First of all, grrm isn’t exactly known for sparing any of his female characters from being sexually exploited or abused. That’s not even up for debate. It’s almost like a quirk of his at this point.

But there is a clear difference in the ways he employs it in his writing. And it’s consistent enough to make out certain patterns.

(and before some dumbass gets the bright idea to twist my words, no, I am not calling for equal distribution of abuse between all female characters, nor do I express my feelings for anyone fictional in this post or imply that some of them are better than others. Get a fucking grip.)

Grrm is capable of writing sexual abuse or the threat of it as a traumatic event that happens, lingers and affects things but ultimately doesn’t invade every crevice of the female character’s journey, her image and interactions with others. Now this is subjective, but you can tell he would write this about the same way if the character in question was male. As in, something terrible and humiliating that happened to a human person.

But then there are female characters that endure being sexualized, harassed, preyed upon, groped, raped, exploited by literally everyone around them, by their allies, protectors and father figures, by every stranger they encounter, hell, by the men they grew up with (Theon casually thinking about raping Sansa for example) so frequently and routinely and, dare I say, almost cartoonishly, it’s as if they’re stuck in some smut novel against their will that was never meant to see them as human beings to begin with. Just female bodies to abuse and objectify and motivate other characters to act, all the while the women that are actually allowed to exist outside of the perpertual rapefest bubble are forced to observe the horror like it’s some cautionary tale.

This isn’t something that just happens to somebody, it’s ingrained in the characters themselves so deeply some of them literally have it in their mindset. Everyone wants to fuck them, but that’s just life. And not only is it reflected in their mindset, the universe itself fucking agrees! That’s right, teenage girl! Everyone does want to fuck you! Like, it’s actually true.

Yes, all women in grrm’s work are abused and dehumanized, but some are far more pointedly than others, and you can’t tell me he regards these two groups the same way.

And as to why he treats certain women so differently, I’m not sure I have the right words as of now. Point is, there is a distinction.

First of all, grrm isn’t exactly known for sparing any of his female characters from being sexually exploited or abused. That’s not even up for debate. It’s almost like a quirk of his at this point.

But there is a clear difference in the ways he employs it in his writing. And it’s consistent enough to make out certain patterns.

(and before some dumbass gets the bright idea to twist my words, no, I am not calling for equal distribution of abuse between all female characters, nor do I express my feelings for anyone fictional in this post or imply that some of them are better than others. Get a fucking grip.)

Grrm is capable of writing sexual abuse or the threat of it as a traumatic event that happens, lingers and affects things but ultimately doesn’t invade every crevice of the female character’s journey, her image and interactions with others. Now this is subjective, but you can tell he would write this about the same way if the character in question was male. As in, something terrible and humiliating that happened to a human person.

But then there are female characters that endure being sexualized, harassed, preyed upon, groped, raped, exploited by literally everyone around them, by their allies, protectors and father figures, by every stranger they encounter, hell, by the men they grew up with (Theon casually thinking about raping Sansa for example) so frequently and routinely and, dare I say, almost cartoonishly, it’s as if they’re stuck in some smut novel against their will that was never meant to see them as human beings to begin with. Just female bodies to abuse and objectify and motivate other characters to act, all the while the women that are actually allowed to exist outside of the perpertual rapefest bubble are forced to observe the horror like it’s some cautionary tale.

This isn’t something that just happens to somebody, it’s ingrained in the characters themselves so deeply some of them literally have it in their mindset. Everyone wants to fuck them, but that’s just life. And not only is it reflected in their mindset, the universe itself fucking agrees! That’s right, teenage girl! Everyone does want to fuck you! Like, it’s actually true.

Yes, all women in grrm’s work are abused and dehumanized, but some are far more pointedly than others, and you can’t tell me he regards these two groups the same way.

And as to why he treats certain women so differently, I’m not sure I have the right words as of now. Point is, there is a distinction.