tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/house-of-the-dragon-125388/articlesHouse of the Dragon – The Conversation2022-10-24T19:02:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928592022-10-24T19:02:41Z2022-10-24T19:02:41ZThe foot scene in House of the Dragon was upsetting, but it’s nothing compared to the real history of the fetish<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491260/original/file-20221024-21-qlcwmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C1237%2C718&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash/HBO</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From the day it first graced our screens, the Game of Thrones franchise became infamous for depicting rather shocking and taboo sexual proclivities. From incest and necrophilia, to sadism and borderline-cannibalism, viewers have truly been exposed to (an often disturbing) range of erotic desires. Yet, even after a decade on our screens, the lasciviousness of the Seven Kingdoms still holds the power to shock us. </p>
<p>The most recent episode of House of the Dragon, the prequel set 200 years before the main events of Game of Thrones, depicted a fetish which caused <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a41651192/house-of-the-dragon-foot-scene-larys-alicent/">some fans</a> to declare the show-runners had finally gone “too far.” </p>
<p>In exchange for information which may secure her son’s reign, Queen Alicent must appease the sexual appetite of Lord Larys Strong – by removing her socks and shoes, displaying her bare, naked feet for him to strenuously admire. </p>
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<h2>Feet throughout history</h2>
<p>Foot fetishes are no new feat. In fact, we find evidence of this desire throughout the ancient world. </p>
<p>At least three of the love letters of the great philosopher Philostratus evidence a particular interest in feet. In <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/philostratus_elder-letters/1949/pb_LCL383.451.xml">To A Barefoot Boy</a>, Philostratus worships the shape of his lover’s feet and implores them to always walk barefoot so he may kiss the footprints left behind: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>O perfect lines of feet most dearly loved! O flowers new and strange! O plants sprung from earth! O kiss left lying on the ground! </p>
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<p>Things take a turn for the slightly kinkier once we get to his 37th letter. Philostratus describes the feet of a woman even better than those of Aphrodite (who, according to Hesiod’s origin story, had feet so perfect the grass grew beneath them) and wishes he could be dominated by these feet:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>O thrice charmed would I be and blessed, if you [feet] would tread on me. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Starting on the right foot</h2>
<p>Worship of feet wasn’t solely linked to the bedroom. It sometimes played quite a prominent role in public life. </p>
<p>The emergence of foot-washing as a custom is a prime example of this, intimately tied to displays of reverence and love. During his reign as Pope in the 9th century, Eugene II began the custom of kissing the feet of the Pope, which still continues today. </p>
<p>In the century following this, the torturous practice of foot-binding was brought to life in 10th century China during the reign of Emperor Li Yu. He was said to have been entranced by a court dancer, Yao Niang, who bound her feet into the shape of a moon, and danced on her toes inside a six-foot golden lotus. </p>
<p>This obsession was linked to sexual desire from the very beginning. It was quickly taken up as a fashion by ladies of the court, and became a symbol of high status feminine refinement. The last shoe factory only ceased to make “lotus” shoes in 1999.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491234/original/file-20221024-13-r9fw6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">18th century illustration showing Yao Niang binding her own feet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>By the 13th century, troubadour poets began singing praise of the beautiful feminine foot, desiring arches that were high, and toes that were slender and long. One group of researchers have suggested feet surged in erotic interest during this time as a result of the 13th century gonorrhoea epidemic. Their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pr0.1998.83.2.491">1998 study</a> found erotic literature about feet rises exponentially during major sexually transmitted epidemics in history. </p>
<p>For instance, during the syphilis epidemic of the 16th century, a movement in popular fashion began to draw eroticised attention to women’s feet. The term “toe-cleavage” became used to describe shoes which displayed the base of the first two toes. Similarly, by the 19th century epidemic, brothels began to specialise in foot-eroticisation.</p>
<p>When genital-contact proves to dangerous, feet are (historically) the next most-likely body part to be eroticised. </p>
<h2>Tickling your fancy</h2>
<p>F. Scott Fitzgerald (or, Feet-zgerld, if you will) is believed to have been one patron of this new specialisation. Fitzgerald repeatedly visited one sex-worker because of her feet, and was even described by her as a “foot fetishist”. </p>
<p>While he loved feet (at least the feet of this particular woman), he detested his own and refused to let anyone see them naked. He admitted he was plagued by a “Freudian shame about his feet”. </p>
