Queens behaving badly: Three ways fact is more interesting than GoT fiction

Women are now well established as the wielders of power in Game of Thrones. Daenerys Targaryen is finally conquering Westeros with her dragons, Cersei opposes her as the Lannister queen in her own right and Sansa – in the absence of her half-brother, the warrior Jon Snow – commands the North. It should be a triumph for feminism – but all of them, good or bad, strike hollow figures. They rarely raise their voices, get upset, swear or cry. They speak in a low, monotone register and their body language is constrained.

So, for example, when