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Game of Thrones on Top 12 List of National Center of Sexual Exploitation


Game of Thrones is by far one of the most epic drama series in television history. It also depicts bloody, graphic, violent, and sexual scenes which aren't for young audiences. While those scenes make for a more intense and dramatic series, they're also the reason why Game of Thrones has been included in the National Center on Sexual Exploitation's 2016 Dirty Dozen List.

The organization revealed the list on Thursday, describing those in the list as "mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation in America."

NCOSE executive director Dawn Hawkins said of the hit HBO series (via The Wrap):

HBO has a long history of using sexual exploitation and violence to entertain. In part, porn culture and pop culture have become synonymous as a result of HBO's penchant for intentionally intermixing interesting plots with scenes of graphic nudity, sexual violence, rape, and incest. It's time for HBO to stop profiting from sexual objectification, exploitation, and violence.

The mainstream contributors in the 2016 Dirty Dozen List include the following:

  1. Amazon
  2. American Library Association
  3. Amnesty International
  4. Backpage.com
  5. Cosmopolitan Magazine
  6. Department of Justice
  7. HBO
  8. "Sexpresso" Coffee Shops
  9. Snapchat/Snapcash
  10. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
  11. Verizon
  12. YouTube

It's not the first time Game of Thrones has been criticized for its content.

In response to the critics, author George R.R. Martin has said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year:

I'm writing about war, which what almost all epic fantasy is about. But if you're going to write about war, and you just want to include all the cool battles and heroes killing a lot of orcs and things like that and you don't portray [sexual violence], then there's something fundamentally dishonest about that.
Rape, unfortunately, is still a part of war today. It's not a strong testament to the human race, but I don't think we should pretend it doesn't exist. I want to portray struggle. Drama comes out of conflict. If you portray a utopia, then you probably wrote a pretty boring book.

While NCOSE has some strong points, but I have to agree with Martin. If the book he created had depicted a Utopian society, then it might as well have been a children's book, and that's the thing, Game of Thrones isn't for kids in the first place. It's beyond Rated R, so to speak. The show only portrays reality, and I can't fault HBO nor Martin for that.

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