<p>Sigmund Freud, of course, had a very insightful take on foot fetishes. As with all things Freud, it all had to do with the penis – lusting after feet was so common because the feet and toes resemble the shape of the penis. (I honestly believe it would be harder to find a part of the body that Freud does not think looks like the penis.)</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491235/original/file-20221024-18-w6xqi7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">F. Scott Fitzgerald, potentially looking at a pair of beautiful feet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>It wasn’t until the 1980s, however, that the connection between foot fetishes and the contemporary epidemic was explicitly recognised. As foot-pornography emerged in magazines, some editorials advertised “foot-sex” could be regarded as a pleasurable, safe alternative to penetrative sex, which ran the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. </p>
<p>After completing their review of historical literature, the researchers of the 1998 study went on to review issues from eight of the largest pornographic magazines in the United States, released between 1965 to 1994. </p>
<p>Their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pr0.1998.83.2.491">investigation</a> proved the number of foot-orientated pictures in pornographic magazines rose exponentially over the course of the AIDS epidemic. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/madness-miscarriages-and-incest-as-in-house-of-the-dragon-real-life-royal-families-have-seen-it-all-throughout-history-189225">Madness, miscarriages and incest: as in House of the Dragon, real-life royal families have seen it all throughout history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>If you’re thinking of getting into this fetish, don’t get cold feet</h2>
<p>If this is true, it may explain why queer men are most likely to have fantasised about feet. According to <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/a19523651/foot-fetish/">data collected</a> by social psychologist Justin Lehmiller, one in seven people today have had a sexual fantasy in which feet or toes played a prominent role. </p>
<p>The fantasy was most common amongst gay and bisexual men (21%), followed by heterosexual men (18%), lesbian and bisexual women (15%), and finally heterosexual women (5%). </p>
<p>With such a prevalent amount of the population having fantasised about feet, it is perhaps surprising the representation of this fetish-interest in The House of the Dragon was met with such shock. </p>
<p>Despite its pervasiveness, both today and throughout history, this erotic desire has rarely found itself feet-ured by many historical accounts. The decision for show is perhaps radical for this reason – a decision which may well have left one in every seventh viewer very happy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Esmé Louise James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Popes and philosophers to writers and emperors, the foot fetish has a long and storied history in our world.Esmé Louise James, Doctor of Philosophy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1917322022-10-19T12:38:52Z2022-10-19T12:38:52ZHBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ was inspired by a real medieval dynastic struggle over a female ruler<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490432/original/file-20221018-14-vr83j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=379%2C8%2C1537%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Westeros, Rhaenyra finds herself in a power struggle akin to that of the real-life Empress Matilda, who lived from 1102 to 1167.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bpYWArbor7k9UvsAzeUn2P.jpg">HBO</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In three decades of teaching medieval European history, I’ve noticed my students are especially curious about the intersection of the stories told in class and the depictions of the Middle Ages they see in movies and television. </p>
<p>Judged by their historical accuracy, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/A-Knight-at-the-Movies-Medieval-History-on-Film/Aberth/p/book/9780415938860">cinematic portrayals are a mixed bag</a>. </p>
<p>However, popular fantasy, unencumbered by the competing priority of “getting it right,” can, in broad strokes, reflect the values of the medieval society that inspires it. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon">House of the Dragon</a>” is one of those TV shows. A king, lacking a male heir to his throne, elevates his teenage daughter to be his named successor, and a complex dynastic drama ensues.</p>
<p>This storyline reflects the real obstacles facing women who aspired to exercise royal authority in medieval society.</p>
<h2>The queen as a conduit to power</h2>
<p><a href="https://georgerrmartin.com/">George R. R. Martin</a>, whose novels were the foundation for the HBO series “<a href="https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones">Game of Thrones</a>,” has made <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/09/04/house-dragon-anarchy-england/">no secret of his inspiration</a> for “House of the Dragon”: <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-anarchy-of-king-stephens-reign-9780198203643?cc=us&lang=en&">the Anarchy</a>, a two-decade period, from 1135 to 1154, when a man and a woman vied with each other for the English throne.</p>
<p>The story went like this: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/british-history-1066-1450/henry-i-king-england-and-duke-normandy?format=HB&isbn=9780521591317">Henry I</a> sired two dozen or more children out of wedlock. But with his queen, <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780851159942/matilda-of-scotland/">Matilda</a>, he had only a daughter, the future <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300251470/matilda/">“Empress” Matilda</a>, and a son, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300228700/tales-from-the-long-twelfth-century/">William</a>. With William’s birth, the foremost responsibility of <a href="https://archive.org/details/medievalqueenshi0000unse/page/n3/mode/2up">medieval queenship</a> was fulfilled: There would be a male heir.</p>
