The Game of Thrones

Okay, so I know I'm a bit late to the party but I got a bit behind on my TV watching with all the school stuffs in the way.  As it is, I know you've all likely heard at least a little bit about the scene in Game of Thrones where Jaime Lannister raped his twin sister Cersei Lannister.

She wasn't happy about it and neither am I.

Though now that I'm here I've got a thing or two I'd like to say.


Thing 1. The confusion from the actor and director about it being rape.

One of the many problems with this scene is neither the actor who played Jaime or the director in charge saw the scene between Cersei and Jaime as a rape scene.  Two of the principal players in the making of a rape scene apparently have no idea that a rape is in fact what they filmed. 
That troubles me.

How do they think this way?  Do their brains not work?

 

A majorly popular TV series shows a rape scene and sees no issue becuase its not recognized as rape by key players.  Here we are again with the lack of awareness about what rape and rape culture are.  Jaime clearly rapes Cersei, she continually says no and he forces sex on her anyway.  In the source material the two do have sex, but consensually, the only thing Cersei takes issue with is the location.  Getting it on by the body of your dead son in a church does come across as a big vulgar.  However with the way the scene was portrayed in the TV show, the issue is consent.  Cersei says no, Jaime doesn't listen.  By not treating the scene as a rape, the show ignores a major issue and supports rape as a part of culture.


Thing 2. The idea that saying yes once means eternal consent.

And now issue numero dos.  Part of the reason that it seems to be hard to recognize Jaime's rape of Cersei as rape is because they have had cannon consensual sex.  Our society has trouble recognizing that just because two people have had sex before that does not mean that every time they have sex thereafter consent does not need to be reestablished.  Each time you have sex with someone, no matter how many times you've done it before you need to establish consent again.  Just because someone says yes once, that does not mean you can continue to have sex with them again without another yes.  In Cersei's case she and Jaime had had sex many times before and even had three children together.  What Jaime did to her is still rape.  If someone says no, that means stop, you don't have consent, and anything you do afterwards is rape.

Now that the Things have had their say, onto the Conclusion!!

The continual representation of rape as a regular part of living in the world by popular media is part of the reason that rape culture is so prevalent.  When shows like Game of Thrones show rape scenes as part of life in the show, they perpetuate the idea that rape is a part of life everywhere.  To stop rape culture we need to change the way rape is portrayed in our media.  We can't expect to make a change in our culture without changing what we present to the world as normal.


I'm only one of many who had an issue with this scene, check out this article if you'd like to read more.
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/04/21/3429107/game-of-thrones-rape/