There has never been more rape on our screens, but it’s now illegal to show a woman doing all the housework

There is something strange going on in the world of modern gender norms. Consider this: Britain’s advertising authority has just decided that it is demeaning and unhealthy for us to be exposed to gender stereotyping in adverts. In the same week, nearly 3 million Britons tuned in to watch the premiere of the new Game of Thrones season, a show in which about half of the main female characters have been raped.

For the record, I was one of the Games of Thrones watchers and I enjoyed it. I also find adverts in which women aspire longingly for more convenient ways to clean their houses rather annoying. Yet I can’t help but feel that there’s something odd about this. It is now illegal to show “an ad that features a man trying and failing to undertake simple parental or household tasks”. It is perfectly legal, however, to screen without comment a period drama, like Versailles, in which a woman is casually and brutally sodomised by her husband.