<p>Then tragedy struck. In 1120, a drunken 17-year-old William attempted a nighttime channel crossing. <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-white-ship-conquest-anarchy-and-the-wrecking-of-henry-is-dream-charles-spencer?variant=39721558081570">When his also-inebriated helmsmen hit a rock, the prince drowned</a>. </p>
<p>The queen had died two years earlier, so Henry I remarried – <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-165;jsessionid=62DD366D3E1A9D1D00CEEF5CF6C918F3">Adeliza of Louvain</a> – but they had no children together. The cradle sat empty and the sands in Henry I’s hourglass ran low, so he resolved that his lone legitimate child, Matilda, would have the throne as a ruling queen.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Old painting of woman holding cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490431/original/file-20221018-6087-wjugig.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1198&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Empress Matilda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Empress_Matilda.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>The move was unprecedented in medieval England. A queen could exert influence in her husband’s physical absence or when, after a king’s death, their son was a minor. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530179/queens-of-the-conquest-by-alison-weir/">Her role, moreover, as an intimate confidant and counselor could be consequential.</a></p>
<p>But a queen was not expected to swing a sword or lead troops into battle and forge the personal loyalties on which kingship rested, to say nothing of <a href="https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/henrietta-leyser/medieval-women/9781780226538/">the misogyny inherent to medieval English society</a>. The queen was the conduit through which power was transferred by marriage and childbirth, not its exclusive wielder.</p>
<h2>Viserys and Henry I share the same plight</h2>
<p>A similar scenario drives the plot of “House of the Dragon.” The absolute preference in the fictional kingdom Westeros for a male ruler is expressed in the series’ opening scene.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#jaehaerys-i-targaryen">old king</a>, having outlived his sons, empowers a council of nobles to choose his successor between two of his grandchildren, the cousins <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#rhaenys-targaryen">Rhaenys</a> and <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#viserys-i-targaryen">Viserys</a>. Rhaenys, a female, is the older of the two. </p>
<p>Yet the male Viserys becomes king and Rhaenys, “the queen who never was,” later ruefully concedes that this represented “the order of things.”</p>
<p>Once installed, however, Westeros’ new king would have understood the plight of England’s Henry I. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#aemma-arryn">Aemma</a>, Viserys’ queen, suffers stillbirths and miscarriages and produces only a daughter, <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#jaehaerys-i-targaryen">Rhaenyra</a>. A fading hope for a son is dashed when a breached birth and a brutal Caesarian section, intended to save the child, ends up killing Aemma. The boy – the desperately desired heir – doesn’t live out the day.</p>
<p>Sonless, Visery’s named heir is his younger brother, the debauched, sinister <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#daemon-targaryen">Daemon</a>. When Daemon’s conduct becomes intolerable, Viserys disinherits and banishes him. Left with his young daughter Rhaenyra, he decides to make her a ruling queen, a role the girl relishes as she seeks to change “the order of things.”</p>
<h2>Building support for a ruling queen</h2>
<p>The challenge for a medieval king, whether Henry I or the fictional Viserys, was to persuade the nobles to overcome their prejudices and not just accept but actively support a woman’s ascension to power. </p>
<p>Henry I pursued measures to make his daughter palatable to them. Matilda, who had married the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1114, returned to England a widow in 1125. Henry I, determined to forge a sacramental bond between his daughter and England’s magnates, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/british-history-1066-1450/aristocracy-norman-england?format=PB&isbn=9780521524650">compelled his barons</a> in 1127 to swear their support for her as his successor. Henry I then turned to arranging a marriage for Matilda so she could give birth to a grandson and buttress her position. </p>
<p>After Matilda’s nuptials with <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780851152653/the-ideals-and-practice-of-medieval-knighthood-volume-iii/">Geoffrey, count of Anjou</a>, the barons were summoned to renew their oath to her in 1131. A son, Henry, was born two years later, and a third pledge followed. Henry I died two years later of food poisoning <a href="https://assets.cambridge.org/97805215/91317/excerpt/9780521591317_excerpt.pdf">after eating eels</a>, a favorite dish of his.</p>
<p>The durability of his arrangements for Matilda’s rise to authority was immediately tested.</p>
<p>Viserys in “House of the Dragon” works from a similar playbook. The worthies of Westeros vow their loyalty to Rhaenyra as royal successor. Once Rhaenyra becomes marriageable, Viserys fields a plethora of suitors for her hand. A reluctant bride, Rhaenyra finally accedes to a union in which she would “dutifully” produce a male heir but then let her heart have what it wanted. </p>
<p>The unfortunate result is her inability to conceive with her husband while having three sons by a lover. Her situation is further complicated by Viserys’ remarriage to the lady <a href="https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide#alicent-hightower">Alicent</a>, who gives him sons. Dangers stalk Rhaenyra’s path to power. In Westeros, as in England, a princess is expected to guard her chastity closely until marriage and, once wed, to be monogamous and not to “sully” herself in order to ensure the legitimacy of her children – a blatant double standard when noblemen frequently had children out of wedlock.</p>
