The “Game of Thrones” tagline may be “all men must die,” but the women? The women rule.
Quite literally. This season Sansa Stark has overcome the trauma of abuse to become the pragmatic ruler of Winterfell. Yara Greyjoy is Queen of the Iron Islands. Daenerys, the Dragon Queen, has established a massive army and empire across the sea (though she appears to be going mad).
Meanwhile, money-mad Cersei Lannister is sitting on the Iron Throne. On the upside, Arya (not Jon, as some expected) has saved the world of the living.
The fact that women are being portrayed this way on a show whose Season 8 premiere brought in 17 million viewers is important. And not just because it makes for great entertainment. Seeing different women in positions of power is timely as the Democratic primary field hosts an unprecedented number of female candidates.
As progressive as we might think we are, America has never had a female president. It’s never had a female vice president. There are more men named James on the Fortune 500 CEO list than there are women on it, and some still wonder whether a woman is truly “electable.”
Yes, Hillary Clinton came close — winning the popular vote by 3 million in 2016 — but some partly blamed her electoral loss on inherent attitudes in society.
“Power-seeking women are seen as violating basic norms of femininity,” Caroline Heldman, the executive director of gender watchdog group The Representation Project, told The Post, “That means that when women do appear outwardly ambitious, as presidential candidates do, we’re skeptical or annoyed by them in a way we aren’t by men.”
But even if women aren’t occupying positions of serious power in real life, seeing them holding high-powered places in pop culture can actually help change that.
Not so long ago, Dennis Haysbert’s portrayal of a black president on the TV show “24” was credited with helping voters grow more comfortable with the idea of an African-American in the White House, paving the way for Barack Obama’s victory in 2008.
As Haysbert himself said to the AP in 2008: “If anything, my portrayal of David Palmer … may have helped open the eyes of the American people … to prove the possibility there could be an African-American president.”
It’s still uncommon to see portrayals of female political leaders in popular culture. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that in a 2013 study of 11,927 speaking characters, 95.5 percent of politicians in family-friendly films are male, while only 4.5 percent are female. The institute concluded that, “By increasing the number and diversity of female leaders and role models on screen, content creators may affect the ambitions and career aspirations of girls and young women … if she can see it, she can be it.”
Now, with “Game of Thrones,” 17 million people can see many women in charge. Some rule well. Some rule badly. But most importantly, the fact that they’re in charge is considered normal. At this point, no one thinks it’s odd that a woman should sit on the Iron Throne.
Right now, six Democratic women — Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson — are running for president. And, while polls regularly name Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as the frontrunners, Harris and Warren consistently rank in the top five out of a total 21 candidates.
Seeing different women in positions of power is timely as the Democratic primary field hosts an unprecedented number of female candidates.
Perhaps, like Arya Stark, one of them might spring unexpectedly to victory.
“Media representations are powerful creators of cultural norms and values,” Heldman said. “Media shapes what we value, who we love, who we hate [and] who we consider worthy of loathing or sympathy.”
And “Game of Thrones” isn’t just a show about women being worthy of power or sympathy. It’s a show about powerful men ceding power to more competent women and that being a good thing for everyone.
Even though Varys, one of Daenerys’ advisors, suggested last Sunday that Jon would be a better ruler because he had “a c–k,” the entire series has been dedicated to disproving that premise.
Over the last eight seasons, wealthy knight Jaime Lannister went from mocking the female warrior Brienne for her unfeminine appearance and behavior to knighting her himself. Jaime’s dwarf brother, Tyrion, began the show, in his own description, as a “drunken whoremonger” and is now Daenerys’ thoughtful right-hand man. Theon, the heir to the Iron Islands, began the series by (accidentally) groping his own sister but ended it by pledging his loyalty to her as his ruler, telling their people, “We will find no better leader!”
Maybe these made-up characters will help convince real-life men that stepping back and letting women take charge isn’t such a bad idea.
That’s true whether it’s a man in Westeros recognizing that Sansa’s doing a good job or a man in America realizing that a woman being president wouldn’t be too terrible, after all. In a show full of black magic, dragons and zombies, it’s one imaginary element we could use a lot more of in real life.