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They've silenced me and took down a comment I made that was basically an essay where I break down Arya from GOT's internalized misogyny. I'll copy paste the essay here because they decided I can't have an opinion.
Post title was: Is it wrong for me to be critical of the way Arya Stark was made to say, “most girls are idiots” in Game of Thrones season 2? LOL. Because some people were quite upset when I posted about it on another sub.
I don’t believe it’s simply bad writing either, I originally posted this on notliketheothergirls and a couple people raged at me even though I was only pointing out she possibly had internalized misogyny (understandably so because of how messed up the world is to women, especially on the show / in the books) and had to mature from it in order to become a fully realized character overtime.
My use of the word “critical” here meant analytical, I wasn’t just hating on the writing or Arya. I was trying to analyze it and had my own opinion on it.

My evaluation of Arya comes from a place of empathy and compassion for both her and other girls. I know I didn’t grow up in the fictional GOT world, but I know I grew up feeling out of place as a little girl at some point in my youth and had to mature to see it’s okay for girls to be different, as long as we aren’t malicious to one another. And different or feminine doesn’t have to mean automatically idiotic.
Some girls like Sansa genuinely enjoy “feminine” hobbies that aren’t inherently hurting any one, like sewing. Girls should also be able to hate sewing and be more interested in sword fighting like Arya or Brienne. Dreaming of romance the way Sansa used to shouldn’t be looked down upon, but arranged political marriages with an abusive, yet powerful man a woman doesn’t truly love shouldn’t be normalized.
When I became a woman, I learned that I used to misdirect my valid rage at misogyny at other victims of the patriarchy. I stopped blaming other girls for being a product of patriarchy and started advocating against exclusively following detrimental gender roles instead of saying most girls are stupid. I think this often happens with young girls. I don’t expect Arya to know better at 10-12.
I look at her younger self and see pieces of myself when I was her age. I actively get excited for her growth because of it too. I was about the same age as Arya when the show first began airing. The actress (Masie Williams) is pretty much the same age as me / is only 2 years older so it was easy to identify with her playing Arya as I watched and easy to root for her development.
My original comment was very much sympathetic to her plight and supportive of her blooming. I completely felt for her in regards to her wanting to be treated more like a boy than a girl due to the way she saw male autonomy being respected more. Like I remember thinking I only didn’t want to “be like other girls” when reality was more like I didn’t want to be treated as poorly as other girls.
I was trying to be more critical at the harmful sentiment of saying, “most girls are idiots”, not attacking her character.
Not everyone who watches the show is open minded or are going to recognize the nuance as well and not every viewer is going to be as insightful about what Arya, among other girls are going through. There can be “pick-me” girls or male viewers who have an implicit bias against girls already who would watch it and some of them walk away from the scene thinking, “yeah, girls are idiots.” It has potential to re-enforce negative stereotypes, especially when it’s something about girls written by men.
And like this helpful commenter said, the context of the scene felt worrisome considering all her dialogue before this statement was intended to be valuable knowledge that she had that made her sound “wise beyond her years” or “too smart for her own good” to Tywin. To end the scene of her speaking history and being knowledgeable with saying “most girls are idiots” can really be taken the wrong way….
Could you imagine if a White writer wrote a Black character who is portrayed as wise and brave / has different interests, but that dialogue finishes by having them say, “yeah. Most Black people are idiots.”? People would be side-eying that scene as well. So I’m not sure how it’s beyond far fetched to some people that this line might have felt questionable to viewers like me.
For some of us, we might feel that “it made sense for her arc” is a bit of a cop-out to not considering this line might not have been well written or the most thought out. I’m pretty sure other writers have found ways to have their female character who is a tomboy express that she wants to pursue less “feminine” interests or feels out of place without saying most girls are simply idiotic. Writers who can be realistically mindful tend to garner more respect.
Lastly: like someone else here so graciously brought up - most girls in her world are denied an education and taught to only be available for sex, marriage and child-rearing. Of course they seem like idiots to her, but it’s so often a sexist society that held them back from their full potential.
Therefore it’s not that most girls are idiots, it’s most girls weren’t raised to feel like they could ever be equals to boys or were not given the same opportunities as boys.
It’s a disappointment as well because book readers have pointed out that the show writers decided to take out a line that Arya once said to Jon on women being important too, yet took time to add a line like, “most girls are idiots”. People aren’t crazy to wonder why show writers thought that was a grand idea and to feel irritated.
I understand Arya develops overtime and learns that a lot of girls can be awesome which makes me happy.
Thank you to any one who took the time to read what turned into an essay from me, LOL.
Also thanks to those who didn’t end up insulting the shit out of me just because I don’t agree with them like someone decided to do in the comments. Pretty wild that I had a person cuss me out and call me dumb because I have an opinion they couldn’t understand. I hope I also don’t receive any more private harassment messages from burner accounts. Disagreeing with me respectfully is perfectly okay to me. If you can’t see the harassment that was thrown at me any more, it’s because users either deleted their comments or the mods/admin removed them.
Redditors are notoriously evil unthinkers.
This is a classic r/menwritingwomen conundrum.