This research paper, is about a book called A Game of Thrones. Written by, George R.R. Martin, who started the series 18 years ago. There is also a TV show on HBO that is going into its 4th season this spring. This book has a medieval setting on continent called Westeros. Westeros is divided into seven kingdom’s, with their own lords, houses and words, or mottoes. There is one King , that rules over all the kingdoms. The book follows a few main characters that are, Lord Eddard Stark, lord or Warden of the North, Catelyn Stark, Ned’s wife originally from house Tully, Sansa Stark, the oldest daughter of Ned and Catelyn, Arya Stark, youngest daughter, Bran Stark second oldest son, Jon Snow, Ned’s bastard son, Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf from house Lannister who uses his words rather than a sword to win his battles and Daenerys Targaryen, who is sold to a leader of horse men (Dothraki) by her brother, so he can get an army to take back the seven kingdoms from Robert Baratheon, who led a rebellion against his Daenery’s father. through their journeys through Westeros, along with some of the events that happened in the years past to get them to the point of where the book started . All of the kingdoms lords want something , they might not come forward and say it straight up, but they still strive to achieve it. This “thing” is power. To rule a kingdom, you have to be a man while women are used as assets for other men and houses to gain power, which will be explained later. Women are classified under many different hierarchies and those decide where a woman stands in the society. But in A Game Of Thrones ruling a kingdom or a house is all dominated by men and women are assets for the men to gain power. Along with my thesis that is th...
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...before oldest over ounger sibling even though Dany becomes stronger than Viserys. When this s shown with the Dothraki culture it shows the same hierarchies do not show in certain cultures. When Khal dies, she loses everything that connects her to the men and her days of being superior over these men are done.
The intersectional theory looks at the hierarchy’s in the women of this book showed that men were superior to women and it is possible for women to gain power through these men. While there are other important factors in these examples one of the majors is the ability to conceive children based on what the man says because that is one of the ways to gain power in this political game of thrones and battles and swords. So through marriage is how women gain power in the political structure and if they don’t they will continue to just be assets to the men.
Women during the medieval period had certain role with their husbands, depending on his social status. The wives were placed into a class according to their husband’s line of work or social status (Time Traveler’s 54). This social status may be favorable, but not all wives were able to make it into the elite social status. Once the woman was committed, and married to her husband, she was totally controlled by her husband. Even though the wife was able to maintain the same social status of the husband, she lost a lot of rights after she married. Women during the medieval period not only lost a lot of their rights, but also became somewhat of a slave to the husband in many ways.
...ed social construction because males are dominant to females in practically every area of life. Ross Douthat wrote another article revolving around abortion titled Divided by Abortion, United by Feminism where he stated, “But the best pro-choice rebuttal to the young idealists and the professional women who lead today's anti-abortion groups isn't that they're too reactionary -- it's that they're too utopian, too radical, and too naïve” (Douthat). The leadership of Mary Beard reflected neither matriarchy nor patriarchy, because she wrote books regarding feminism with her husband.
The amount of power and privileges that the women have is completely dependent upon where she falls in the groups of women. The women are completely marginalized. This could be because the women each have a different potential towards each job that needs to be done, but this is just the reason that appears on the outside. To have complete control the government separates the women, but it is not just the women that are separated, everyone is. They are separated so that no one in the society will unite and riot for the laws in society to change. Each role is given more power and privileges than another. This way, the wives won’t join with the Marthas. The wives do not want to jeopardize what they have.
In “Gender and Moral Luck,” Claudia Card argues that men and women have very different mindsets that set the two apart from one another. Her argument is that women are caring and inclusive with a weak sense of justice. Women are encouraged to assimilate and because of this, they become extensions in their relationships (206). That is what causes men to hold all the power in society. Men hold the power in the political sense because the majority of the leaders in office are male, but they also hold power in the house holds. Women are also masochistic in the sense that they can’t seem to say “no” in most cases because they are too caring. They tend to stay in bad relationships due to their need to satisfy everyone and their failure to accept
For centuries, women have struggled in the fight to gain equality with men. Despite the major advances in civil and political rights, society still has a long way to go in addressing the issue of gender inequality. One major factor that prevents society from achieving gender equality is the idea that marriage is a women’s ultimate life goal. This notion has been significantly presented in literature causing women to appear less powerful than men, more specifically, in the fairly tales “Cinderella, or the little Glass Slipper” by Charles Perrault and “Ash Girl” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The stereotypical depiction of women only being ambitious toward marriage has led to women being inferior to men.
