empower Sansa Stark?

The real representation of women in Game of Thrones, something that no one wants to talk about. (MUST READ)

Jessica Chastain took to social media a day after the latest “Game of Thrones” episode aired to call out the show for associating Sansa Stark’s rape with her empowerment. The controversial moment in the final season’s fourth episode, titled “The Last of the Starks,” arrived during a conversation between Sansa (Sophie Turner) and the Hound (Rory McCann), who told Sansa she could’ve avoided all the physical and emotional pain she experienced had she left King’s Landing with him back in Season 2. Sansa responded, “Without Littlefinger and Ramsay and the rest, I would’ve stayed a little bird all my life.”

“Rape is not a tool to make a character stronger,” Chastain wrote on Twitter. “A woman doesn’t need to be victimized in order to become a butterfly. The little bird was always a Phoenix. Her prevailing strength is solely because of her. And her alone.”

Chastain’s tweet went viral on social media, earning over 21,000 likes on Twitter. The actress was joined in her criticism by a handful of journalists (read The Daily Beast’s “What ‘Game of Thrones’ Gets Wrong About Sansa Stark and Abuse,” or Refinery29’s “‘Game of Thrones’ Has a Sansa Stark Problem”), including IndieWire’s television awards editor Libby Hill. In an article examining the episode’s harmful treatment of women, Hill…