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Do you think Cersei's Walk of Shame was misogynistic?


voodooqueen126

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But why does this only apply to the Queen? Robert wasn't persecuted for his habits, but Cersei is.

Women are constantly being called whores and wenches etc. in Westeros, Misogyny is a part of the atmosphere, it is part of the atmosphere, and the disproportionate punishment of a female ruler for promiscuity is in line with this.

Think of all the supposed habits powerful men in Westeros get away with, Lyn Corbray apparently enjoys young boys, Gregor Clegane hardly seems to leave anyone alive, Roose enforces Lord's right.

You're still missing the point.

Because only a maternity can be confirmed and paternity cannot, in order for assets to be passed only to 'true' offspring, the woman's social contract in a marriage fundamentally is to give up her sexual autonomy.

Thats not about oppressing women more than men, its just a natural and 'necessary' result of hereditary inheritance and no way of proving paternity. Although, naturally, some men will treat it that way, because there are rotten apples in every barrel.

The Queen is the pre-eminent example for women throughout the land. So even though she is no longer married, she still has the responsibility to set the standard for all the noblewomen of the realm.

SImplified:

Noblemen get to be relatively wealthy and powerful and secure - the price (or one of them) is that they may have to fight, be maimed, and die, for no real reason of their own.

Noblewomen get to be relatively wealthy and powerful and secure - the price (or one of them) is they lose their sexual autonomy.

Cersei as Queen is breaking that paradigm, and setting a bad example for the realm to boot. She doesn't have sexual autonomy, but she's stealing it and using it anyway, and by being caught doing so, has set an example to the whole realm. So a counter-example is appropriate. (Note that does not mean I approve, just that I understand).

Robert didn't have the same issues because men have other responsibilities and other costs, not the cost of their sexual autonomy.

Note again, if Cersei went away and lived in a mud hut, she could sleep with whoever she chooses and she would not suffer through the Walk of Shame. The punishment is because of her station, as much as her acts.

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Because it's the picture for the month of June in the 2013 calendar.

How did you feel about it and why?

Do you think the author was joining in with the misogyny of the characters? Or was he sympathetic to Cersei?

Considering that it was openly stated by the High Septon to be misogynistic ("wantonness of widows is commonly known", or shit like that), your question is moot in large part.

Well, I figured I ought to review the calendar on Amazon before Christmas, so I wasn't sure what to say, other than that I felt deeply uncomfortable about it, especially as it seemed like GRRm seemed to delight in Cersei's humiliation.

Really? I had the opposite reaction: he tried to make me empathize with Cersei. Could've worked, if he hadn't done such a thorough job making her impossible to empathize with.

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Do you think the author was joining in with the misogyny of the characters? Or was he sympathetic to Cersei?

Are you freaking kidding me? I am so sick of this crap right here. If you honestly think that Cersei's walk was written by the author in order for him to spread some propaganda against women, read it again please. :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: Srsly, that way too close to libel and author bashing.

What is he doing with the Walk? A number of things. GRRM is writing the Walk in order to show us whats wrong with the Faith, patriarchy, and hubris. Cersei's hubris landed her in that situation, but its also the High Septon's hubris that insisted she must go through with this form of punishment. WE. ARE. NOT. SUPPOSED. TO. SIDE. WITH. THE. SEPTON. I cannot stress that enough. This is the point in the story where Cersei ceases to be the "mustache twirling" style villain and turns into more of a villain protagonist. Because we really sympathize with her here. Even if we hated her before. Cersei gets brought down to the level of an average woman and her pride takes a kick in the pants. We want her to get Robert Strong to win her trial now. We want her to kick the ass of that High Septon.

But we also want her to learn from the mistakes she made to get her to that point. Whether she does or not is another matter, but this moment in the story means a huge amount of character development for Cersei.

It IS misogynistic and the audience is SUPPOSED to think so. We are supposed to feel that Cersei got her just deserts but the last paragraphs of that chapter...our feelings change. This is done on purpose. This is a device, not the author thinking women must be treated like this.

:closedeyes: <_<

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I guess

Well, I figured I ought to review the calendar on Amazon before Christmas, so I wasn't sure what to say, other than that I felt deeply uncomfortable about it, especially as it seemed like GRRm seemed to delight in Cersei's humiliation.

...I delight in Cersei's humiliation. I hope it's a long and grisly scene in the show. And it's not because she's a woman; it's because she's Cersei.

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Are you freaking kidding me? I am so sick of this crap right here. If you honestly think that Cersei's walk was written by the author in order for him to spread some propaganda against women, read it again please. :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: Srsly, that way too close to libel and author bashing.