<p>Yet even rumors of female infidelity could threaten succession. Lineage matters. Blood binds, as evident in the streams of it running from family crest to family crest in the series’ opening credits.</p>
<h2>War ensues</h2>
<p>Did these strategies work? </p>
<p>Not for Matilda. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300181951/king-stephen/">Stephen of Blois</a>, a son from the marriage of Henry I’s sister Adela to a French count, aggressively registered a claim to the crown after Henry I’s death. Many English magnates conveniently forgot their oaths to Matilda, and Stephen became king. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/stephen-and-matilda/9780752471921/">Matilda was not without supporters</a> – her half-brother Robert, earl of Gloucester; her husband, the count of Anjou; nobles disaffected by Stephen’s rule; and opportunists seeking personal gain from the conflict. Matilda resisted and the Anarchy ensued.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three marble statues of men wearing robes and crowns appear side by side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490429/original/file-20221018-8895-4ckzp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The succession, from left to right: Henry I, Stephen and Henry II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statues_of_the_Kings_of_England,_York.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Forces supporting Matilda invaded England in 1139 but, <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Empress-Matilda-by-Marjorie-Chibnall/9780631190288">save for a moment in 1141</a>, she never ruled. She then focused instead on elevating her son to the crown.</p>
<p>Prosecution of the war ultimately passed to the young Henry. His mounting military successes jogged the barons’ memory of their past commitments, and the contending parties reached a settlement. Henry would succeed Stephen. With Stephen’s death, Henry became <a href="https://www.yalebooks.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9780300084740">Henry II</a>. England wouldn’t have another ruling queen until <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300194166/mary-i/">the ascension of Queen Mary I in 1553</a>, nearly four centuries later.</p>
<p>But what of Rhaenyra?</p>
<p>Westeros is not 12th century England. For Martin, the author, the Anarchy does not serve to establish historical fact but is a wellspring for his creative vision. The fire-breathing dragon – that denizen of the medieval imagination – exists in Westeros. Rhaenyra’s pursuit of the throne may be fraught with difficulties, but she is a dragon-rider, and dragons were the most fearsome military asset in the kingdom.</p>
<p>This makes her dangerous in a way Matilda of England could hardly have conceived. Nonetheless, “House of the Dragon,” through the lens of fantasy, reflects a slice of the English medieval experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Routt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During a two-decade period of English history known as the Anarchy, a woman sought to make the then-unprecedented move of ascending to the English throne.David Routt, Adjunct Professor of History, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895292022-08-30T20:04:58Z2022-08-30T20:04:58ZTorturous births in House of the Dragon dramatise the question of whether women deserve to be more than just a womb<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481670/original/file-20220829-19182-i60s6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1911%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The premiere episode of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, The Heirs of the Dragon, establishes its central themes of gender and power in a bloody fashion. Its shocking depiction of a fatal cesarean birth is notable for its brutality – but also for how it reflects on histories of pregnant representation and reproductive politics. </p>
<p>The series dramatises a civil war in which factions of the Targaryen family fight for the Iron Throne of Westeros. As we start, young Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) has been overlooked by her father, King Viserys (Paddy Consedine). He desires a male heir, even as queen consort Aemma (Sian Brooke) suffers through stillbirths and miscarriages. </p>
<p>We quickly see how women are at the mercy of men’s decisions. “Here you are surrounded by attendants all focused on the babe – someone must attend to you”, says Rhaenyra to her heavily pregnant mother. “This discomfort is how we serve the realm”, Aemma replies; “The childbed is our battlefield”.</p>
<p>The king calls a tournament to celebrate the impending birth of what he hopes will be a male heir. Violent, rhythmic scenes showing knights jousting and bludgeoning each other to a bloody pulp are crosscut with upsetting images of Aemma’s labour.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481678/original/file-20220830-18-6fvm0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Queen Aemma in childbirth in the premiere episode of House of the Dragon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span>
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<h2>Brutality and betrayal</h2>
<p>Showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-21/house-of-the-dragon-childbirth-scene-aemma-viserys-targaryen">speaking with the Los Angeles Times</a>, notes that as with Game of Thrones’ battles, each birth on this show will explore a theme. This theme was “torture”. </p>
<p>The baby is breech, and the labour difficult. A male doctor tells the king that fathers must make impossible choices. Viserys quietly approves a plan to cut the baby out, in the hope that it is a boy. </p>
