This piece from Bitch Flicks by Lady T is a good read even if you don't watch GoT. The same logic can be applied to other shows with similar levels of nudity who maybe don't approach the characterisation of their female characters in the same way. It's doubly good as the author has also read the books so there's a double perspective their.
Game of Thrones is not like Lord of the Rings or other popular fantasy series that forget that women exist. Women are prominent in the society of Westeros, whether behind the scenes or fighting on the fields...Considering the presence of so many complex women in Game of Thrones, it seems like critics might save their nudity-related complaints for other programs that populate their shows with mere ciphers (if they cast any women at all). So why are we still talking about nudity on THIS show?A case could be made to draw parallels between the way audiences respond to the depiction of violence and the way they respond to gratuitous nudity and sexual scenes. Both raises the issue (in very different ways however, context is key in sexual scenes) of whether showing something condoning it, e.g. the furore that surrounded the release of Zero Dark Thirty.
Where they differ however is that sexuality isn't bad in any respect, the concerns are over how much should an audience see. As Lady T writes, many shows with GoT's levels of nudity are "praised for grim dark realism" but GoT is the one that gets called out on it. Whatever your opinions on how nudity (and let's face it the issue is always with female nudity specifically) no one can deny that GoT is filled with a huge variety of female characters who embody a range of different character types
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