This chapter addresses Martin’s consideration of the concept and construction of gender. Extensive scholarship exists on this issue, with his presentation of female characters—none of whom present an uncomplicatedly constructive response to his medievalist patriarchy—often being cited as suspect. Examination of Martin’s presentation of Sansa Stark, however, reveals that the flaws in their response to patriarchy are not careless or retrograde writing but very deliberate exercises in Wayne Booth’s concept of stable irony, providing a base from which readers can think through the construction of gender. This pattern is also evident in his gendering of male characters such as Samwell Tarly and Khal Drogo, showing how Martin critiques over-strict constructions of both masculinity and femininity. He also presents Arya Stark, a girl who discovers the subjectivity of the gender binary, to voice further criticisms of the concept.