<p>It is a terrible betrayal: he holds Aemma’s hand while she is restrained and sliced open. She bleeds to death – and her newborn son only lives a short while. It is a shocking depiction of the world’s priorities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/game-of-thrones-prequel-house-of-the-dragon-confirms-there-will-be-no-sexual-violence-on-screen-heres-why-thats-important-188521">Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon confirms there will be no sexual violence on screen. Here's why that's important</a>
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<h2>Pregnancy in visual culture</h2>
<p>Beyond its brutality, the scene illustrates vividly changes to the visibility of pregnancy in visual culture. </p>
<p>Throughout most of the 20th century, pregnancy and birth were largely invisible in visual media. Pregnancy was deemed private and domestic, even vulgar. Notably, scenes of childbirth were banned and pregnancy deemed taboo in Hollywood films from 1927-68, thanks to various censorship regimes. Later, pregnant actors in television series would be written out, or have their bodies hidden through costuming or editing. </p>
<p>Now, images of pregnancy and childbirth are significantly more visible and varied. A watershed moment came in 1991 when Annie Leibovitz’s impactful (and controversial) portrait of Demi Moore – naked, beatific, and 7 months pregnant – graced the front cover of Vanity Fair. It challenged the notion that pregnant bodies should be hidden. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481676/original/file-20220829-8701-q5adad.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The August 1991 Vanity Fair cover, featuring a pregnant Demi Moore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vanity Fair</span></span>
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<p>More recently, British series such as historical drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1983079/">Call the Midwife</a> and the docu-drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11569382/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4">One Born Every Minute</a>, and American film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212604/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Tully</a>, have foregrounded female-led emotional and realistic representations of pregnancy and birth. </p>
<p>Pregnancies are more likely to be written in, not out, of television series. We have also seen the slow rise of sexy maternity fashion that shows off one’s “baby bump”, recently exemplified by singer and entrepreneur Rihanna’s <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/g39047696/rihanna-maternity-style-gallery/">boundary-pushing outfits</a>. The overt images of Aemma’s pregnant body sit within this cultural shift.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/madness-miscarriages-and-incest-as-in-house-of-the-dragon-real-life-royal-families-have-seen-it-all-throughout-history-189225">Madness, miscarriages and incest: as in House of the Dragon, real-life royal families have seen it all throughout history</a>
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<h2>Monstrous births and bodily autonomy</h2>
<p>But this scene’s graphic nature is unusual in mainstream media. Instead, it resonates with the long history of monstrous births in science fiction and horror. </p>
<p>These genres offer a subversive language with which to explore reproductive anxieties openly. The paranoia and gaslighting in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Rosemary’s Baby</a> (1968), the chest-bursting scene in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Alien (1979)</a>, the gruesome forced caesarean in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0856288/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4">A’ l’Interieur (2007)</a>, and the maternal dread in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5109784/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Mother! (2017)</a> all illustrate fears about embodiment, maternity and personhood.</p>
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<p>The content and tone of this scene, and its place as an inciting incident within the series’ narrative, also reflects contemporary issues regarding women’s bodily autonomy. These speak to widespread cultural tensions about the competing rights of the adult and the unborn. </p>
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<p>This is an issue everywhere, but currently has particular political resonance in the United States in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade. This has quickly opened the doors to oppressive bans on abortion in some US states, even in cases where a pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. </p>
<p>At its most conservative and adversarial, this positions female reproductive bodies as little more than vessels. This misogynistic position suggests that an unborn person has more of a right to life than an adult subject, and that a woman does not have the right to make choices about her own life and body. It is dehumanising. </p>
<p>House of the Dragon dramatises this dynamic in the context of a deeply patriarchal system that is in ways not that far removed form our own. A war of succession is prompted because a society can’t countenance the idea of a woman taking the throne. </p>
<p>In a show that is interested in exploring the dynamics of gender and power through the lens of medieval fantasy, the conflict is not just that of ambitious uncle against powerful niece, but whether a woman has a right to be more than a womb.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Harrington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The trope of traumatic and violent childbirth is not new to House of the Dragon, and is often used to reflect on pregnant representation and reproductive politics on screen.Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892252022-08-25T20:03:26Z2022-08-25T20:03:26ZMadness, miscarriages and incest: as in House of the Dragon, real-life royal families have seen it all throughout history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480980/original/file-20220825-15-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C1%2C1196%2C795&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>House of the Dragon chronicles the fall of the Targaryen dynasty some two centuries before life on the continent of Westeros is upended by war and a mini ice age – the events dramatised in HBO’s Game of Thrones. </p>