What is he doing with the Walk? A number of things. GRRM is writing the Walk in order to show us whats wrong with the Faith, patriarchy, and hubris. Cersei's hubris landed her in that situation, but its also the High Septon's hubris that insisted she must go through with this form of punishment. WE. ARE. NOT. SUPPOSED. TO. SIDE. WITH. THE. SEPTON. I cannot stress that enough. This is the point in the story where Cersei ceases to be the "mustache twirling" style villain and turns into more of a villain protagonist. Because we really sympathize with her here. Even if we hated her before. Cersei gets brought down to the level of an average woman and her pride takes a kick in the pants. We want her to get Robert Strong to win her trial now. We want her to kick the ass of that High Septon.

But we also want her to learn from the mistakes she made to get her to that point. Whether she does or not is another matter, but this moment in the story means a huge amount of character development for Cersei.

It IS misogynistic and the audience is SUPPOSED to think so. We are supposed to feel that Cersei got her just deserts but the last paragraphs of that chapter...our feelings change. This is done on purpose. This is a device, not the author thinking women must be treated like this.

:closedeyes: <_<

:agree: 100%
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You're still missing the point.

Because only a maternity can be confirmed and paternity cannot, in order for assets to be passed only to 'true' offspring, the woman's social contract in a marriage fundamentally is to give up her sexual autonomy.

Thats not about oppressing women more than men, its just a natural and 'necessary' result of hereditary inheritance and no way of proving paternity. Although, naturally, some men will treat it that way, because there are rotten apples in every barrel.

The Queen is the pre-eminent example for women throughout the land. So even though she is no longer married, she still has the responsibility to set the standard for all the noblewomen of the realm.

SImplified:

Noblemen get to be relatively wealthy and powerful and secure - the price (or one of them) is that they may have to fight, be maimed, and die, for no real reason of their own.

Noblewomen get to be relatively wealthy and powerful and secure - the price (or one of them) is they lose their sexual autonomy.

Cersei as Queen is breaking that paradigm, and setting a bad example for the realm to boot. She doesn't have sexual autonomy, but she's stealing it and using it anyway, and by being caught doing so, has set an example to the whole realm. So a counter-example is appropriate. (Note that does not mean I approve, just that I understand).

Robert didn't have the same issues because men have other responsibilities and other costs, not the cost of their sexual autonomy.

Note again, if Cersei went away and lived in a mud hut, she could sleep with whoever she chooses and she would not suffer through the Walk of Shame. The punishment is because of her station, as much as her acts.

So women have to be sexually autonomous (even after the death of their husbands) and men don't. Because they are women. And this isn't oppression how? Just because the system is misogynist doesn't mean that excuses individual acts of misogny

Noblemen don't have to fight. Does Walder Frey take the field? Wyman Manderly? both very powerful lords.

If Cersei went and lived in a mud hut she'd run the risk of being raped by any man who wandered on his way, and if she went to her lord, he'd probably accuse her of being a wanton whore and have her killed, raped or best case ignore her. She'd probably get married, but then she could only sleep with her husband in the laws eyes, and quite possibly suffer the Lord's right.

This isn't about Westerosi hereditary law, that's not the reason why Cersei must perform the Walk of Shame. She does so because she broke the mould and the hierarchy wanted to batter her back down.

I hate myself right now btw. Defending Cersei...uggggggghhhhhhhhhh.

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So women have to be sexually autonomous (even after the death of their husbands) and men don't. Because they are women. And this isn't oppression how? Just because the system is misogynist doesn't mean that excuses individual acts of misogny

Try one more time...

Its not oppression beause its equal-but-different.

Both men and women have prices to pay. Men don't pay women's price, and women don't pay men's price. You can blame god, or mother nature, or random chance or evolution, but their are differences, and they lead generally to different roles in more primitive societies, by necessity. Individuals may be able to break those roles, and good on them, but the collective cannot for society to function and progress.

Noblemen don't have to fight. Does Walder Frey take the field? Wyman Manderly? both very powerful lords.

They are old. They send their sons instead (which is in many ways even worse). They did take the field in earlier wars, if 'belatedly' in one case.

If Cersei went and lived in a mud hut she'd run the risk of being raped by any man who wandered on his way, and if she went to her lord, he'd probably accuse her of being a wanton whore and have her killed, raped or best case ignore her. She'd probably get married, but then she could only sleep with her husband in the laws eyes, and quite possibly suffer the Lord's right.

Perhaps, perhaps not. Depends on the lord, and on how she prepared to defend herself. Thats really not the point.

