Odds are you’ve heard something about this little TV show called Game of Thrones that’s just started on HBO. Odds also are that you’ve heard something about a couple of the less-than-positive reviews that went up last week in which it was painfully clear that the reviewers simply don’t like fantasy and think that those of us who do are childish at best, stupid and uncultured at worst.
Let me make a couple of disclaimers before I get too deep:
- I haven’t seen Game of Thrones. We dropped cable a few months ago and this is the first time I’ve regretted it.
- I haven’t read the books yet, either. My husband is currently reading A Game of Thrones and I’ll be reading it as soon as he’s done.
So I currently have nothing personally invested in this show other than the facts that I love pretty much all things fantasy, the previews look fan-freaking-tastic, and a long-haired, goateed, armor-wearing Sean Bean is in it. (He could be reading tax code aloud and I’d tune in to watch. What? Don’t judge me.)
Why then are my geek hackles raised?
I’m going to completely ignore the review posted at Slate. Even though it made my blood boil, the “reviewer” doesn’t so much review the show as he goes on a rant against fantasy in general. Even some of his fans have left comments pointing out that he really didn’t review the show at all. So I’m just chalking him up as someone we geeks don’t have to pay any attention to.
What really got my ire was the review at the New York Times, in which Ginia Bellafante said (among other bizarre things):
While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.
Boy fiction?! Seriously? And who the hell is Lorrie Moore?
This is what got me fuming more than anything else. There is little that hacks me off more than broad assumptions that “all girls/boys/geeks like/don’t like” something. The reviewer’s attempt (a poor one, at that) to assert that she speaks for all women, as if we are a hive mind and all like the same things without exception – and that those who do like different things are some sort of different breed entirely – ended up being a dig at geek girls, and that will get me in a tizzy every time.
I’m sure there are people who would agree with the reviewer, that fantasy fiction is written by and for men, and that there’s nothing in it that could possibly interest women. But I – and leagues of my fellow geek girls, if the response on the internet is any indication – say she’s wrong.
(Ginia Bellafante has since posted a reply to the geekrage, but sure didn’t apologize).
The Argument Against “Boy Fiction”
I was a fan of fantasy before I started gaming. Honestly, I think a lot of little girls start out with an interest – you can’t get away from the fact that unicorns and Tinkerbell are fantasy creatures. I’m not sure where the split comes, when it becomes unacceptable in some eyes for girls to keep liking fantasy. Is it when sword fights become involved? The appearance of orcs, trolls, and other not-so-cute creatures? When the stories actually become serious? Because of course it’s unacceptable to have a serious story set in a fictional fantasy world! You’re better off watching soap operas – at least those are realistic, right?
If fantasy is just for boys, why are there so many women writing it? Maggie Bonham, Barb Hendee, Christine Morgan, Patricia Briggs, C.J. Cherryh, Juliet Marillier, Margaret Weis, Elaine Cunningham, Carol Berg…I could go on for ages. If you wanted to read nothing but fantasy written by women, you would have enough good reading material to last you the rest of your days. Emphasis on good. The female writers of the science fiction and fantasy worlds write stories just as compelling as the men – and they have plenty of fans from both genders.
Does that mean the girls who love fantasy only read the books written by women? Oh my, no. My favorite author is R. A. Salvatore (and not just for his Drizzt novels). I was so excited to meet Harry Turtledove that I couldn’t even talk to him (and therefore didn’t – stupid me!). I’ve seen plenty of women lining up at cons to meet Michael Stackpole and Timothy Zahn. And George R. R. Martin, the man behind Game of Thrones, said it better than I ever could:
“…if I am writing “boy fiction,” who are all those boys with breasts who keep turning up by the hundreds at my signings and readings?”
Preaching To The Choir
I realize that our readership here at Geek’s Dream Girl is the crowd that already understands that all things geeky are equally open to geek boys and geek girls alike. The world at large is still catching on. Until the day comes when it’s well-known and accepted, we geek girls are probably going to be putting up with jabs like those in the NYT review. Whatever, we can take it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to searching for a download of the Game of Thrones premiere. (Seriously, if anyone can hook me up with a legal stream…)
Do you think there’s a type of book/movie/game that’s strictly for one gender? Why or why not?
