The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Essay

1007 Words3 Pages

When reality is bleak and “uninteresting”, we often turn to fantasy worlds. Whether it’d be our own or those created by others, and from the experiences we witness in such worlds, we tend to create more “positive” and idealized mindsets. However, is this truly the right thing? The over romanticisation and glamorization of many simple day to day tasks may not be quite harmful, perhaps even giving us the motivation to complete these more trivial tasks. Yet, there’s still a line to be drawn at certain aspects of over romanization and “idolization” of much more dark and serious, turned playful subjects, such as the one I will be discussing today: sexual assault. The theme of sexual assault is omnipresent throughout “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, …show more content…

It states that it “increases victim blaming and influences the way women, the general public, the police, the criminal justice system and in some cases, the way juries have perceived a female victim”. From further normalizing sexual violence and rape against women in society, we are generating more deep-rooted problems. Sexual violence against women is often tied to sexism and control, as seen throughout the book, for example Burjmann, Lisbeth’s newly appointed guardian takes away her liberty in handling her own finances, stating that she is “mentally incompetent”. He also encompasses the general idea of womanizing control and “superiority”, constantly belittling Salander then making sexual advances, believing that she is weak vulnerable, and that only through these sexual favours can she gain her own independence to her finances. Through such misogynistic and sexist thoughts and actions committed, women face the greater pressure to act more femininely and “play their role”, and when such expectations are broken, exclusion and shaming is often the result. This mindset can lead to violence and control in relationships, sexual harassment (such as rating girls, inappropriate touching and commentary), as well as sexual assault involving pressure to have sexual or sexual contact. Another problem that arises from the normalisation of sexual assault is victim blaming. Oftentimes, it occurs in places where rape and sexual violence is almost normalised and exused, which all further perpetuate mysogyny, objectification of women and their bodies, as well as the glorification of sexual violence. People tend to blame victims and shame as a way of reassurance to themselves, as by accusing the victim they can distance themselves from the occurrence and situation.

More about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Essay

Open Document