<p>The new series’ first episode powerfully suggests that political instability and dynastic decline begin with disease and health crises. </p>
<p>The ruling Targaryen King Viserys I suffers from a large and painful pus-filled open wound on his back. He dismisses this injury as a minor one he sustained from sitting on the famous Iron Throne forged with the swords of the vanquished. </p>
<p>His wife, the heavily-pregnant Queen Aemma Arryn, who has endured multiple miscarriages and infant losses in her lifetime, is worried about the health of their unborn baby. The childbirth depicted in this episode is extremely traumatic.</p>
<p>The diseases and medical afflictions that plagued the ruling houses of Westeros – pregnancy complications, madness and genetic disorders – affected the real royal families of Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. And just as in House of the Dragon, these afflictions shaped real dynastic struggles.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DotnJ7tTA34?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Genetic disorders</h2>
<p>Like the fictional Targaryens, real European royals frequently married close relatives, contributing to genetic disorders in their families. </p>
<p>Spain’s last Habsburg king, Charles II, is a poster child for royal incest. He suffered from multiple health problems before his death at 38, including an extreme case of the so-called Habsburg jaw or badly misshapen mandible that made it very difficult to speak and to chew food. His parents were uncle and niece. Geneticists <a href="https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/12/03/inenglish/1575367613_121836.html#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CCharles%20II%20had%20a%20drooping,out%20for%20almost%20two%20centuries">have argued</a> that consanguinity, or parents being descended from the same ancestors, caused this condition.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480995/original/file-20220825-21-hwjavr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">King Charles II of Spain by John Closterman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Queen Victoria of England passed the gene that caused the recessive blood disease hemophilia to the royal families of Russia, Spain and Germany through the marriages of her children. </p>
<p>Victoria’s great-grandson, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/case-closed-famous-royals-suffered-hemophilia">inherited this disease</a>. The holy man Rasputin, who was brought into the palace to treat the Russian Tsar, came to meddle in government affairs, leading to rising tension within the aristocracy and public distrust of the royal family. In this roundabout way the “<a href="https://www.hemophilia.org/bleeding-disorders-a-z/overview/history">royal disease</a>,” as hemophilia is known, contributed to the revolution that ended the Romanov monarchy.</p>
<h2>Pregnancy and fertility</h2>
<p>The primary goal of royal marriage, in both early modern Europe and Westeros, was to bring together powerful families and produce living heirs who would carry on the dynasty. </p>
<p>House of the Dragon’s creators have been criticised for the graphic childbirth scene in episode one, yet they were correct in portraying pregnancy as dangerous for royals. Seven queens and princesses of Asturias (heirs to the Spanish throne) <a href="https://museoecologiahumana.org/en/obras/death-in-childbed/">had children between 1500 and 1700. Four died of pregnancy-related causes.</a></p>
<p>While childbirth could prove fatal to royal women, failure to produce an heir could also see the end of a dynastic house. The history of the island of Westeros, which looks incredibly similar to the British Isles, mirrors much of Britain’s history too. The desire for a male heir could tear apart royal families.</p>
<p>In 16th-century England, King Henry VIII (who also sported an ulcerated wound on his leg, perhaps serving as inspiration for Viserys I’s back wound), would famously break away from the Catholic Church in Rome and marry six times to secure male heirs that would sustain the Tudor dynasty. Ironically, it was eventually Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I who took the throne after their brother, Edward VI, died at the age of 16.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/game-of-thrones-prequel-house-of-the-dragon-confirms-there-will-be-no-sexual-violence-on-screen-heres-why-thats-important-188521">Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon confirms there will be no sexual violence on screen. Here's why that's important</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/history-and-stories/queen-anne/#gs.9y4yxt">Queen Anne</a> famously endured at least 17 pregnancies in 17 years. She gave birth to 18 children, many were stillborn and only one lived to the age of 11. Without an heir, the throne was passed to the Stuart’s German cousins, the Hanovarians.</p>
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<span class="caption">Anne (centre) and her sister Mary (left) with their parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, painted by Peter Lely and Benedetto Gennari II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Mental illness</h2>
<p>King George III of England suffered from manic episodes that lead to government instability and regency crises, just like the mad King Aerys Targaryen in the world of Game of Thrones. Various <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4953321/">medical conditions</a> have been offered to explain the historic monarch’s madness, including porphyria, a genetic blood disease that can lead to anxiety and mental confusion, or more recently, bipolar disorder. </p>
