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To Ginia Bellafante Regarding Your “Review” Of Game Of Thrones. [Rant]

Not sure if you’ve read the “review” on the New York Times about Game of Thrones, but I did and I have just a few things I’d like to say to Ginia Bellafante.

1) To quote SNL “Ginia, you ignorant slut”.

2) I’m sorry, was there an actual review in there? It was hard to find in that morass of judgement and ignorance about the fantasy genre as a whole.

3) My female friends and I don’t have book clubs about The Hobbit. Because we’ve already read it and we can discuss it without reading it. Additionally, we don’t have coffee klatches to do so. We do it over the internet as we trade links over this tiny budget independent film some guy named Peter Jackson is making of the same name.

4) Any geek girl (wait, do I need to explain that term to you) would happily tell you that she’s looking forward to Game of Thrones. Not because of the sex, but because of the story, the intrigue, the swordplay and — oh yeah, I forgot — the fact that it’s based on books they’ve read.

To be honest, I have nothing kind or polite to add to this conversation, so I’ll defer my friend Amy Ratcliffe.

She put this into words rather perfectly.

p.s. I almost thought this NY Times article was linkbait, but that would mean Ms. Bellafante would know what linkbait is.

p.p.s See? I can’t be nice about this.

p.p.p.s. If you have a link to a response to the “review”,  shoot me a link and I’ll be happy to add it.

Edit: More links ;-)

(Yes, the list is growing)

A Live Woman Who’d Gladly Watch A Game of Thrones (Even Without the Sex Scenes)

Hey Girls, Don’t Like Icky Sword Fighting? The NYT Says There’s Enough Sex In “Game Of Thrones” To Keep Our Teeny Female Brains Entertained.

Game of Thrones? More like Game of Bones. As in ‘boners’.

In which a NYT reviewer asserts geek girls don’t exist

NY Times Getting Sexist On Game of Thrones

Why Is the Fact of Women Liking Sci-Fi and Fantasy So Hard To Believe?

OP/ED: Hey NY Times – Geek Girls Really Do Exist!

NYT says fiction is gendered, Geek Girls unite to tell them, “NO.”

‘Game Of Thrones’ Is Not ‘Boy Fiction’

In Which I Rant About THAT ARTICLE.

Really, why would men ever want to watch “Game Of Thrones”?

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19 Comments

  1. She is an idiot! I am a 60 year old professional woman who loves sci-fi, fantasy, sci-fantasy, whatever you want to call creative imagination. I devoured the GOT books and loved the series.
    Sometimes these Manhattan “intellectual” elitists are out of touch with the real world.

  2. Anonymous Anonymous

    It’s been running like crazy in my head WHY an extablishment like the NYT would allow such an obvious attack instead of a review…When I read the “apology”(used in the loosest possible meaning of the word)I had to post a comment…then it hit me…what if NYT published the review to get us all to register on their site? Ah-HA M.A.D unmasked at last…Take THAT Dr. Claw :)

  3. I am a woman, and for me it is one of my favorite books, it is a bit violent, have some unsuspected turns which made my cry, but it gives it tone of reality. I dont understand how some editor could let such text published.
    But still main question for me is does this tv series is gonna make Martin finish books we long for.
    How they thing they are gonna end the series.

  4. JOK JOK

    I read the review, well skimmed because I can’t fully digest that much ignorance in one sitting, and I distilled it to “It was too hard for me to understand so it must be bad.”

  5. vegaschk13 vegaschk13

    Someone that knows more about the internet than I needs to start a fire gina or gina sucks facebook page. The article insulted me and my family who all love this to no ends. I am female who happens to have given this a chance because my husband loves this. I was never into fantasy before now I am totally into it now. I guess my pea brained little mind can handle it now, Ms. Bellafante!

  6. @Jedi – I’m going to stick with my Dan Akroyd inspired line in this case. Sometimes a joke really is a joke and it fit.

    Not to mention, it likely saved me from saying a lot of other things at the time because the review really pissed me off ;-)

  7. I hated the review, too, but your response–however “jokingly”– is to use a gender-loaded slur by calliing her an “ignorant slut”? What the hell?

  8. dimensionallyT dimensionallyT

    Amazingly crass article. I wrote a letter to the NYT editor. Hopefully loads of other women did too!

  9. hiya. couldn’t agree more. i am adding my girl nerd blog rage to your list: educatedpony.wordpress.com

    i’ll link you on mine. keep fighting the good fight!

  10. outta111 outta111

    as a 50 year old grandmother, I’m ready to kick gina bellafanta’s lame ass. I bet Game of Thrones gets higher ratings than the sopranos….sic Bronn on her.

  11. nim nim

    Bellafante’s bashing of the genre, show, and women in general is so ridiculous, it’s hard to believe it was a NYTimes article.

    At least her review got a crap rating – as small as a comfort as that is.

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