About c
I, too, was floored when I read that review! I loved the Game of Thrones book and it was only through my incessant suggestions that my husband picked it up at all. It was suggested to me by another woman and I really enjoyed the first several books.
The only other book-genre with a gender bias that springs readily to my mind is that of romance novels. Having worked in both bookstores and libraries, I rarely saw males either perusing or selecting from that section. Having never actually finished a book from that genre, I can’t really speak to the reasons, but I thought I’d throw that out there.
Thanks for sharing your views on this. And, omg, you MET Harry Turtledove?!?
I’m with you there… As the father of two young girls (6 & 4), I want my girls to like fantasy and RPGs in general. I want to expose them to as much as possible and let them find what they like… Whether it be R.A.S., GRRM, or like Dad Alexandre Dumas (I love French classic litt).
Nice post.
So this had me fuming too. I’m a girl and I pretty much came to all things geek by reading sci-fi and fantasy. I read books by authors of both genders. There are plenty of male writers who can write sensitively about women in this genre. I’ve come across the odd woman that wrote insensitively about females too. It’s fine, it’s a genre where you read what you like and generally are respected for doing so. There is no such thing as boy fiction or girl fiction in this genre thank god. The other ‘people’ who are into this, tend to respect you for you thinking skills!
I don’t like this particular book, as the worldview in it is too negative for me. However I do know droves of people who love it .Lorrie Moore is an unknown to me. I wonder what she makes of having her name abused like this.
As for romance aka chick-lit, my ex (male) used to read it ….
Her “rebuttal” just made me roll my eyes. Basically she missed the entire point that the show could be pure tripe and her “review” was STILL offensive!
Oh, and the show? While starting slow, was quite interesting! There are a lot of characters to introduce, and it gave some great scenes! I can’t wait for next Sunday!
Brie – I’d agree that not a lot of men read romance novels or “chick-lit” (another term that rubs me the wrong way), but I’m sure there are some who do. And if they like it, more power to ‘em!
Yes, I met Harry – sort of. I nearly literally ran into him (he’s very stealthy for a man of his height!), went “Eeep!” and that was it. My husband finally worked up the nerve to go have our books signed on the last day of the con, after all we’d heard about how incredibly nice he was. And he was very nice. But I never managed to talk to him. I’ve got to get over being star-struck – at the same con next year, the author guest of honor is GRRM himself!
JP – Thank you! And I’m so glad to hear you’re encouraging your little girls to explore the world of fantasy. My parents always gave me freedom to read whatever I wanted.
Lydia – I’ve also found some female authors who I thought wrote women in a rather bad manner. And some men hit it right out of the park. Poor Lorrie Moore, whoever she is. (I’ve googled her, and I haven’t heard of any of her books or stories.)
The Imp – Exactly! Her non-review was just a slam on fantasy. I wonder if she was the girl at the back of the theater when we saw “Return of the King” who kept loudly complaining about how long the movie was. (My husband finally turned around and told her she could just leave if she hated it so much.
) I so wish I could find an online stream/download of the show!
I got an opportunity to watch the first episode last night. Loved it!! Really true to the books. Several of the actors look NOTHING like how I pictured their characters, but others are spot-on.
In response to the horribly clueless NY Times review.. after reading this line “The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise.”, I expected a few passionate, erotic, tender scenes.
Umm… what show was she watching? There was female nudity aplenty, and a few sex scenes that were somewhat rough and borderline degrading to women. I didn’t see any tenderness or much eroticism.
Now, I wouldn’t pretend to understand women, but is that the kind of thing she meant by “a little something for the ladies”?? Might be saying more about the reviewer than she knows.
I couldn’t help feeling like Ginia Bellafante not only did not actually watch the show, but she didn’t even bother trying to at least skim the source material. She had no actual clue what she was talking about. In addition to many things others have already pointed out, she states, “We are in the universe of dwarfs, armor, wenches, braids, loincloth.”
Do what now? Ok, the armor I get, yet, lots of it. The wenches, well I suppose if you mean some of the servant girls, but the female characters are by and large nobles, and hardly could be called “wenches”. The braids – I guess she’s referring to some of the Dothraki hairstyles? Or the braided hair of some of the noble ladies? No clue. And it’s clear she writes “dwarfs” assuming that there are standard fantasy fare dwarves in the story, a la Gimli, son of Gloin or Flint Fireforge. Obviously she missed the fact that the dwarf in question is a human male that we refer to in the modern world as a little person. And the loincloths reference? You got me on that one. I guess it’s a Dothraki reference again, maybe, possibly.