The point is that she wouldn't be suffering the walk of shame just due to having a few sexual partners.

This isn't about Westerosi hereditary law, that's not the reason why Cersei must perform the Walk of Shame. She does so because she broke the mould and the hierarchy wanted to batter her back down.

I hate myself right now btw. Defending Cersei...uggggggghhhhhhhhhh.

Again, you are missing, or refusing to look at the point. Its got nothing to do with her breaking the mould, its how she broke the mould that has her in trouble. Brienne breaks the mould every day. Arya breaks the mould. Asha breaks the mould. None of them are up for the walk of shame.

Why is it a big deal that she was sexually promiscuous. Sure, the High Septon is a typically mysogynistic religious type. But he wouldn't get away with this particular punishment if society in general, even the women in society recognised the inappropropriateness of Cersei's behaviour and how it undermines the structure of society itself.

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Try one more time...

Its not oppression beause its equal-but-different.

Both men and women have prices to pay. Men don't pay women's price, and women don't pay men's price. You can blame god, or mother nature, or random chance or evolution, but their are differences, and they lead generally to different roles in more primitive societies, by necessity. Individuals may be able to break those roles, and good on them, but the collective cannot for society to function and progress.

They are old. They send their sons instead (which is in many ways even worse). They did take the field in earlier wars, if 'belatedly' in one case.

Perhaps, perhaps not. Depends on the lord, and on how she prepared to defend herself. Thats really not the point.

The point is that she wouldn't be suffering the walk of shame just due to having a few sexual partners.

Again, you are missing, or refusing to look at the point. Its got nothing to do with her breaking the mould, its how she broke the mould that has her in trouble. Brienne breaks the mould every day. Arya breaks the mould. Asha breaks the mould. None of them are up for the walk of shame.

Why is it a big deal that she was sexually promiscuous. Sure, the High Septon is a typically mysogynistic religious type. But he wouldn't get away with this particular punishment if society in general, even the women in society recognised the inappropropriateness of Cersei's behaviour and how it undermines the structure of society itself.

See the thing is, it's not equal. Men get to make decisions, they get precedence and they have power. When war comes women suffer worse, they are usually raped and then murdered, at least the men get armor and weapons. And what happens when a woman wears armor and carries a blade? she is mocked everywhere, has to sleep alone, constantly in fear of rape, she is never accepted by the majority, never befriended. Brienne is persecuted everyday for breaking the norm.

Arya is just a little girl, not even a maiden yet, so you should firstly treat her as a child not a woman. Secondly she is constantly put-down for being a girl, she has to hide it from others and when it is exposed it immediately changes peoples receptions.

Asha is a powerful and victorious warrior, yet she is married without her consent. When captured by Stannis she is denigrated by a variety of knights just for being a woman.

Cersei went through the walk of shame for sleeping with Lancel AND Osney Kettleback. One in marriage one out. By your interpretation it shouldn't matter that she slept with Kettleback, but it does.

Do I even need to mention how reducing women to baby factories is misogynistic or are you going to see that context does not nullify the misogyny? Just because everyone says it is right doesn't make it so.

She's not punished because the fabric of society depends on women being subjugated. She's punished because the fabric of patriarchy depends on it.

I'm out of this argument now. Honestly if the world ends tonight I don't want to spend it arguing

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See the thing is, it's not equal. Men get to make decisions, they get precedence and they have power.

Women get to make decisions. They have precedence too, just not in the same ways or at at the same levels as men. If Catelyn Tully says jump, most men who aren't senior lords will jump, to the same extent (in many cases more) that they would for Edmure Tully. And they certainly can have power.

But if these facts don't fit your agenda, then I guess you'll pretend they don't exist.

When war comes women suffer worse, they are usually raped and then murdered, at least the men get armor and weapons.

Actually, mostly they suffer less, very much less.

Stormings are a different story as they always have been - the stress of storming a fortification has been known to take the humanity out of men for thousands of years. Very few, if any, commanders have been able to control their troops after storming a fortress.

The Ironborn are of course an exception to the rules.

And what happens when a woman wears armor and carries a blade? she is mocked everywhere, has to sleep alone, constantly in fear of rape, she is never accepted by the majority, never befriended. Brienne is persecuted everyday for breaking the norm.

So people can be assholes. And in a brutal society with mysogynistic tendencies, many of them can be assholes. But Brienne doesn't have legal problems and pay with the walk of shame. Which is the point under discussion.

Arya is just a little girl, not even a maiden yet, so you should firstly treat her as a child not a woman. Secondly she is constantly put-down for being a girl, she has to hide it from others and when it is exposed it immediately changes peoples receptions.

