HBO Responds to Game of Thrones Sexual Violence Critics

published 1 August 2016

For a while now, the official HBO party line on Game of Thrones' depiction of sexual violence against women has been "We do it because it happens IRL—but we're taking your outrage into account!" However, in a recent interview, a network exec added a new layer to the argument, asserting that, hey, all the characters on the show get hurt in gruesome ways, so it sort of balances out.

"Using Game of Thrones, violence is not just specific to women, it's men and women," Casey Bloys said when asked whether HBO relies on sexualized violence as a means of world-building. "The point of is there a lot of violence in Westworld and Game of Thrones? Yes, but I don't necessarily think that it's specifically isolated to women." When pressed, he went on to say that while a male rape hasn't been shown, castration and a dude eating a cake made from his son's flesh *have,* so "the violence is spread equally."

Ooookay, Mr. Eye for an Eye Even Though They're Not Even the Same. Perhaps it would help to think of violence not in terms of a scorecard but as "Is this much in this way really necessary?"

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Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at Marie Claire. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.

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