<p>George was subsequently portrayed as a <a href="https://time.com/6115140/george-iii-americas-last-king-tyrant/">mad tyrant king</a> and the reason for England’s loss of its American colonies in the American Revolution. However, in reality the British monarchy was constitutional by this point and George had little direct influence on the colonies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481015/original/file-20220825-22-zv34k5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engraving by Henry Meyer of George III in later life (1817).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Treatments</h2>
<p>Historians might expect to see more religion combined with medicine in Kings Landing if the creators of The House of the Dragon wanted to create a royal household that closely resembled those of early modern Europe. </p>
<p>Sick and injured Catholic monarchs sought out the healing powers of sacred objects. In the 17th century, pregnant queens of Spain were loaned the “santa cinta” or the “holy belt”, a relic that was believed to have belonged to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Wearing or touching this item of clothing was believed to give protection to pregnant queens and their fetuses.</p>
<p>The corporeal remains of deceased holy men and women who were known as saints also played a part in healing Catholic monarchs and their families. </p>
<p>When Prince Don Carlos of Asturias, heir to Spain’s King Philip II, sustained a life-threatening <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00381-015-2693-7">head injury</a> in 1562, Franciscan friars brought the corpse of Fray Diego de Alcalá to the prince’s bed chamber and placed it in his bed. Early moderns attributed Don Carlos’s recovery to this relic and the cranial surgery that doctors performed to save his life. </p>
<p>In a protestant country like England by the late 18th century, treatments were far more conventional to modern eyes, if not more brutal as well. </p>
<p>Treatment of mental illness, including George III’s mania, involved straitjackets and restraining chairs, the latter of which George, who still retained his humour, often called his “coronation chair”. Not quite the Iron Throne, but a throne for a
“mad king”, nonetheless.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bendall receives funding from Australian Research Council and Pasold Research Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristie Patricia Flannery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just like in Westeros, the fates of royal dynasties from history have been shaped by illness and affliction.Kristie Patricia Flannery, Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversitySarah Bendall, Research Fellow, Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885212022-08-11T20:04:36Z2022-08-11T20:04:36ZGame of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon confirms there will be no sexual violence on screen. Here’s why that’s important<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478608/original/file-20220810-9449-blemf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C976%2C618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">HBO</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones dominated television and pop culture discourse for much of a decade. Its upcoming prequel series, House of the Dragon, is similarly generating conversation, although not in ways the producers might prefer. Much of this has centred on discussions of sexual assault and rape on screen.</p>
<p>This new series is set 200 years before Game of Thrones. It dramatises the Dance of the Dragons, a war of succession in which factions of the Targaryen family fight for the Iron Throne of Westeros. A key trigger is whether Princess Rhaenyra, the ageing king’s firstborn, will become the first queen of the Seven Kingdoms. The showrunners have stated that a dominant theme is whether an entrenched “<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/inside-house-of-the-dragon-trailer-cast-1235182776/">patriarchy would rather destroy itself than see a woman on the throne</a>”.</p>
<p>But ahead of its launch, the show is already facing questions about how it will represent sex and sexual assault. These are issues that plagued Game of Thrones. The show became notorious for its extensive use of sex and female nudity, as well as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/05/game-of-thrones-the-handmaids-tale-them-tv-sexual-violence/618782/">its graphic rape scenes</a>. It notably inspired the term “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2012/mar/11/sexposition-story-tv-drama">sexposition</a>”: when exposition, such as backstory or character motivation, is offered against a backdrop of sex or nudity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DotnJ7tTA34?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>“You can’t ignore the violence that was perpetrated on women by men in that time”</h2>
<p>Miguel Sapochnik, an executive producer and co-showrunner of House of the Dragon, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/inside-house-of-the-dragon-trailer-cast-1235182776/">indicated</a> in a somewhat contradictory fashion that the show would “pull back” on sex while also showing it as a nonchalant aspect of Targaryan life. When asked about violence against women, he replied: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[we] don’t shy away from it. If anything, we’re going to shine a light on that aspect. You can’t ignore the violence that was perpetrated on women by men in that time. It shouldn’t be downplayed and it shouldn’t be glorified.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writer and executive producer Sara Hess since clarified these comments in a statement to <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/08/house-of-the-dragon-sexual-violence-game-of-thrones">Vanity Fair</a>. She states “we do not depict sexual violence in the show”. She added, “We handle one instance off-screen, and instead show the aftermath and impact on the victim and the mother of the perpetrator.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478669/original/file-20220811-19-mkeb0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While sexual assault will still be dealt with in House of the Dragon, it will happen off screen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conflict and violence in Game of Thrones</h2>
