If a dragon does indeed need slaying, can a woman be the slayer? Can we imagine a mother, of dragons or of regular little humans, as the slayer who nurtures and simultaneously vanquishes evil? Our cultural world has ample evidence of our vexing inability to imagine this pairing. It is high time this sort of everyday sexism disappeared, although there are few signs that we have seen the end of it. But as the 2020 election season plays out-and women candidates and candidates of color drop out from an initially refreshingly diverse Democratic field-something deeper seems at play, going beyond the tired playbook of double standards and prejudiced assumptions. It’s not just that the tired old double standards still prevail, where “ likeability,” and even “ electability” become code words for the familiarity of white male leadership and female candidates are judged by their looks and their demeanor, even the timbre of their voices, far too often. It also frames consequential political debates-and elections. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, not only because I am still bitter over this weak ending, but because our collective inability to imagine women as viable leaders doesn’t only percolate through the fictional worlds of popular culture. At the pathetic end of the series, she was killed by her perpetually pained and ever honorable lover and nephew-robbing her of the throne, her life and the promise of romantic love. Daenerys, the warrior Queen who harnessed the power of dragons to free slaves and liberate the world, ultimately turned out to be as power-mad as the men she conquered. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.Very few people were happy with the ending of the epic HBO extravaganza Game of Thrones last Spring-especially most women. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.
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