Again, what relevance is this. Your claim was that Cersei is treated to the walk of shame because she broke the mould. Because she challenged the patriarchy. Becasue she oppressed due to having to dive up her sexual autonomy as the price for wealth and power.

Arya broke the mould, she isn't, and won't have to suffer a walk of shame. Because the punishment is about the crime, not about putting down the 'upstart woman'.

Asha is a powerful and victorious warrior, yet she is married without her consent. When captured by Stannis she is denigrated by a variety of knights just for being a woman.

Again, people are shitty. But not all of them.

And again, that hs nothing to do with the point at hand.

Cersei went through the walk of shame for sleeping with Lancel AND Osney Kettleback. One in marriage one out. By your interpretation it shouldn't matter that she slept with Kettleback, but it does.

Apparently you weren't paying attention, since my argument has been from the start, and made quite explicit here, that her sexual autonomy is still not recovered with her widowhood due to her serving as an example for all the women of the realm.

Do I even need to mention how reducing women to baby factories is misogynistic or are you going to see that context does not nullify the misogyny? Just because everyone says it is right doesn't make it so.

Who said anything about reducing them to baby factories. Thats a classic straw man. The only point made so far is that they do not have sexual autonomy, because with their sexual freedom comes an inability for people to reliably pass on their wealth to their descendants.

Nor am I saying that there is no misogyny. I'm just trying to get people to look past their own hate or bitterness and actually view things with clear eyes. And understand that Cersei is not being punished this way because some nasty old men hate her, but because its an appropriate punishment for her crimes that creates precisely the effect necessary.

She's not punished because the fabric of society depends on women being subjugated. She's punished because the fabric of patriarchy depends on it.

We'll have to agree to disagree. She's punished because she committed crimes, bad ones ones that have deep consequences. Note that she didn't just sleep with Kettleblack, she used her sexuality in order to lead him into giving false testimony about a death penalty offence.

She's punished that way because it fits those crimes and because it achieves the desired objective - breaking the power of an unfit and unbalanced individual so that they cannot continue to rule so badly.

I'm out of this argument now. Honestly if the world ends tonight I don't want to spend it arguing

I'm not sure you were ever in it, since all you did was rail against the patriarchy and sidetrack every point made irrelevantly or inaccurately.

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How could GRRM being a misogynist (if he is) even be picked up from just reading the series, especially considering the world it's set in and the rules it follows? I don't think it can be, but I'd like to see someone try to prove it.

Was Cersei's walk layered with misogyny from a story perspective? Absolutely -- as anyone could rightly tell from the High Sparrow's talk with Cersei beforehand.

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Actually, I think that subjecting an upper class woman to such an ordeal is highly unusual, even for Westeros. It's a nasty punishment cooked up by Ser Kevan and the High Septon between them. The former wants to destroy his niece's political power (with some justification); the latter wants to break the pride of a woman who's no better than a whore in his eyes, and also wants to demonstrate his own political power to the nobility.

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See the thing is, it's not equal. Men get to make decisions, they get precedence and they have power. When war comes women suffer worse, they are usually raped and then murdered, at least the men get armor and weapons.

Women are usually raped and murdered? And men do just fine? I thing you might be a little biased, and that might skew the facts just a tiny little bit.

Or I guess what Cersei has suffered during the WO5K, whatever it was (I honestly don't recall), was by a couple orders of magnitude worse than having one's hand crudely chopped off.

And what happens when a woman wears armor and carries a blade? she is mocked everywhere, has to sleep alone, constantly in fear of rape, she is never accepted by the majority, never befriended. Brienne is persecuted everyday for breaking the norm.

Just as men get ridiculed and persecuted for not being manly enough. With all Brienne has suffered (and it was, indeed, a huge load), at least her own father hasn't threatened to murder her for not fitting her gender's stereotypes, while that's exactly what happened to Randyll Tarly's son.

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Women are usually raped and murdered? And men do just fine? I thing you might be a little biased, and that might skew the facts just a tiny little bit.

Or I guess what Cersei has suffered during the WO5K, whatever it was (I honestly don't recall), was by a couple orders of magnitude worse than having one's hand crudely chopped off.

Just as men get ridiculed and persecuted for not being manly enough. With all Brienne has suffered (and it was, indeed, a huge load), at least her own father hasn't threatened to murder her for not fitting her gender's stereotypes, while that's exactly what happened to Randyll Tarly's son.

Despite the ridicule, Brienne is a highly privileged and powerful member of Westeros society. She's the heir to a great lordship, and has a father who's prepared to let her pursue knighthood, if that's what she wants.

