Question for ASOIAF fans
May. 1st, 2011 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gryphonseggIt's been a couple of years since I read A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords (and I have no desire to re-read them or to read the book that is also known as Everyone You Like Dies Horribly), but the discussion surrounding the new HBO series has me curious about something. There's been discussion about whether the decision to show Tyrion with prostitutes in the first episode is an unnecessary addition or an interesting character note that establishes Tyrion as "a lecher" earlier in the TV series than in the books. In fact, there's been a surprising-to-me amount of talk about how lechery is significantly characteristic of Tyrion, when I don't remember him being any more lecherous than most of the men in his culture. Yes, he hires prostitutes in the books, but that seems to be very normalized in Westeros, and plenty of the other noblemen in the books hire prostitutes and/or take advantage of vulnerable women who are not prostitutes on a more frequent basis than I remember Tyrion doing. Like I said, it's been a while, and also I realize that I'm an outlier when it comes to sexuality and gendered social behavior, so my question is, did I miss or forget something that implies Tyrion's lechery goes above and beyond what his culture frames as normal, to the point that it stands out as one of his major character traits? I'm seriously wondering, because I really don't think he stands out as a lecher in a series that also contains Robert Baratheon and Theon Greyjoy and the number of bastards without whom the plot wouldn't work.
Given my history, the most likely explanation is that I just missed something. Another possible explanation is that Tyrion's lechery stands out to the audience not because it's over the top compared to his society's norms of masculine sexual behavior but because he has a disability that places him outside of our society's norms of masculine physical ability and attractiveness. Maybe he's not being compared to Robert, Theon, those guys on the Wall who go to prostitutes even though it's officially forbidden because that's not one of the important parts of their vows, or all those knights and mercenaries and reavers who go around raping peasants or hiring prostitutes depending on which is more convenient at the time; maybe instead he's being compared to other fictional little people, who usually aren't portrayed as being sexual in any way unless it's played for laughs. Then again, it's possible that I'm more likely to find people saying anything at all about Tyrion because he's one of the most popular characters. From the brief time I dipped a toe in ASOIAF fandom, I seem to recall Theon having quite a few fans, but not as many as Tyrion, and Tyrion is probably the first or second most popular character among the wider, less intense circles of fandom. So maybe the seemingly disproportionate attention paid to Tyrion's lechery is an artifact of his popularity.
Given my history, the most likely explanation is that I just missed something. Another possible explanation is that Tyrion's lechery stands out to the audience not because it's over the top compared to his society's norms of masculine sexual behavior but because he has a disability that places him outside of our society's norms of masculine physical ability and attractiveness. Maybe he's not being compared to Robert, Theon, those guys on the Wall who go to prostitutes even though it's officially forbidden because that's not one of the important parts of their vows, or all those knights and mercenaries and reavers who go around raping peasants or hiring prostitutes depending on which is more convenient at the time; maybe instead he's being compared to other fictional little people, who usually aren't portrayed as being sexual in any way unless it's played for laughs. Then again, it's possible that I'm more likely to find people saying anything at all about Tyrion because he's one of the most popular characters. From the brief time I dipped a toe in ASOIAF fandom, I seem to recall Theon having quite a few fans, but not as many as Tyrion, and Tyrion is probably the first or second most popular character among the wider, less intense circles of fandom. So maybe the seemingly disproportionate attention paid to Tyrion's lechery is an artifact of his popularity.
