I have mixed feelings on the way the show is handling Cersei. They're making her more sympathetic, but the way they are doing this says...unfortunate things about women and power. (I also think these same issues played into how Laura Roslin's arc played out, where fiction is just REALLY uncomfortable saying, "Hey, this woman wants power, and you're supposed to like her!" As if to make her sympathetic, they have to drill it in that she doesn't want power for power's sake. WHICH REALLY BOTHERS ME.)
At this point, however, I am pretty sure that I am kind of done with it. I have no idea if I would watch the show again, and I might still skim over the good Cersei bits in the book, but every time I pick it up now, I just...really can't deal with that level of misogyny and I see NO reason that it exists. And I honestly can't think that any book that mistreats a woman who wants power as much as this one does Cersei has ANY interest in showing how patriarchy is bad, which is an argument I have seen more than once in its favor.
But really, getting to discuss the fail of the Cersei arc with you and some others is probably going to be my primary motivation for reading/watching at this point. I tell myself that since my investment in this is mostly on a meta level, reading can't hurt, but for me, this never really happens in a vaccum and it always brings up larger issues that I have with the way fiction treats women who want/like/enjoy/have power.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-09-09 03:24 am (UTC)At this point, however, I am pretty sure that I am kind of done with it. I have no idea if I would watch the show again, and I might still skim over the good Cersei bits in the book, but every time I pick it up now, I just...really can't deal with that level of misogyny and I see NO reason that it exists. And I honestly can't think that any book that mistreats a woman who wants power as much as this one does Cersei has ANY interest in showing how patriarchy is bad, which is an argument I have seen more than once in its favor.
But really, getting to discuss the fail of the Cersei arc with you and some others is probably going to be my primary motivation for reading/watching at this point. I tell myself that since my investment in this is mostly on a meta level, reading can't hurt, but for me, this never really happens in a vaccum and it always brings up larger issues that I have with the way fiction treats women who want/like/enjoy/have power.