On one hand it makes sense that medieval european social relations imply, well, medieval european social relations and it makes sense to use your novel (or your show) to examine those.
On the other I can relate to many people wanting to see women in medieval fantasy to be represented in some other way than constant misery porn.
Like a fuck tonne of shitty low fantasy, GoT is specifically late-late-mediaeval/Early Renaissance, which is basically a time of economic collapse as the little ice age stalls the social gains of the post-plague years.
So it's a particularly awful time for women, it's the beginning of the stripping of the convents' power, the harassment of formerly powerful guilds of sex workers, and the beginning of restriction on women's formerly quite extensive Roman-law derived property rights. all in a backdrop of horrifying famine and war.
We almost never see the greater freedom and power held by women in the early and high periods, or the clean, fine clothing and garish colours most peasants wore (looking at you Kingdom Come deliverance and your 3 stitches per inch seams), because the past has to be gritty and shit.
I'm all for "showing things as they actually were" but if you're going to do that then actually fucking show them.
Wait so you're telling me that human history isn't some slow, steady march of things progressively getting better for everyone but especially women? :confusion:
"no" :hegel:
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It's always fun to remember that in some parts of early medieval northern europe women controlled the farm and the money because men were thought to be bad at math.
I yearn for a high budget product that depicts how garishly and ornately dressed everyone was and never, ever, ever has anyone wearing black or brown leather.
Actual medieval Europe outfits and decorations done by lords for the most popular feast days were garish as fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. They also had a habit of making entire edible palaces with edible figures and accessories.