Robb married because of Cat

[LordStoneheart]

This was not meant literally. It is not on how each gender deals with bastards. What is meant by the comment is that if the roles were reversed Ned would at least have been kind to the child and treated it well due to his personality not due to the fact that he is a man. Whereas Cat's personality would not allow her to love a motherless child. In other words Ned has a more noble personality and is interested in doing the morally correct thing rather than the socially correct thing. Cat cannot get past the embarrassment of having a bastard in the house. In other words she is more interested in how society will view her rather than what is the morally correct thing to do.

The thing is, this is not a simple "reverse the roles" issue because it does make sense within the context of the series. It is agiven that men might stray from the marriage bed, especially during times of war. Women in their culture do not have the luxury of sleeping where they want when they want and not facing repercussions or scorn. The reversal just does not work because Ned would not be content with a wife of his sleeping with another man after their marriage, getting pregnant from the encounter, and rasing the child within his home. Ned had the upperhand just by being male, so discussing a reversal of the bastard situation is less than useless.