Rebecca Kaplan: Non-Normative Sex and Bodies in Game of Thrones: How ‘Extreme’ Bodies Question the Nature of Sex and Sexual Images

Rebecca Kaplan: Non-Normative Sex and Bodies in Game of Thrones: How ‘Extreme’ Bodies Question the Nature of Sex and Sexual Images

In this article, I examine how Game of Thrones adapts its cinematography and narrative to incorporate non-normative bodies into sexual story arcs and the implications regarding the mediated nature of sex and sex myths of moments which conform or do not conform to traditional sex scenes. Sex and romance arcs with characters of physical difference, such as a dwarf or a castrated soldier, complicate the assumed importance of the erect penis and penetrative sex. This paper examines how the show depicts or ignores non-penetrative forms of sex, female pleasure, and reciprocal relationships between able-bodied women and physically impaired men.