'Game of Thrones' star Maisie Williams has a very Arya Stark approach to feminism
Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams doesn't get anybody who isn't a feminist.
The actress tells Entertainment Weekly that when she learned what feminism was, she remembers thinking, "Isn't that just, like, everyone?"
Alas, Williams soon figured out that wasn't the case -- but she has a solution.
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"I also feel like we should stop calling feminists 'feminists' and just start calling people who aren’t feminist 'sexist' -- and then everyone else is just a human," she says. "You are either a normal person or a sexist. People get a label when they’re bad."
Williams also addressed fan anger with the way women have been treated on the show, particularly in recent seasons, saying she "finds it upsetting that so many people have found it upsetting."
"It’s always been a constant debate because women are treated badly on the show, and they’re treated well on the show," she says. "But it’s the same as the boys and the girls and the men and the animals. The themes are very dark.
"I get it that people don’t want to watch scenes like that. I understand, and you shouldn’t have to. But that’s the show that we’ve made, and I have no control over what’s written."
It's hard to try addressing the topic when "people are mad at you," she says.
"People say: 'Why don’t you speak up!' [and I’m thinking], 'Because you all got pitchforks and you’re ready to kill us!'" she says. "It’s scary if you say something wrong."
Viewers have a "right to be upset," she adds, though it can be tough to publicly talk about thorny issues like these.
"I sometimes really worry about speaking up about feminist subjects out of fear of being bashed by women on social media," Williams says. "And there’s something not right there. Yeah, sometimes it’s men too. But there are women who are just nasty. I’m trying to do the best I can. I got a voice. I believe in equality, and I know I have more power than the average person to reach people."
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Topics Game Of Thrones
Yohana Desta was the senior film reporter for Mashable. She is a Northern Virginia native and an American University grad. She enjoys carefully curating her Instagram account and can often be found reading books, going to concerts, watching movies and learning way too much about pop culture.
