“My skin turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel”: Sansa Stark and the feminine in Westeros

Abstract

The central objective of this text is based on selected moments from the trajectory of Sansa Stark –, one of the protagonists of the literary narratives of A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-2011, by George R. R. Martin) and the audiovisual series Game of Thrones (2011-2019, created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss) – to examine the meanings constructed around femininity. To this end, we undertake a critical cultural analysis of the media, anchored in gender studies/research that also studied the character. We then locate three images that reflect the paths taken by Sansa, which, over the course of five books and eight seasons, seems to update the imaginary surrounding the fragile and passive princess who, after facing a series of setbacks, becomes capable of being queen. As a girl/princess, Sansa is a young, feminine, and docile body, performing a hegemonic femininity and meeting the expectations imposed on her in a masculine world ruled by men. As a young/victim, Sansa is a vulnerable body, at the mercy of a series of male violences, which must be martyred in a maturation ritual, ceasing to be a little bird and, in fact, becoming an adult. As a woman/queen, Sansa becomes a body in control of herself, taking an active role in the paths she will take, and capable of commanding as sovereign (Queen in the North), albeit in a masculine world. Ultimately, we observe the agency of patriarchal logics, as both the literary narrative and the television series point to the possibilities and impossibilities of feminine existence in Westeros and, likewise, in our nonfictional society.