Sarah wrote on this week’s controversial episode of Game of Thrones, and on the double meanings of fantasy and the multiple layers of consent from screen to spectator:
“Why was it this episode, rather than some of the even more graphic episodes, that ended up a sort of fantasy shark jumping?
The quick answer is Sansa’s rape: it was awful, and what’s more, it was disappointing: disappointing that the show would, yet again, see rape as it’s most effective plot device. (My brother put it to me this way: ‘Game of Thrones’s attitude seems to be, why jump the shark when you can rape it instead?’) For several reasons — because of the victim, the perpetrator, the witness, but also because of its overall plot — this time the show was not able to align fantasy and brutality. This wasn’t what we wanted; it wasn’t even what we wanted to reassure ourselves we didn’t want.”
Dear Television 