Graveyard Picnic

3rd April 2012

Post reblogged from in which cat has tyrion lannister feels with 92 notes

A word about whether Tyrion was particularly misogynistic in the GoT season two premiere:

thegoodlannister:

He wasn’t.

Oh, you want more?  Well, I’ve been hearing a lot about how Tyrion’s words to Cersei during his first Small Council session are “gendered” - are some sort of commentary on the value he places on women in Westerosi society as a whole.  And I just think that coming to the conclusion that Tyrion’s opinion of Cersei is based entirely on internalized misogyny requires some… oh, what’s the phrase people use to describe what Tyrion fans do to justify his actions?  Oh yes - mental acrobatics.

Because, say what you will, Cersei and Tyrion have a history between them that can’t be ignored (although it all too often is, by both Cersei and Tyrion fans).  The assertion that Cersei has only two decent qualities, her love of her children and her cheekbones, says nothing about what he thinks of any other woman - or women in general - because Tyrion isn’t saying it to just any woman.  He’s saying it to the sister who has despised and mistreated him since the day he was born.  Keep in mind that, when Cersei’s abuse of Tyrion started, he was an absolute innocent - at most a few months old.  The only crime he’d committed was being born.

Please note that I’m not saying I don’t understand Cersei’s feelings of resentment toward her baby brother.  I definitely do.  She’s a girl of eight who has just lost her mother, and it’s pretty obvious who caused it: this ugly little stranger that she’s been given in her mother’s place.  And it’s not like her father’s doing anything to dispel that notion.

But do you think that makes a damn bit of difference to Tyrion?  Do you think that’s going to make him feel any better about the treatment he’s endured?  Do you think he’s going to be able to look at it logically?  I’m gonna say no.  Because he’s human, and this is the type of emotionally fraught situation that it’s difficult to look at without your feelings coming into play.  Heck, it’s family - it’s almost always like that when it comes to family.  You know, I was about to say that I’d be willing to bet Cersei had said things just as hurtful/ignorant of his various strengths to Tyrion.  But I don’t have to bet - it’s actually right there in the text.

In case you’ve missed it, Tyrion and Cersei hate each other. And yeah, that hate definitely has something to do with the way their bodies have dictated they be treated in Westerosi society.  Tyrion and Cersei look at each other and see all the privileges they’ve been denied -Tyrion sees his beautiful, golden sister who’s never been looked at with disgust, and Cersei sees her brother, deformed but allowed to don armor all the same.  And it hurts.  For both of them.  And even more than they see what they’ve been denied, they see themselves.  It’s an unpleasant mirror effect.  Theirs is a hate that’s partially facilitated by their father, tbh, with his shitty treatment of them both that’s pitted them against each other even more than society would have on its own. 

And even after everything Tywin’s done, the two of them still yearn for their father’s affection.  If the only way they can get it is by putting the other down, you can bet they’ll be there.  That’s why Tyrion looks so sad when he delivers the line about Cersei being the disappointing child.  He’ll never stop being the disappointing child - the only hope he has is that Cersei will be more disappointing.

Perhaps if we saw Tyrion say something similar to any other woman about her lack of admirable qualities, I could buy that he’s making a statement about women’s purpose being expressly related to their physical beauty/status as mothers. But in fact we see exactly the opposite.  One of the scenes that really made me love the Sansa/Tyrion dynamic was in SoS when he watches her mingling at Joffrey’s wedding, knowing just what to say, how to flatter, etc.  And as he’s looking at this, Tyrion recognizes her ability to relate to people, to intuit want they want to hear, as a skill - an admirable one, one he doesn’t have.  And he thinks what a good queen this would make her.

So would ya look at that?  Tyrion appreciates that Sansa has a skill set he does not.  In fact, I’d say that right then, he’s seeing someone who can play the game.  Maybe not like a man would play it - because a woman in Westeros can’t play it that way - but successfully all the same.

So sorry.  Not ready to accept Tyrion’s throwaway line about Cersei’s cheekbones as indicative of some belief that women are only good for looking hot/having babies.

Tagged: tyrion lannistergame of thronesasoiafthe exact opposite of what I wanted

Source: thegoodlannister