Cmandra

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for the time it took to respond with these thoughtful comments. In the interest of normalizing the process of going back in one’s past writing and self-critiquing, I look for ways to make my writing clearer. I had hoped to demonstrate the difference between the way that a pop culture text is written and the way it is received. There are going to be readings, counter-readings, and everything in between for a show like Game of Thrones or any show. In the article, I recognize, early on, that the show’s feminism is subversive at best, and also hotly contested – or, at least it was more hotly contested five years ago, when I wrote this. Like I said: “This article is meant to give the reader one specific tool, the Alienation Effect, for doing a feminist reading of Game of Thrones.” In other words, if a feminist is actively looking for moments of agency and resistance of female characters in GoT, here is a tool (one might say lens) that might help them find it. There is a reason I specifically chose to use Dolan’s framework – since her work acknowledges that most pop culture texts are not made for women, let alone feminists. Most are made for the “male gaze” and, yes, are sexist. She offers a way of looking at a piece and reclaiming it as feminist. It is an active choice that often goes against the initial intent of the piece – just as there are many things in this world that are not made for women, but women still find ways of claiming and reclaiming them – or not. I tried to make this as clear as possible, and it’s apparent that I could have done better. I have learned a lot in the last five years about how to write and how to better engage, and I recognize that my tone reads as dismissive without sufficiently acknowledging Serendipity’s point that the subversive aspects of the show’s feminism might be too subterranean to be noticed and cold potentially cause harm. I do maintain that my intent is not to justify the things portrayed on the show, but to highlight the ways that female characters exhibit agency and resistance under circumstances and rules that were not built for them.

I think that if I were to re-write this piece or revisit this piece (which I cannot do on this platform) I would not give the writers as much credit as I did in planting these meanings. I would also revise certain sections to include content warnings. I would also edit my second-to-last paragraph, where I tell feminists who disagree with me to keep speaking up but focus energy on the real world instead of the show: I would change that to keep speaking up, focusing your energy on the show AND the real world. There are probably some other things I would change, but I would need more time to go through it in more detail. Also the title was changed at the last minute by editors to better match whatever the Google algorithm was, at the time. I didn’t originally phrase it that way (I don’t remember what it originally was) but if I had a choice to change it, it would probably read more like “Tools for Feminist Reclamation” or something that makes space for other feminist readings. I agree that this title makes it sound like I think I have a monopoly on feminist readings, and that’s not reflexive of what I say in the article where I acknowledge debates and other viewpoints, which I believe are valid. Thank you again for your feedback.

I am so glad to see this get published! Well done Diana!

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Agreed! It is incredibly relevant right now!

Thanks for the comment. I touch briefly on the appeal of B&B to adults with the Oscar nom and the new found sophistication of animated films. I do think it is interesting that you jump from B&B to Frozen when so many other Disney princesses/women have faced very adult situations, most notably Pocahontas, Esmerelda, and Mulan.

Thanks Betts! Can’t wait to read yours on Lucy!

This often happens with successful shows, and has been the case since the 1980s. Hamilton is not unique in this. Keep in mind that Book of Mormon seats were about the same price.

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you liked it! It was a year in the making, so it’s nice to have it mean a lot to people.