remember how in the books daenerys loses all her hair when she first steps into the fire and her hair is meant to be slowly growing out through the series but d&d made the executive decision to leave it untouched so she could be the “sexy dragon lady naked in flames” to the straight male gaze who wouldn’t enjoy it as much if she was bald. (as kern pointed out when i made them read the first draft of this, they made her the “resident naked lady” of the show from that point on, which is really disturbing not only because it’s constant sexualisation for more views but also because of the fact that dany in the books is a literal child.) but they fully went through with cersei losing all her hair because that time it was about humiliating a woman and the same male gaze wanted to see “that sl*t put in her place”, because they’d get off on seeing a woman of her status get degraded. (i was told it’s literally on p*rnhub and it actually is and it is horrifying.) it was also of course, pushing the (men opinionated) narrative that cersei is physically “losing her beauty” because most men really do think if your hair isn’t long, you aren’t beautiful or “as feminine” anymore; as if a woman said to be the “most beautiful woman in the seven kingdoms” (or literally any woman for that matter) would be any less attractive just because she has shorter hair. (in fact, again pointed out by kern, they didn’t at all want to showcase the fact that cersei is the most beautiful woman in the seven kingdoms (as it is mentioned countless times in the books and even by george himself) because a 34 year old woman can obviously never be the “most beautiful”, she just has to be evil and hated, so that men in this incidence can jack off to the fantasy of “breaking” her.)
grrm, on the other hand, originally (while still making it all about humiliation and still hinting at the latter issue as he kept on pushing nonsensical ageist and frankly downright dense and out of place descriptions -going as far as saying her breasts weren’t as perky anymore-, seeing as he is also a man and openly implied he doesn’t like cersei * ) knowingly or not, at least made more points with just the cutting of the hair, the most important ones firstly being it being important to cersei herself (losing the “goddess” charm, thus her power; how she was always seen as this unattainable, untouchable, incredibly beautiful and powerful woman to admire and be scared of, and everything that people always see her in, the riches, the jewels, her golden hair, her guards, her wrath is stripped of her -even as she comforts herself and tells herself she is still the same, in the beginning-, and imagery wise, the point still revolving around being degraded and falling from power and grace, a slight but meaningful touch at a lion losing its mane). the entire thing ends up breaking her, even though she goes into it completely insubmissive. it is a complete and total male ignominy fantasy which d&d made even worse by shaving off the personal depth in relation to cersei’s own view of it and doing so after very consciously choosing not to involve the same thing happening to dany.
- * “He likes all his characters, even ‘assholes’ like Theon, but admitted that Tyrion was his favourite. Sometimes he felt like showering after writing a chapter about Cersei, though, as her world-view is quite unsympathetic.“ UK SIGNING TOUR (NORWICH, UK) - quoting GRRM
- “There’s a symbolic aspect to the Walk of Atonement: you’re naked, you have nothing to hide, all concealment has been denied you. Your hair is all being shaved off, you’re completely vulnerable. Bare all before the Gods. And that is the spiritual justification for this kind of thing. But there is also a deliberate political aspect to it. People didn’t see their kings and lords very often, except when they passed by in their incredibly lavish outfits, the splendor of them helped them rule […] When you take that away from a queen like Cersei who has only been seen as her subjects as this incredibly beautiful woman attended by maids and protected by knights… it’s a way to strip her all of the power. Cersei is not beloved in the streets of King’s Landing, this is a woman you dare not contradict, she would have your tongue torn out and now people are calling her filthy names and accusations, and they’re free to do so… it changes the entire political perception of her and that is obviously part of the intent. Indeed, she goes out defiant, but she’s broken and damaged by the end of it.” [BTS Featurette] - GRRM
and secondly the glimpse and cue of a new beginning which he (GRRM) had earlier coded with the dany instance. that parallel of both her and cersei losing all their hair (and being left naked for all to see) and the same conditions concluding in such different outcomes, is actually a huge plot point and is very crucial. it gives clues about the true meaning of cersei’s prophecy (the younger, “more beautiful” queen to take her down -ageist, predatory and pedopihlic again, if taken literally- ** ) and how it’s not at all about something as simple, objective and easily perishable as looks, but morality. (dany is also called the most beautiful woman in the world while also having short hair, even by people who don’t know what she looks like and has never seen her, stressing on the fact that her (and generally all) looks are irrelevant in the bigger picture and her hair takes nothing out of either sense of her beauty -physical or moral-, of course speaking outside of the fact that she was fetishised and preyed on as a literal child mostly for her targaryen features which were seen as “exotic.”). ** comparing a child bride to a fully grown adult woman regarding their allure is on it’s own horrifying, it’s first of all ageist, feeding into the societal belief that women are only desirable in their teens and early twenties which easily ties to the bigger problem of it literally being extremely pedophilic and predatory.
the parallel hints at “burning / breaking” but eventually coming out of it -in a sense- reborn, a new beginning. so it being erased in the show just to cater to male fantasies (and of course the other 89039494 things they missed, changed or added out of their asses (ie sansa’s rape -another underage character, sexualised many times on the show, which was finalised with literal assault- when it never happens in the books and they once again wanted to give men something to get off on. and they also took advantage of sophie turner at the time turning 18, making it even more disgusting and appalling) actually proves how little they cared about portraying an intricate, in-depth story let alone stay true to the character’s personalities, developments and the way events played out in a planned and delicately interconnected fashion. they just wanted to make easy money with 0 real effort and people let them because they are white men. and they shamelessly admitted to it.