In fact, her father has given her an enormous amount of freedom. As his sole heir, I'm sure he'd far rather that she remained at home and made a good marriage.

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Cercei is one of the biggest misogynists in the books, and she would be front and centre if Margery received the punishment, so I see this as a fitting way to add some dimension to her character. Also, she elevated a misogynistic religion without considering the consequences, this combined with her brazen behavior, came back to bite her.

Part of why Martin's female characters are so compelling because they exist in or defy their misogynistic societies in unique ways. Martin transcends the mother/virgin/whore trappings that a lot of authors fall into, and is in no way a misogynist because Cercei was punished in this way. Lots of male characters have had their man parts removed (or flayed probably), and we don't cry misandry (or maybe we do and I have missed that thread).

Now, I see people's point that Cercei was being punished for her sexual autonomy, and that a man wouldn't be punished for the same thing, and this makes her punishment inexcusably misogynistic. I guess in my mind if Cercei wanted sexual autonomy she should have gone to the rock where she probably could have screwed whoever she wanted to. After all, she has gotten away with cheating on the king with her own twin for years, so when it comes to having sex for the sake of love or producing children that would be the closest thing to clones, she is pretty good at it.

What she has been up to in KL since Robert's death isn't really her expressing her sexual autonomy, she is trying to seriously mess with the realm and using her body to do so. If she was just having sex for pleasure maybe no one would take action, but she is using her body to influence people to create more trouble in a troubled land. She is Queen regent after all, people expect a certain level of decency from her.

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Actually, I think that subjecting an upper class woman to such an ordeal is highly unusual, even for Westeros. It's a nasty punishment cooked up by Ser Kevan and the High Septon between them. The former wants to destroy his niece's political power (with some justification); the latter wants to break the pride of a woman who's no better than a whore in his eyes, and also wants to demonstrate his own political power to the nobility.

Kevan? Kevan just went along with it, I don't think he plotted it.

And yeah it is unusual, because Cersei is an unusual case, and the HS hasn't had that sort of power, for a hell of a long time. Thanks to Cersei reinstating the military branch of the Faith, he had the power and the political need to prove his power. He did.

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I guess

Well, I figured I ought to review the calendar on Amazon before Christmas, so I wasn't sure what to say, other than that I felt deeply uncomfortable about it, especially as it seemed like GRRm seemed to delight in Cersei's humiliation.

Do you not delight in Cersei's humiliation? The walk was definitely cruel. Why is it the word misogynistic never springs to my mind? If you focus hard on somethign you'll see it everywhere. I'll not deny that the Walk was a cruel thing to do, one of the most cruel things I have ever seen done to a woman, but what of it? I delighted in it. At least until she started crying...

I couldn't give a rat's ass about how politicically correct a work of fiction or its' merchandise is.

About the difference between Robert and Cersei and how they were treated for their sexual behaviour. Robert was the King. You require no more explanation. Sad, but true. Cersei was only a Queen in name. I'm pretty sure that if Daenerys ever manages to be the Protector of the Realm and Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, she can sleep with Daario all she wants. Cersei made the mistake of thinking she was untouchable while she was not.

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Do you not delight in Cersei's humiliation? The walk was definitely cruel. Why is it the word misogynistic never springs to my mind? If you focus hard on somethign you'll see it everywhere. I'll not deny that the Walk was a cruel thing to do, one of the most cruel things I have ever seen done to a woman, but what of it? I delighted in it. At least until she started crying...

I didn't enjoy it in the slightest. The question is if that would be done to man or not, if not a very good case for it being a misogynistic can be made.

Edited for not finishing my sentences.

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I forgot about one of Cersei's dreams in AFFC where she dreams she is naked and everyone is laughing at her. She tries to hide behind the iron throne and gets cut to pieces by it.

Edit: I'd also like to add that it's a brutal punishment but hell I guess she deserved something like this to happen to her. I just wish she was being punished for a better reason.

Also, I'm getting the impression that people are putting TWOS up there with Theons punishment, for example, and thinking that Cersei's punishment was worse.

Also there are loads of strong women/ladies who are accepted by men. The Lannister Auntie thats married to a Frey? no man dares tell her she has no business at a war meeting. Asha and most of the women on Bear Island.

Cersei goes on about "if I was a man they would respect me/they would treat me better if I was a man" ect but the reason Tywin was feared and respected was because he made smart decisions, took noones crap and was a good lord not because he is a man. The reason people don't do the same for her is not because she is a women but because she is stupid, para and too focused on her brother/tyrells instead of her real enemies and people see this and can't belive it.

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