To What Extent can the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo be Described as a Feminist Text - Essay Example

To What Extent can The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) be Described as a Feminist Text? [By] of] INTRODUCTION The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be described as one of the finest written novels revolving around the crime scene in Sweden along with the misery of women in the form of rapes, assaults, and murders. The movie was released in 2009 based on the novel highlighting the drama and thriller along with issues related to the rape and murders prevailing in Sweden in a critical manner. There is no doubt that the movie raises awareness on issues like rapes and crimes but some of the descriptions are seriously awe-inspiring and for some gross. The movie revolves around the female protagonist who has been raped by the appointed guardian. Additionally, she was drug abused and a lonely woman being suffering the miseries of her life through the hands of his own people. However, she has been shown as a strong woman who takes revenge along with justifying his stance. The storyline is quite captivating in every regard making readers and viewers to enjoy every bit of it (Larsson, 2011). Though, a number of critiques have stated that the movie revolves around the subject of feminist where huge focus has been on highlighting the position and power of women in the society against the men (Newman, 2011). Additionally, with a strong plot, the movie also questions the deeds of men in the society and crimes committed by them in the form of rapes and murders. Being a string gender, the acts of men in the society and especially in the settings of Sweden have been closely analysed through the lenses of feminist approach. On the other hand, the movie supporters stated that the mainly because of the female protagonist, there have been talks about the film being a feminist text but in reality, it touches social issues that need to be understood from women’s’ perspectives (Bourke, 2007). Based on this, the discussion will revolve around analysing the fact to what extent the movie can be described as a feminist text along with discussing about the crime, sexuality, and gender in Sweden in a critical manner. An Overview of the Movie The movie has some serious drama, sexual explicit, physical abuses, rapes, murders, and crime scenes that can be alluring and saddening but showcasing the reality to an extent prevailing in the backdrop of a country like Sweden. The movie shows that the publisher of the Millennium Magazine loses a case involving allegations that were published by him about the billionaire financier Wennerstrom. He was sentenced to three months of imprisonment. The female protagonist in the form of Lisbeth Slander was hired by Vanger, the patriarch of the Vanger family to investigate on Blomkvist, the publisher of the magazine. Vanger then hires Blomkvist to investigate the case of her niece Harriet who has been missing since many years. Vanger believes that his niece has been murdered by his own family member. It is important to state that the female protagonist in the form of Slander is a brilliant but damaged hacker along with a surveillance agent (Burstein, et al, 2011). Slander in the past was ruled as an incompetent child and legal guardian was appointed for her. After her previous guardian suffered a stroke, she was appointed with a new guardian, Bjurman. The movie then shows the sexual agony of the protagonist when the sexual sadist Bjurman forced Slander to perform fellatio on him in order to get money for buying things. He also abused her physically and sexually along with being cruel to him. However, the movie does not show the agony of the woman for long and she was shown taking her revenge by torturing him along with beating him for her rights. The movie next shows Blomkvist meeting Vanger along with Harriets brother Martin and cousin Cecolia. Blomkvist tried investigating the matter of Harriet by seeing some photographs along with decoding her expressions and reading the excerpts of her diaries (Larsson, 2011). However, Slander was successful in decoding some of the excerpts of Harriets diaries. Both of them suspect Henriks reclusive brother Harald to be the murderer and even approach his house only to be attacked by him and saved by Martin. Blomkvist reveals his findings to Martin but knowing that he drugs him whereas Slander founds that Martin and his late father are responsible for the murders. The movie also shows how Martin brags about raping and murdering women in last many years. His facial expressions while stating the same revealed his sadist approach. Additionally, it was found that Harriet was not killed by him but disappeared without any knowledge. Even though the movie has some scenes where the male protagonist was seen taking the initiative of being the hero but in the end, it was the female protagonist who chased the culprit along with making his create his own death bed by driving and getting trapped in an accident resulting in car accident and flames taking his life (Larsson, 2011). It was also found that Harriet was not dead and went away mainly because her father and brother raped her. She also killed her father while her brother blackmailed her. The movie clearly showed the agony of the women being raped and assaulted along with being used as a commodity. Additionally, the focus of the movie has only been on women making it a women centric movie. Additionally, Slander murdering Wennerstrom was also a brave step and move being taken by her highlighting her strength and intention on being hurt and affected for so long. Overall, it can be said that the movie has an interesting plot revolving around the issues of rapes, murders, and sexual assaults but the treatment is a bit different considering the fact that the sufferer raises her voice by being strong in her thinking and highlighting the women power in a commendable manner. There is no doubt that the movie can be described as a feminist text but this need to be explored in-depth for a better understanding and interpretation and by forming a critical approach (Bourke, 2007). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A Feminist Text Pappas (2013) in his interview with the sociologist Ferber found that the movie has few feminist aspects. However, there is no clear definition of feminism. It is a notion that has different meaning and interpretations based on personal understanding and analysis. There is no doubt that statistics on rapes have been offered along with showcasing the position of women in the society. Additionally, majority of the female characters in the book showcases strong position of power along with taking control of their life and relationships. Additionally, there have been scenes where the point has been made in educating about the women’s movement and feminism. Additionally, with a female protagonist, the movie has a strong fan following of women and the same goes for the book. Somehow, women were able to connect with the book as the issue was more women centric along with based on social issues. It was further found that quite a lot of women centric movies and books are released promoting the feminist version of women, empowered depiction of women, and their identity in the society. Female characters are not shown as passive princess and the shift towards powerful women characters is quite in vogue. Additionally, it can be said that there is still a need for feminism in the world as majority of women showcases post-feminist approach of being equal to men. However, the world is not used to it and often discriminates between the two genders. Women still face inequality and threat of security and violence that is a social reality in majority of the nations but the movie can be assumed as an excellent step in changing this reality to an extent. On the other hand, Schorn (2013) further added that as a rape-revenge plot, there is certainly a feminist approach. The role of the rape victimized women is not shown as a passive character but as a n authoritarian individual willing to take revenge. It can be said that the movie fell short of its feminist intent despite having a strong feminist approach but was successful in highlighting a strong image of women in the society. Schorn (2013) further added that the depiction of the female protagonist is quite confusing. She has been presented as a strong woman in majority of the incidents but show is also shown as a broken woman whose attitude neither encouraged trust nor friendship. Additionally, she was found facing emotional issues and her appearance and behavior seems to spell out trouble in a clichéd manner. She portrays a cool character of someone with tattoos and piercing but finding refuge in alcohol and drugs. She was also found in an emergency room based on intoxicated by alcohol and drugs. Additionally, her sexuality was also confusing. It is believed that rape victims often become repulsive to males while having sexual encounters and turn to women. In this regard, they can either turn towards women or become casual while having sexual relationships with men. Additionally, their emotional level also plummets creating emotional issues and breakdown (Newman, 2013). The same was the issue with Slander as she failed to strike an emotional bonding with her love and portrayed it as a casual relationship based on little feelings. In this regard, an emotional stability was never showcased in the case of slander. Rather, she was shown as a confused and revengeful lady with little emotional balance. It cannot be said that the protagonist represented the feminism in every regard as she was driven by his own instincts that were evoked by her anger rather than a rationale approach being taken on the issue of inequality. She showcased her power and by taking revenge and found to be strong in this regard and thus can be considered as an act of feminist (Read, 2000). Finally, it can be said that it is difficult to ascertain whether the movie was based on feminist text but on normative grounds, it can be said that there have been instances of feminist texts while few cases depict little or no feminist texts. In this regard, it would be judicious to term the movie as an initiative of highlighting a powerful female character based on seeking revenge out of anger rather than fighting for equality in the society where she suffered the most. Crime, Gender, and Sexuality in Sweden Agustin (2007) stated that the crime scene in Sweden is quite depressing considering the fact that rape crimes have increased almost trebled in last few years. This shows that the number of rape crimes have increased significantly mainly because of the poor attitude of people and male dominated society framework. Alexander (2012) added that rape crimes in Sweden are recorded as per the events. This suggests that for every event, rape charges will be recorded rather than for the entire event. Additionally, sexuality in Sweden is quite open suggesting the fact that people can indulge in sexual activities with mutual consent by the age of 15. Furthermore, the definition of rape in legal terms differs in every country suggesting the fact that, it is important to understand it legally for better interpretation. Sweden has been placed second in terms of rape crimes and legal interpretation of rape and other crimes can be considered as the reason behind it rather than the statistical data. Alexander (2012) further added that statistics do not reveal the crime epidemic but a shift in attitude. The increased awareness regarding rape crimes has helped women in reporting to police. Additionally, they can also raise queries and questions regarding inequality prevailing in the society. Agustin (2007) stated that international