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.
What they did with Loras and Renly immediately made me hate the show, because i loved the portrayal of those characters in the books. And the sexpostion scenes always seemed so forced and silly. Didn't make it past the first season.