I agree with the above comment. I really don’t think the reviewer even tried with this one and only saw it as an excuse to bash fantasy and “stick it to the man”. It’s people like this that give reviewers a bad name as prudes who don’t like anything and just want to complain.
The idea that fantasy is a “boy’s only club” is just stupid. Actually, when I ask most of the girls I know what their favorite genre is, they tend to say fantasy. No genre is made exclusively for one gender. While romance has a slant towards the female demographic, that doesn’t mean men run from it at every chance they get. I actually rather like romance stories myself (as long as they don’t start going down the porn route).
Sithinious – Yeah, I agree. I’ve managed to see the show now (and I’ve just started reading the book, yay) and there’s not exactly any sweet tender lovin’ going on in the beginning! If she thinks that’s in there just for the ladies…wow. A very odd statement to say the least!
Robert – The “dwarf” thing just floors me. I suppose she is so clueless that she thinks fantasy dwarves are just people with dwarfism, but really? Peter Dinklage is just rockin’ that role.
Cody – My mom is a big fan of romance novels, and when I still lived at home, used to lend me some of the better ones to read. Like any genre, there are some that are truly horrible – and the romance genre probably has more of the bad eggs than other genres, IMO – but there were some good ones. I do have to say I am always amazed at the amount of sex in some romance novels – not a complaint, mind you!
It just strikes me as funny that romance novels are often considered the reading material of mild-mannered housewives, and there’s some really wild stuff going on, bordering on true erotica.
Lorrie Moore=writer of short stories and novels which take place recognizably in our world and are therefore regarded as somehow “better” or “more serious” by much of the literary establishment.
That’s not actually a knock at her as she’s the author of one of my favourite short stories, “People Like That Are the Only People Here” a story which I strongly recommend with the warning that it’s not for the faint of heart as it’s about a woman whose baby is diagnosed with cancer. It’s actually really ironic that this reviewer mentions Moore as a writer of realistic women’s fiction as it occurs to me that I love this story for the same reason that I love some of my favourite fantasy and horror stories; it’s all about an encounter with something scary and unknown and the journey that the protagonist must take into an alien world and the people he/she encounters there. In fact, there’s a strong similarity between Frodo Baggins’ journeying to Mordor even though he’d rather stay in Bag End and Moore’s nameless protagonist entering the Pediatric Oncology ward even though she wants to flee on a bus.
That brings me to what I think is at work in this review-and in the Fantasy-bashing Slate review-above and beyond the issue of gender; the irritating tendency of the literary world to ghettoize “genre” fiction as lacking in literary merit and being written solely by and for social maladjusts as a way of escaping the real world. As someone who read for his English Degree by day and devoured Stephen King and Tolkien by night, it always struck me as a very arbitrary distinction. Where does “serious” fiction end and “genre” fiction begin? Is it just a matter of the author having been dead for a century or two (Poe, Mary Shelley)? A matter of how well-written it is according to the rules of academia? How obviously the book’s fantastic beings symbolize real-world issues? For me, the whole issue always struck me as pretty silly; I love literary fiction for the same reasons I love “escapist” fiction, namely that they’re good stories well told with interesting characters. The whole suggestion that one shouldn’t enjoy “genre” fiction if one enjoys “literature” seems bizarre to me, sort of like suggesting that if one likes ravioli one shouldn’t also like tortellini.
Really, I think anyone that likes one good story should be able to like another, regardless of setting, genre trappings, or whether or not they believe themselves to be the target audience. These reviewers are bringing baggage into their reviews and it’s marring their ability to enjoy a great, serious series.
Wrybread – Very well said. A good story is a good story, regardless of genre, and if you like it, so what? I read to be entertained and give my imagination a workout, and I’ll enjoy any book that does that for me, whether it’s fantasy, western, romance, horror, classic, modern contemporary, whatever!
Exactly. Interesting that Fantasy is labeled as “Boy Fiction” as opposed to “Men’s Fiction.” There are definitely a few prejudices at work here. It’s really a shame that reviewers can’t shake said prejudices even when they’re reviewing a series that either doesn’t use or seeks to discredit/subvert/deconstruct most of the cliches of the genre.