... obtain financial equality anyway. There may not be a dowry involved but during this time period marriage is just as much an economic transaction for women as it was for men in Shakespeare’s time. Marriage offers a substantial opportunity for Molly to elevate her socioeconomic status. Molly’s rejection of this societal norm consequentially ensures that marriage will never be a means to elevate her position in society. Another essential issue the incident with Cheryl uncovers is that Molly has to defy the expectations from not only men but women as well. Einstein stated:
In the Trobriand Islands due to their matrilineal society, they believe that men don’t play a role in the conception of a child. This is quite different than in our bilateral lineage descent which often states that women have eggs, but it’s the men’s sperm that does the work and fertilizes the egg. Therefore the power and functions of the family are transmitted through women. Even though the power is entrusted to men in doing so woman don’t lose power or become oppressed.
In the following essay I will seek to establish the construction of feminine gender roles in ‘Game of Thrones’, the HBO television adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s series of novels ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, which is played out in the fictional kingdom of Westeros. Consequently I will analyse these feminine gender roles from a materialistic viewpoint and discuss how a number of characters, principally female (since we will see how patriarchy is the favoured practice in Westeros), both conform to and reject preconceived ideas of gender performance and representation. To begin with it is necessary to establish an understanding of what ‘gender’ is. “Gender is the range of physical, biological, mental and behavioral characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, the term may refer to biological sex (i.e. the state of being male, female or intersex), sex-based social structures (including gender roles and other social roles), or gender identity” (Urdy 1994). Martin himself acknowledges De Beauvoir’s (1973) suggestion that gender is unnatural, ‘a social construction’, “I regard men and women as all human- yes there are differences, but many of those differences are created by the culture that we live in, whether it is the medieval culture of Westeros, or 21st century western culture” (Salter 2013). The characters portrayed and developed in ‘Game of Thrones’ are no different in that they too are subject to the culture that has been created around them and the experiences by which they progress “as De Beauvoir puts it, consciousness exists one’s body, which, in the context of ...
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
In a patriarchal society men normally have the power. This power is generally handed down generation to generation as seen in Sundiata where the lineage of the first kings of Mali is explained generation by generation (Niane 3). It can also be seen in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult when “[T']he barons, Andret, Guenelon, Gondoine, and Denoalen pressed King Mark to take to wife some king's daughter who should give him an heir...”(Bedier 26). In these examples men generally have the primary power. However, there is an argument to be made that women, in both Sundiata, and The Romance of Tristan and Iseult have some significant power in their society.
Queen Elizabeth I, also known as the “Iron Queen”, was a remarkable woman of her time, she ruled with great power and longevity. She was one of the greatest feminist of time. Coming to the throne in 1558, she took the place of her father, Henry VIII. She was given one of the most difficult jobs fit for a man or King, ruling England. At the time women were second class citizens, they could not vote nor own properties and such. Surprising England with her intelligence and fierce rulings, she changed herself to make better decisions. She proved through her rulings, to everyone that females were strong and could rule just as well as a king. She refused to marry, giving a feeling of “I don’t need a man for anything.” The Queen was responsible for giving females a voice in literature and it is shown through Shakespeare’s writings.
Patricia Hill Collins outlines the existence of three different dimensions of gender oppression: institutional, symbolic, and individual. The institutional dimension consists of systemic relationship of domination structured through social institutions, such as government, the workplace or education institutions. In other words, this dimension explains “who has the power”. This is completely related to a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the manifestation and institutionalism of male dominance. This means that men hold power in all institutions, while women are denied the access to this power. The symbolic dimension of oppression is based on widespread socially sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination. It reflects inequality
Women are living in a patriarchal society which contributes to gender inequality. It dominates most of the institutions of society like; religion, the family politics, and the work place. The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences describes patriarchy as a social structural phenomenon in which males have the privilege of dominance over females, both visibly and subliminally. The value of women is often reduced to the role of Trophies, housekeepers and reproductive tools. “Because the subordination of women to men is a feature in the majority of all societies, patriarchy is often argued to be due to biology, such as women’s principal role in childbearing.”(Darity) Patriarchy is the cultural norm of many societies so it is seen as natural. “Bloodchild” challenges how natural the role is by reversing the roles and showing a parasitic male pregnancy.
Though Fuller’s main goal is to be of equal status as her husband in marriage, she understands how just because she wants such, does not mean it will happen. Considering this, Fuller presents arguments for aids that would help women without necessarily removing men as superior. Fuller states, “But if woman be, indeed, the weaker party, she ought to have legal protection.” The legal protection Fuller is fighting for here is stability when leaving a marriage. Fuller mentions when a woman leaves her husband it is nearly impossible to survive. But why is this? Fuller explains how since men are responsible for bringing in income, when the husband is out of the picture, what money is the women expected to bring in. Fuller also mentions how in some cases the women would like to take the children, however, that choice is up to the man of
From the displays of power that have been shown through out this essay, we see that this story is a story about power. Power is the story is primarily about peoples need for some small amount of power to survive in life and to feel that hey have a purpose within their society which every society it may be whether its is Gilead or Nazi Germany or modern day Britain.