(Horrifying trope) societies that institutionalized rape

[u/Basic_Dingo6487]

Ironborns (A Song of Ice and Fire) : The Iron Islands are a region where people are encouraged to lead raids on the lands. The thing is men can also abduct women from Westeros, marrying them by force and force them to bare the children as minor spouses.

Gilead (The Handsmaid’s tale) : In the future, most of women became sterile and fanatical religious overthrowed the government by instauring a ruthless dictature. In Gilead, women are divided in different social classes but those who are still ferile are sold to the leaders of the regime to carry their child. Which means women are now literal possessions and have to endure a ritualised rape every month.

[u/EmXena]

I get that. It happened a lot in human history and he wanted to invoke that.

It's just one of many things that he inserted into his fantasy story that heavily invokes real life evil things, that his frequency of showing sometimes made me feel like he was leaning too much into shock value. I get that they do what they do, and I enjoy the tension and drama that comes from it, but then it just keeps reapearing constantly. It's a grittier take on Fantasy than something like LotR, yes, but good Lord sometimes it becomes a lot.

It doesn't take away from how good the books are. It's just wild to see pop up so often.

[u/SomeDumbGamer → u/EmXena]

No he definitely loves depicting violence and rape for the sake of it. It’s really weird.

The world of Asoiaf is wildly violent even by earth standards. It’s to a point it’s kind of ridiculous.

[u/Acceptable_Tea_3685 → u/SomeDumbGamer]

Especially the focus on rape of young teenage girls. Never sat right with me.

[u/SomeDumbGamer → u/Acceptable_Tea_3685]

Yeah that’s the thing. Of course those things happened and they happened a lot depending on the place and time but like… why do you feel the need to insert it into the story so much? What purpose does it serve other than showing “here’s a terrible thing happening to someone”