New York Times writer Ginia Bellafante reviewed HBO’s Game of Thrones with this controversial sentence: “Game of Thrones is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.” Fans responded to her review with a flurry of tweets, emails, and comments.
Bellafante wrote a blog post to address the controversy, but judging by the mood of the Twittersphere, it doesn’t seem to have appeased the wounded parties. The video embedded above features a preview of episode two.
Some readers thought the reviewer had not actually watched the show or read a quick synopsis of the series’ source material, George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire. Some found the review to be dismissive, condescending, or an attack on female fantasy and science-fiction readers. Below, we’ve listed some of the tweets.
Donna Mugavero: “I can’t decide if I want to take Ginia Bellafante to Dragon*Con so she can experience it or so the geek girls can exact some justice.”
Geek Girl Diva: “Ginia Bellafante Responds To The Critics & I Respond To Her [Semi-Rant]”
1_Redcat: “Ginia #Bellafante, how ignorant can a person be ~.~ geekgirls unite \o/”
Kristen McHugh: “NYT’s Arts Beat’s Ginia Bellafante, keeps missing the point – (link via @geekgirldiva’s blog.) My response…”
True Margach: “Ginia Bellafante – I’m a woman, and I’d rather read so-called “boy fiction” over any romantic nonsense any day. It has substance AND plot.”