slowfi asked:

I'm curious your opinion of Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I just wrote a paper in which I argued that the rape scenes were integral in Larsson's critique of patriarchy, but in my research I found the majority of people felt the scene was overly sexualized and was just a plot device that fetishized rape and sexual violence. Have you read the novel/do you have an opinion on this?

Hey there!

So I’ve read all the books, seen all the Swedish movies and the single American one they’ve made so far. I think I’m therefore relatively knowledgeable about the topic :P

I don’t think the rape scene in the book was over sexualized; as I recall it, the rapist did a few things and then the chapter or section ended, kind of trailing off and leaving it hanging. I don’t think Stieg was the type of fella to graphically describe it as he was constantly critiquing the rape culture women live in. I don’t think he would do Lisbeth a disservice as a character by using a cheap story line (describing rape) to make his novel more enticing. He insinuated the rape and then that was it.

The movies are a whole different story. I felt extremely uncomfortable in both versions because I felt as though we saw A LOT. And I felt it was unnecessary. I felt as though, especially with the American film, there was this weird need to make Lisbeth look as naked and vulnerable as possible and making sure we saw that was a disservice to her character. We saw a lot more than we needed to see and I feel as though her character and her body was used by the film makers for additional intrigue and sexualization of violence.

So in sum; I felt the novel was okay with how it dealt with that scene. I felt the movie abused and took advantage of a female character in a vulnerable state (especially the American one, which doesn’t surprise me at all).

Hope I helped. Again, it’s just my opinion. 

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  1. criticalfeministcorgi posted this