statistics on rape can be quite misleading and needs to be interpreted in a critical manner. Greenfield (2013) stated that the crime scene in Sweden is likely to be affected by the migrant population along with way of recording crimes based on identifying them in legal terms. There is no denying that rape charges have increased a lot in last few years in Sweden but for this, the attitude and behavior of people needs to be blamed. The law body of Sweden facilitates equality of gender but in a male dominating society, the essence of equality often gets manipulated and affected based on the social realities. Overall, it can be said that rape crimes are on a high in Sweden if followed the statistics but gender equality and sexuality is governed by laws. Karolinska (2005) stated that before analysing the crime scene in Sweden, it is important to understand the psychology. It does not imply that sons or brothers of sex offenders become offenders too. However, the same has been shown in the movie where Martin becomes the offender by running on his father footsteps. Additionally, this does not show the real situation in Sweden or for a matter of fact in any other country. The report published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and based on the overall crime scene in Sweden between 1973 and 2009 revealed that there were more than 6000 rape offenders of adults while more than 4500 offenders of children. This shows that the situation is quite alarming in the case of Sweden in case of rapes. However, Alexander (2012) defied these statistics by stating that legal interpretation is different in Sweden in regards to many crimes and need to be analysed and understood in a critical manner before forming any opinion. There is no denying that like any other country, Sweden also faces issues related to inequality, crimes, and sexual assaults but the collected data does not reveal the actual situation. It was further found that the self-reported sexual victimization in Sweden are quite high and similar to a number of countries like the US, Canada, and Europe. Police reported offenses being recorded should be analysed in a critical manner mainly because of the differences in the legal definitions, method of counting the offense and recording and reporting of crimes in the form of sexual crime, sexual violence, and social and gender inequality. Overall, it can be said that the crime scene in Sweden needs to be analysed from legal definition point of view rather than statistical point of view (Karolinska, 2005). This will help in understanding the rise and fall in the crime rate in a significant manner. Based on the movie and novel depiction, it can be said that the illustration of crimes and related events have been shown in an exaggerated manner that do not reflect the real and actual Sweden based on normative point of view subjected to approval and disapproval through critical data and information. Conclusion Based on the discussion, it can be said that the movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo revolves around the subject of crimes in the form of rape, murder, and sexual assaults on women leaving indelible marks on their personality along with compelling them to become revengeful. Two women suffered rape during their childhood and adolescence and the female protagonist became a revengeful figure to an extent that she murdered and tortured men committing the crime. The movie also highlighted the subject of feminist by highlighting the power of women in a subjective manner. Additionally, the backdrop of Sweden and its history and relation with crime and rapes further added much dram to the movie along with compelling many to identify the feminist approach in the movie and crime scenario in Sweden. Overall, it was found that the movie can be described as a feminist text to an extent but not fully and the crime scene in Sweden cannot be analysed and accepted based on the statistics as they are differed and challenged by the differences in the legal definitions and interpretations. References Agustin, L (2007) Is rape rampant in gender-equal Sweden? [Online] Available at http://www.thelocal.se/20090511/19376 [Accessed May 05, 2015]. Alexander, R (2012) Swedens rape rate under the spotlight. [Online] Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19592372. [Accessed May 05, 2015] Burstein, D, and De Keijzer, A and Holmberg, J (2011) Secrets of the Tattooed Girl. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Bourke, J (2007) Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present Day. London: Virago. Cuklanz, L M (2000) Rape on Prime Time. Television, Masculinity and Sexual Violence. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press. Greenfield, D (2013) 1 in 4 Swedish Women Will Be Raped as Sexual Assaults Increase 500%. [Online] Available at http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/1-in-4-swedish-women-will-be-raped-as-sexual-assaults-increase-500/. [Accessed May 05, 2015]. Karolinska, I (2015) Sex crimes more common in certain families. ScienceDaily. [Online] Available at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150409083217.htm [Accessed May, 05, 2015]. Larsson, S (2011) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. London: MacLehose Press, 2011. Kindle eBook. Newman, M (2013) Feminist or Misogynist?” The f-Word. Contemporary UK Feminism. Oxford Publishers Pappas, S (2012) The Gray World of Feminism and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. [Online] Available at http://www.livescience.com/22900-gray-world-feminism-dragon-tattoo.html. [Accessed May, 05, 2015] Read, J (2000) The New Avengers. Feminism, Femininity and the Rape-Revenge Cycle. Manchester: Manchester UP. Schorn, J (2013) Empowerment through Violence: Feminism and the Rape-Revenge Narrative in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. University of Cologne, Germany. Issue 2013.41 Read More