<p>One of Game of Thrones’ many strengths was its representation of conflict. Extraordinary battle sequences and scenes of mass casualty illustrated the human cost of nobles’ whims. However, gendered patterns of representation quickly built up. Sexual objectification and violence against women became a metaphor for the endemic brutality of Westeros.</p>
<p>To claim this was a necessary and honest way to illustrate the world’s values “realistically” ignores two things. George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books draw from European medieval history and the English civil wars, but Westeros - with its dragons and ice zombies - is ultimately an invention. In fictional media, the historical past and imagined worlds are powerful lenses through which we can consider present-day values. </p>
<p>Additionally, Game of Thrones is not a history, but a massively successful entertainment product made for premium cable. This environment is not subject to the same broadcasting standards or advertising pressures as network television. In the past two decades, many prestige or quality dramas have used sex and nudity to differentiate themselves from network fare. </p>
<p>Over time, sexually explicit material and gendered violence have been offered as core expressions of the form’s narrative and thematic complexity. Shows must navigate the space between exploring misogyny and turning it into entertainment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-from-daenerys-to-yara-the-top-ten-women-of-game-of-thrones-58356">Friday essay: from Daenerys to Yara – the top ten women of Game of Thrones</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The male heterosexual gaze</h2>
<p>By looking at techniques such as framing and editing, we can see how many episodes of Game of Thrones embodied an implicitly male, heterosexual gaze. Women’s bodies were over-represented as depersonalised props, or sexual objects of regard, as in frequent brothel scenes. <a href="https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/television/game-of-thrones-intimacy-coordinator">Members of the cast</a>, and even <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2012/06/game-of-thrones-nudity-nude-scenes.html">one of the episodes’ directors</a>, have also commented on the pressures they felt to offer more explicit material for the purposes of titillation.</p>
<p>Defenders of such material may protest that these choices are gritty engagements with real-life violence, misogyny and moral complexity, or even that they offer images of female empowerment. But this ignores that we tend to see only certain types of bodies sexualised. </p>
<p>These are predominantly those of younger, able-bodied, conventionally attractive cis women. Women of colour are frequently fetishised and exoticised. Naked bodies of visibly ageing women remain taboo. Male nudity is certainly present in Game of Thrones, albeit at a far lower rate than female nudity and less sexualised, often acting as a representation of a character’s vulnerability or a source of humour. </p>
<p>This amplifies the unequal standards of gendered representation that have long dominated film, television, advertising and art. These have also diminished the nature of roles available to women. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/game-of-thrones-and-the-fluid-world-of-medieval-gender-40245">Game of Thrones and the fluid world of medieval gender</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At its worst, presenting women’s bodies as inherently available and vulnerable perpetuates damaging, misogynistic tropes. This includes “fridging”, which presents violence against women as a plot device that helps develop a male character’s narrative arc. It also includes rape as shorthand for female character development.</p>
<p>This is frustrating, as there is significant scope to explore issues of power, violence and victimisation in nuanced ways. Michaela Cole’s limited series I May Destroy You, a black comedy-drama that deals with a rape and its aftermath, is a prominent example of a potent, victim-centric account of anxiety and trauma. It’s also notable that it was female-led, in an industry where women are significantly underrepresented behind the camera. The <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2018/10/hbo-sex-scenes-the-deuce-watchman-intimacy-coordinators.html">recent emergence of intimacy coordinators</a> in productions is also a positive step.</p>
<p>We live in a world with atrocious rates of gendered violence. Misogyny and female objectification are a normalised part of life. One way to denaturalise patterns in representation, narrative, character and style is by highlighting their artifice. This reminds us that visual language isn’t neutral. </p>
<p>Art and entertainment have key roles in both perpetuating and questioning these dynamics. House of the Dragon is clearly interested in unpicking the intricacies of gender and power in a highly patriarchal society. Hopefully, the way it tells its story doesn’t inadvertently undermine this aim.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Harrington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Game of Thrones made a name for itself with frequent and egregious depictions of sexual assault on screen. The upcoming prequel is moving in a new direction.Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.