By Lin Taylor
LONDON, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When “Game of Thrones” fans blasted a scene involving the brutal rape of Sansa Stark by her sadistic husband on their wedding night, Sophie Turner, who plays the TV show’s popular character, was shocked.
In an exclusive blog for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the 21-year-old British actress, who has starred in the Emmy award-winning medieval fantasy series since it premiered in 2011, said outraged viewers had missed the point.
“I was angry that there is such a taboo surrounding rape and that depicting it on screen was seen as vulgar,” she wrote.
“Sexual violence happens every day all around the world and yet for that to be represented on television … was considered disgusting instead of important.”
Turner said the response to the episode which aired in 2015 made her determined to highlight gender violence, which affects one in three women worldwide, according to the United Nations.
As the new patron of charity Women for Women International, Turner travelled to Rwanda to meet female survivors of the 1994 genocide, in which tens of thousands of women were raped and 800,000 people killed.
