At the end of the last season of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen is in a seemingly dangerous position as she's surrounded by a horde of Dothraki soldiers. But even though her character may face hardship because she's a woman, Emilia Clarke insists the show isn't sexist—in fact, quite the opposite.
The HBO show has been put under the microscope for its treatment of women, especially with a controversial rape scene in the last season. But in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clarke hit back at critics who say Game of Thrones is sexist, arguing that the show proves women can have varying forms of power, yet all still be strong:
There's so much controversy. Yet that's what's beautiful about Game of Thrones–its depiction of women in so many different stages of development. There are women depicted as sexual tools, women who have zero rights, women who are queens but only to a man, and then there are women who are literally unstoppable and as powerful as you can possibly imagine. So it pains me to hear people taking Thrones out of context with anti-feminist spin—because you can't do that about this show. It shows the range that happens to women, and ultimately shows women are not only equal, but have a lot of strength.
Clarke says that in the upcoming season, we see Daenerys come into her own and realize her inner power. "Yes, back to square one, feeling like a slave—simply for being a woman," she says. "Right there back to fighting to show the Dothraki I'm more than my appearances." If anyone can handle that, it's Khaleesi.
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Megan Friedman is the former managing editor of the Newsroom at Hearst. She's worked at NBC and Time, and is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
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