Despite living in what is very clearly a marginalized body as per Westeros' standards of beauty and acceptability, Brienne is forever loyal, forever kind, forever ruthless when need be, and forever herself. Even when Sansa and Arya Stark both reject her desires to remain loyal to their mother and take them both under her protection, she perseveres and ultimately saves Sansa's life. Even when she is being beaten by The Hound, she is strong. Even when she is thrown into a pit with a bear and nothing but a wooden sword to keep her alive, she remains strong. She's a better sword fighter than far too many men, and this frightens them for reasons beyond safety. She'd rather wear pants and boots than dresses and sandals. She prefers armor to brocade evening gowns. After all, she does not look as ladies are expected to look. Jaime Lannister thankfully saved Brienne from being gang raped that evening - but the notion that she should be "thankful" for any kind of male attention being directed her way (even if the attention is coming from violent sources) never quite diminishes. Locke, Roose's bannerman and the one who commanded his men to take Brienne into a tent as she writhes, screams, and attempts to escape, even tells Jaime, "I've never been with a woman that big" - an air of excitement to the new experience he's about to have.
But when it comes to Brienne, they are simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by her. Granted, these are individuals who have constructed existences colored in the murder and assault of more human beings than we could likely ever count.
When Brienne and Jaime are captured by a group of Roose Bolton's men in Season 3 - aka the father of the closest thing Game Of Thrones has to Satan incarnate - they prepare to take their turns raping her.
#BRIENNE EUBANKS GIRLS WITH MUSCLE FREE#
They feel entitled to deem her free for the taking. Just as so many fat women are conditioned to think, Brienne does not believe that she deserves romance or sex, because she does not fit into the confines of what womanhood and femininity are ~supposed~ to look like.Īnd yet, most men feel entitled to speak of her and her body as they wish. She has never been with a man the brief feelings of love she may have had for Jaime Lannister went more or less unrequited and later refuted by his sister/lover Cersei. Women, on the other hand, poke fun at Brienne's inability to curtsy while eyeing her up and down with looks of disgust and confusion. They call her ugly repeatedly - drawing comparisons between Brienne and farm animals here and there as well.
#BRIENNE EUBANKS GIRLS WITH MUSCLE CRACK#
Men crack jokes about whether there's a "real woman's" body beneath all that armor.
Most folks who come across Brienne are struck by her physique immediately. One of the most striking of these is the simultaneous over-sexualization and de-sexualization of one's body.
She defies too many expectations.įrom experience, I can say that there are many parallels between growing up a large woman - tall and wide in bone structure - and growing up a fat one. Although her personality, to a degree, is marked by humility and introversion, she could never be a wallflower. She's the very embodiment of taking up space - thus defying one of the cardinal pseudo-requirements of femininity thrust upon so many of us. Her bone structure and height cannot be shrunken. Her physical strength practically demands attention. She's exactly the sort of babe a broad-shouldered, 14-year-old, 5-foot-10 version of myself would've loved to have as a role model and exactly the sort of woman I hope my own hypothetical future daughter might have around her as well.Īlthough the Brienne we see in the HBO adaptation of A Song Of Ice And Fire, played by 6-foot-3 British actor Gwendoline Christie, is by no means visibly fat, she towers above the vast majority of characters (save for maybe The Hound or The Mountain). For those reasons and more, Brienne Of Tarth on Game Of Thrones is a crucial character - and arguably for young female viewers especially. Or at least, that's what we're often told. They certainly aren't meant to take up space or traumatize passerby with their protruding muscles. Women and girls are not supposed to be big.
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