The Rape of Sansa Stark: Why its a problem

A few days ago, I got into an argument with several people on Facebook about why The Rape of Sansa Stark was incredibly unnecessary. To my horror, there was actually people who argued that the scene was needed in the show. And then of course, I delved into the internet and found that there is an alarming amount of people who supported the addition of that scene into the show. I am not one of them.

I keep seeing comments on the internet that Game of Thrones is about violence of all sorts, and that people shouldn’t be mad because this kind of thing has happened before. I was mad when it happened before. I’m aware that Westerosi is a word full of violence and death, but showing a violent rape on screen is never a neccesary plotline.It is unbearable to me that Dany’s plotline became her falling in love with her rapist, not her consensual wedding night. I was horrified that a consensual sex scene had to be taken and turned into a rape scene. The same with the Jaime and Cersei scene. Not only was there scene in the sept consensual, but rape is also incredibly out of character for Jaime, he lost his hand to save a woman from a rape, after all.

And what was the point of these scenes? They were never brought up again, ever, as if the trauma of the rape vanished after the end of the episode. There was no discussion of trauma or pain.

Sickeningly, rape is in character for Ramsey. But we know that. The audience already knows what Ramsey is capable of. This wasn’t to show us that Ramsey Bolton is a terrible person, we already are aware of that. While this is in fact a scene that is included in the book, it takes place with another character named Jeyne Poole. Why include this this sub plot?

That’s the part that troubles me the most. In the novels, we know that Westeros is a hard world to live in, but there is also the empowerment of women and characters that give us hope. Lady Stoneheart and Arianne Martell are too incredibly strong female characters who have been cut from the television show.

This is a terrible cycle of violence against women and despite the fact that Westeros is a world of violence, it didn’t need to happen to carry on this plotline. There were so many points where the episode could have cut off and we would have known what would have happened.

Yes, Westeros is a terrible, violent place but I am also tired of watching gratuitous rape scenes that don’t need to be included to make the show enjoyable.