People love Targaryen women because they come packaged with everything that looks empowering on the surface: dragons, spectacle, dominance, that whole βexceptional bloodlineβ mythology. Visenya is the perfect example she rides a dragon, wields a sword, stands beside conquest and violence, and sheβs called a βfeminist icon.β Butβ¦ feminist for what exactly? Sheβs not dismantling patriarchy and not challenging the system. Sheβs actively helping build and enforce a system that is just as hierarchical and violent as any other.
But because her power is visible and aggressive, people reads it as empowerment. Itβs power that looks good on screen and feels satisfying to support.
Now compare that to Alicent. Her power is quieter, more grounded, and honestly more historically accurate she works through court politics / (not military), trying to protect her kids. And sheβs called βmisogynisticβ or βanti-woman.β Why? Because itβs not flashy. Itβs not dragon-backed. It doesnβt give that same illusion of being above the system it shows what it actually looks like to live inside it.
Thatβs where the βselective feminismβ comes in. Itβs not about supporting women as a class or understanding how women being victims of the system. Itβs about supporting women who feel exceptional, who look powerful in a way thatβs easy to romanticize and women who can be turned into icons.
And Targaryen women fit that perfectly! Theyβre written as exceptional visually, politically. So people gravitates toward them and builds this idea that they represent female empowerment, while other women like Alicent, Sansa, and Catelyn get dismissed or villainized for working differently.
Thereβs also a deeper layer where this intersects with Valyrian exceptionalism. The way Targaryens are writing (silver hair, dragons, βcloser to gods than menβ) feeds into this idea that they are inherently more worthy of admiration. So when people say they support βfeminist characters,β but itβs almost always Targaryen women, it starts to look less like feminism and more like a preference for a specific type of woman: powerful, and aesthetically idealized.
Meanwhile, women who donβt fit that mold who are more historically accurate, political, maternal, restrained, or just not written as βmythicβ donβt get the same support. Their actions are judged more harshly and theyβre denied the same complexity.
So yeah, it ends up creating this weird fandom dynamic where: Visenya can enforce conquest and still be called feminist BUT Alicent demanding power for herself & her children is framed as internalized misogyny. Itβs not about feminism anymore Itβs about which version of female power people find more appealing to project onto.
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