One thing that really annoys me when it comes to interpretations of Arya, is how people choose to disregard her gender at will. Arya Stark is a girl. She is very clear on that matter from book to book. Thus, you can’t read Arya Stark and just conveniently forget to look at her experiences from the perspective of being a woman, and a young girl with little defenses. Arya, from the moment she must try to survive outside of the Red Keep, must live in fear of assault, rape, and murder. Yoren didn’t just magically find her. She had to live on the streets with only Needle since most of her possessions were quickly stolen from her. All the while, she is leered at by men and attacked by others. I can’t imagine life in Flea Bottom is easy for any child, but it sure ain’t a picnic for a young girl because life in Westeros is pretty horrible for most women—-Arya included.
Just because Arya doesn’t fit some feminine ideals, and is a fan favorite, that doesn’t mean others can act like her experience as a girl is invalid, irrelevant, or pretend that ~she’s really just a dude character lol~ That’s so terrible for a myriad of reasons that other people can unpack better than I can, but I do know that it’s ridiculous to act like one type of womanhood is more authentic and mandatory to take into consideration in order to look at a woman character critically. Arya’s reactions to the world are from the perspective of a little girl who is forced into the most brutal of places where other nameless girls like her are constantly either abused and killed with no recourse or justice in return. Survival is a key theme in her tale as it tends to be in the lives of women.
Certainly, I’ve met other women readers who told me that they were also quite nervous for most of the Arya’s AcoK chapters because of how palpable the threat of rape felt in them. In fact, I’m pretty sure that all of her AcoK chapters include the threat of rape. And these threats are there because Arya’s sex isn’t forgotten—-and it shouldn’t be ignored by critics. If one puts themselves in Arya’s shoes, it becomes quite evident what tremendous odds she had/has to face because she is a girl.
If a critic chooses to ignore Arya’s gender because she’s not enough of what they think a girl should be like, then I’m inclined to think that the criticism and interpretation is sexist. Arya doesn’t cease to be a girl because she has personality traits that are associated with male characters. These personality traits definitely don’t save her from things like assault. This also true of other women characters in AsoIaF that defy gender stereotypes like Brienne of Tarth and Asha Greyjoy. Male privilege doesn’t extend to them in any real way else they wouldn’t have men assaulting them and denying basic rights because they’re women. Reframing all of Arya’s experiences to that of a man’s because apparently it’s impossible to reconcile a character being a woman while having personality traits often associated with men will create an incredibly flawed and thin interpretation.
Tag: meta
Catelyn wanted to run to him, to kiss his sweet brow, to wrap him in her arms and hold him so tightly that he would never come to harm… but here in front of his lords, she dared not. He was playing a man’s part now, and she would not take that away from him. So she held herself at the far end of the basalt slab they were using for a table. The direwolf got to his feet and padded across the room to where she stood. It seemed bigger than a wolf ought to be. “You’ve grown a beard,” she said to Robb, while Grey Wind sniffed her hand.
He rubbed his stubbled jaw, suddenly awkward. “Yes.” His chin hairs were redder than the ones on his head.Robb is “Playing a man’s part” near the end of AGOT and so he grows a beard, better to look the part.
He seemed taller than when she’d left, and the wisps of beard did make him look older. “Edmure was sixteen when he grew his first whiskers.”
“I will be sixteen soon enough,” Robb said.By ASOS it’s not a part, not an act.
Robb stood on the dais. He is a boy no longer, she realized with a pang. He is sixteen now, a man grown. Just look at him. War had melted all the softness from his face and left him hard and lean. He had shaved his beard away, but his auburn hair fell uncut to his shoulders. The recent rains had rusted his mail and left brown stains on the white of his cloak and surcoat. Or perhaps the stains were blood. On his head was the sword crown they had fashioned him of bronze and iron. He bears it more comfortably now He bears it like a king.
He’s shaved the beard because he doesn’t need to look the part anymore. He grew up so fast, but he’s still only sixteen even if Westeros considers him a man grown. Too young for his burden, and gone too soon.
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