In politically aware times of today with women as prime ministers and CEOs why so much love for a noble born princess who dreams away her future? It might be interpreted as absolutely conservative image of women if a guy rooted for the fairy tale princees why do women feel the need for it, biting away everyone who disagrees. Two centuries of feminist politics have happened, where does the delight in turning the wheel backwards come from? What nerve does a fairy tale princess touch in women of today?
Is the newly won freedom to make the important decisions about our lives too much for us? Job, kids, lovelife, all those resposibilities? Do we secretly wish ourselves back to times when we were free of responsibilty and strong arms were there to catch us when life went wrong? When girls were free to dream instead of filling tax forms and fighting with divorce papers?
Do we, in all our newly won freedom, forget that the dreamy days were in fact slavery? You get nothing for free, the price for controlling your life is dear: very long days, complicated lovelife, the threat of poverty for lack of castle…….. This all is the price to pay for NONpassivity. So rooting for the character that is going along with the values of her society may seem as the easy way out if you come home after a long workday, the kids didn’t do their homwork and the laundry is piling up. Oh, were I a princess with a prince to save me from reality after all I have been through! He will come, certainly, one day, if I wait patiently and do not fight my fate!
Sansa is the escapist way out of a grisly story that may get too much for us as real life sometimes does. The tiny spot of withdrawal into pink dreams in an otherwise cruel world. This is as legitimate as a good talk about spring fashion with your best friend or watching Desperate Housewives. Joyful escape. But do not let yourself be tempted to see this as the part of your life that really matters. Sansa in her development is truly interesting, but only if women see her for what she is: a thirteen year old little girl in puberty. We cannot project our adult women’s life on her. She is not the strong erotic heroine, the object of infatuation, even of sexual fantasies, she is a rather helpless not very active little girl! This is the coming of age story of a child, always interesting but so far,far, far away from adult women of today. And erotic identification with a barely pubescent child, for adult women whose lovelife probably has a little more in store for them? Not to mention the outright reactionary and misogynist trope of “virginity” as purity, meaning that having a sex life is somewhat insulting to women.
So what are adult modern women seeking here?
Because she does not actively rage against the traditional confinements of her society, her story is not worth telling? I find most of the points made here to be reductive so I don’t quite know how to respond.
Sansa’s character and arc subverts all notions of those songs and stories that she so loved - like the stories of princesses and knights of valor we heard as children. I fail to see how Sansa’s story is one for us to enjoy as an act of escapism as we are too involved - too close- as she tries to make sense of a shattered childhood. To say this coming of age story is far, far away from adult women today -no. We were all children once -some more wise to the world than others, some with their heads in the clouds. We all come to a point where we learn that bad things happen and we are unable to control what the world will throw at us no matter how good we are, no matter how much we try to hang on to what we believed as kids. Sansa story is far from over. It’s barely begun.
Please see the other reblogs of and responses to this post because they’re able to give a more eloquent response than I am, surely.
