What recent TV shows realistically represent women in power?

Women In Power on Television

Game of Thrones is one of the TV series in which women have the widest possible representation: also, and above all, in matters of political and military power. This is particularly surprising considering that the world of Game of Thrones is characterized, essentially, by a feudal society, which, historically, has not always been particularly friendly to the female gender.

Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Margaery and Olenna Tyrell, Catelyn and Sansa Stark, Ellaria Sand and Yara Greyjoy : whether they are acclaimed or not as leaders, they are all examples of women occupying a position of pre-eminence with regard to institutions and territories they represent or the army of which they are driving.

Cersei and Daenerys, in particular, represent the quintessence of the woman in power in this series. Their own story, in fact, is perpetually associated with research , maintenance , expansion and, inevitably, the loss of power. It follows that the representation that characterizes them is extremely complex and realistic and allows us to grasp magnitudes and weaknesses.

Three extremely interesting elements can be gathered from the observation of these women who hold power, the last of which is more closely associated with the fact that these characters are really feminine:

1. In the characters, the power - which in the case of Cersei and Daenerys, both queens, is particularly vast - tends to maximize the expression of both quality and, above all, defects .
2. Power is always relative . However juridically or practically recognized as "absolute", it is never "absolute" in the literal sense, that is "free from any constraint" ("absolutus"), because there are too many material implications (economic, social - being a " simple "woman in a not indifferent way" and immaterial (affective, emotional, ethical) that concern him. In particular, there is a clear distinction between the possession of power and the exercise of power - the latter is generally the most contrasted condition.
3. The woman, in itself, does not have a desire for power inferior to man : although apparently banal, this truth has often not found and does not find a worthy representation. In numerous series (television and not only), the woman, if not deprived of any association with the sphere of power, is nevertheless represented as "naturally" predisposed to being subordinated to a male figure of reference or, if predestined to occupy a power role, not necessarily eager to occupy it (traditionally, women strongly desiring to occupy a position of power are only negative characters, if not antagonistic, like the "evil queen" of fairy tales); in GOT, instead, even the female figure, as it is realistic, is attracted, like her male counterpart, by power.

And so, here in GOT , for better or for worse, female characters fight vehemently to become powerful .

And, once they became powerful sovereigns, ladies or military leaders, they give rise to most of that interlacement that has committed (and will commit) the hours spent in front of this television series.

In the coming years we should see more strong women in power in television and movies.