Game of Thrones 6.03 "Oathbreaker" 5/8/2016 [Show discussion]

[SenorBeef]

@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as

I have to say that this Daenerys nudity discussion makes me really uncomfortable. “The scene would have been better from a dramatic standpoint if we’d seen her nude” is fine. “What a jerk move on the part of the actress not to want to do any more nude scenes” is not.

Those aren’t separate positions. She signed onto the job knowing nudity was a significant part of the role. She went along with that until she had enough clout to be irreplacable, at which point she told them she would no longer do what she agreed to do. That behavior on her part lessons the quality of the series because of your first quote.

The issue of sex and nudity for women is fraught, and most of us just try to move through the world as best we can. To have it attract so much attention is dehumanizing.

You and the other people on your side are making this into some sort of issue on misogyny. It’s not. It’s only because of the tendency to find misogyny in everything, and puriticanal weirdness that we have around sex that this is even an argument, that there’s anyone willing to fight on the other side of it.

I’ve already used the example that I’d be just as critical - moreso, really - if a male actor refused to do fight scenes. (And no one would ever say “it’s his body, he can do what he wants with it”, right? That’s part of the puritanical weirdness I’m talking about. Asserting bodily autonomy is somehow only an issue when it comes to protecting a woman’s delicate sexuality from phantom exploitation.)

But how about another example? The series has always been willing to do unpleasant and gorey things. Not shying away from such things is a defining feature of what it is.But what if a director, who previously worked on the series, and was contractually awarded to do another episode, decided to film a big battle episode without any gore or blood? Suddenly his beliefs dictate that there be no blood or gore. So he films the battle in the same way old cheap cheesy westerns would be, with people falling over melodramatically with no blood or visible gore. It would be really distracting, because we’ve established the grittiness that the series has allowed in the past, and a sudden change to a goreless world would be incongruent. No one would be defending the director saying it’s his body and he shouldn’t be forced to shoot scenes in a way he doesn’t want to, and if you say otherwise you’re a misogynist who just wants to see his tits.

It upsets me to even be a bystander-- I know I’m not an actress, but do people make these sorts of judgments about me and my body but don’t say them to my face? If I wanted to do public intellectual work, is this the sort of thing I’d have to deal with? It drives one to despair.

This is a complete non-sequitor. What does this have to do with anything? I don’t even know how to address this.

1. You’re not an actress whose willingness to be nude is relevant to the quality and impact of a scene
2. You never signed up for a part on the condition that you do nude scenes, and then revoke your cooperation when it was too late for them to cast someone else who would be more willing to do the job than you are
3. No one is making judgments about anyone’s body. Where are you even seeing that?
4. What sort of thoughts are you even talking about saying to your face? I can’t even begin to understand what you’re asking. Certainly no one is thinking “damn, this girl agreed to be nude, and then when she got enough clout, decided not to live up to her side of the bargain” behind your back.
5. What does public intellectual work have to do with agreeing to do nude scenes, doing then, and then being unwilling to do them? Does this happen a lot in intellectual work?