I cannot say enough good things about Paragard. I HATED hormonal bc, oh you have no idea. I had rabid mood swings and somehow gained weight with all of them. Paragard? It was kinda scary getting it inserted, but after the initial residual bleeding and cramps passed (they were no worse than my period) now I NEVER…

Oh trust me, at around 30 she will start packing on the pounds. Then she can experience the joys of cellulite and armpit fat like the rest of us.

Yeah, I'm not particularly married to/invested in Jaime and Cersei's personal lives the way some fans seem to be. I still see them as unrelentingly evil people.

Hm. I guess I've confused it with something else? Will investigate. My mind fills in the blank spots in my memory with random stuff sometimes.

Yeah my memory is that it was made for television/cable, so don't get your hopes up.

Right, which is especially weird considering that teen and adult women are willing to consume products and media that are marketed with men in mind, but the reverse is less true. That may be changing, though.

Marketing studies tend to be really limited. The truth is that kids will want toys that are advertised to them. Maybe the boys don't want toys that are coded as feminine, and girls might not want the toys coded as masculine, but there's no reason toys can't be fun and colorful and exciting even if they're not…

I think introducing another element is fair discussion. I had just been reading lots of similar posts and thought that was something that was conspicuously absent. I wasn't actually trying to refute anything you said.

The first scenario is actually a good example. If that scene would repulse you due to the context, but was filmed in a really "porny" way, using explicit nudity, really attractive actors, etc, is it possible that you would have a conflicted response?

No you didn't, it's just that you didn't acknowledge it in your post and I think it's relevant.

Right, but no one's trying to explain away any of the violence as "consensual". That's the issue that people had with the Jaime-Cersei rape scene, that it only started out as rape and became just sex, and they speculate on the reasons (the fact that they were only willing to depict incestuous sex in that setting was…

I was just thinking generally about how we as viewers process images of sex via visual media, rape or not. Interesting though — do guys not even read it as sex unless there's lots of skin? (Edit: and if they did, would it make a difference whether it was rape or not?)

If something offends you, eh? How often does that actually happen? And when you're 3+ seasons in and you're already addicted to it, just turning it off is not as easy as it sounds.

I wish I knew how to deter predators. There seems to be a lot of fox repellants available:

Right, that's kinda what I was thinking about. I think peoples' reaction to on-screen rapes has another layer to it — we are all aware that these images are very deliberately constructed, and these are 2 actors engaged in sexual congress, consensual or not, we have to reconcile the part of our brains that would be…

I actually think the consensual incest is pretty low on the list of fucked-up things about either of those characters' lives. It's scandalous, but if they weren't royalty no one would give a shit. And they pretty much still don't.

Do you not get that these pieces are written by fans of the show? Go to any fanboy site and you won't find any shortage of fucking whiners.

No reason to hate on Girls, lots of people like both. And while I like GoT a LOT, I think people overuse the "strong female characters" justification. I mean, yeah, there are some female characters who are powerful because they are morally bankrupt, and some who are powerful because they've managed to survive by/in…

That's a good point, but I think this article focused a lot on the ambiguity of the Jaime-Cersei rape because it mirrors some awful preconceptions about sex that "excuse" rape (the author even takes the time to list them). Which is a more specific critique, but also, and I may get flayed alive for saying this, there…

Erm, I don't notice that the women are spared any violence in this series.