--- title: Game of Thrones: George R. R. Martin explains violence against women description: "If you portray a utopia, then you probably wrote a pretty boring book," the author told EW. canonical: https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/ author: Katy Osborn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-03T20:25:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:53:04.654Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: George R. R. Martin Explains 'Game of Thrones' Violence Against Women og:description: Anything else in a war portrayal would be "fundamentally dishonest," he says og:url: https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdaa3a301c98dbe52/69884d04a988ca42996b23c0/sansa-stark-sophie-turner-game-throens.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: George R. R. Martin Explains 'Game of Thrones' Violence Against Women twitter:description: Anything else in a war portrayal would be "fundamentally dishonest," he says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdaa3a301c98dbe52/69884d04a988ca42996b23c0/sansa-stark-sophie-turner-game-throens.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Author Explains Violence Against Women in Books by [Katy Osborn](/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 3, 2015 8:25 PM CUT  Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in HBO's Game of ThronesHelen Sloan—HBO by [Katy Osborn](/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 3, 2015 8:25 PM CUT The author of _Game of Thrones_ has finally [responded](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/03/george-rr-martin-thrones-violence-women?xid=IFT-Trending "undefined") to the question everyone wants answered—why the gratuitous violence against women in the books and TV series_?_ His answer, to _Entertainment Weekly_: look around. “To be non-sexist, does that mean you need to portray an egalitarian society?” George RR Martin said, responding to the critique that his fantastical world of Westeros needn’t be so violent or patriarchal. “That’s not in our history; it’s something for science fiction. And 21st century America isn’t egalitarian, either.” Martin pointed out that his books are based on the Middle Ages—”not a time of sexual egalitarianism”—and in the midst of war, no less. “If you’re going to write about war, and you just want to include all the cool battles and heroes killing a lot of orcs and things like that and you don’t portray \[sexual violence\], then there’s something fundamentally dishonest about that,” Martin argued. “Rape, unfortunately, is still a part of war today.” Of course, it’s not just about honesty for Martin. “Drama comes out of conflict,” he told EW. “If you portray a utopia, then you probably wrote a pretty boring book.” Martin’s books are hardly boring. The _Game of Thrones_ TV series based upon them is HBO’s most-watched original series in history; its April 12th Season 5 Premier alone drew over 8 million viewers. [Read more at _Entertainment Weekly_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/03/george-rr-martin-thrones-violence-women?xid=IFT-Trending "undefined") _Read next:_ [_George R.R. Martin: 5 Characters He Wishes Were on Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/3902873/game-of-thrones-characters-george-rr-martin-stark-lannister/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Author Explains Violence Against Women in Books","datePublished":"2015-06-03T20:25:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:53:04.654Z","description":"Anything else in a portrayal of medieval war would be \"fundamentally dishonest,\" he says","url":"https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdaa3a301c98dbe52/69884d04a988ca42996b23c0/sansa-stark-sophie-turner-game-throens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Osborn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdaa3a301c98dbe52/69884d04a988ca42996b23c0/sansa-stark-sophie-turner-game-throens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones","caption":"Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones","creditText":"Helen Sloan—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3907881/game-of-thrones-violence-against-women/","name":"Game of Thrones Author Explains Violence Against Women in Books"}}]}] ```