Men Who Hate Women

I saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo tonight. I was thinking about posting this on Death of a Trend but the subject matter is a little heavier than squeeing over boys, so I think its more at place over here at Dark Vaudeville.

So where to begin?

Synopsis: An elderly millionaire, Henrik Vanger (Svend-Bertil Taube), is haunted by the disappearance and suspected murder of his niece who vanished 40 years ago. Each year he is sent a package from an anonymous sender, whom he believes is his neice's killer. He enlists the help of a well respected journalist, Mikael Blokvist (Michael Nyqvist) who has just been convicted of libel. He has 6 months before he must serve his sentence and 6 months to solve this 40 year old mystery. Vanger tells Blokvist that he believes the killer is a member of his family as they all reside on one island and the day that Harriet disappeared, there was an accident blocking the only entrance and exit to and from the Vanger family Island. Throughout his investigation Blokvist is being tracked by professional hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Repace). Salander, in making the first break in the case in over 39 years, decides to help Blokvist investigate the disappearance and possible murder of Harriet Vanger. Through their investigations you learn that the Vanger clan are indeed a horrible bunch who hold many secrets between them and each scene brings you closer and closer to the deplorable truth.


My verdict: From an asexual standpoint I thought it was an excellent movie. Suspense, mystery, plot line, acting, action, it was all there. Injustices were 'righted' and the good people won in the end, so from an asexual standpoint I could leave the theatre satisfied that those sick motherf-ckers got theirs.

BUT

From a female standpoint it left me shaken. Oh there might me spoilers up a head so if you don't want me to spoil anything, stop reading now!

As I've grown older I've become more aware of what it means to be a woman in this society and what our status is. This doesn't make me a harpy, or a lesbian, or a militant feminist who hates men, so if that's your line of thinking you can go ahead and shut the f-ck up. In this movie there is a lot of violence towards women, as in brutal violence, rape, and murder and it didn't just happen to one woman or two women or three women but MANY women, in fact the violence touched all the female characters in this movie save one.

Watching this movie, it really disturbed me because how many movies are out there that brutalize women just for a shocking end or to prove the evilness of the bad guy? Why is it that when writers want to show the darkest of human nature they take it out on women? This is not me being oversensitive, because watching The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I got that cold, heavy, nauseating feeling in my stomach I had when I watched:

-The Cell
-Se7en
-Kiss The Girls
-Silence of The Lambs
-Jagged Edge
-Eastern Promises
-Perfume: Story of a Murderer
-Copy Cat
-From Hell
-The Black Dahlia

There are probably more but these are the ones that came to mind. So there are many movies with brutal violence toward women and no its not just a punch in the face kind of violence, its sexual violence which is even more devastating than a broken nose or arm could ever be. I'm probably more aware of this because I am a woman and the threat of sexual violence is a very real concern, as I talked about here, when I was explaining it to my brother he rolled his eyes a bit but then I listed all the movies above and then he understood and agreed there is a lot of violence towards women in our mass media. If you see this movie then you will know the sexual violence the female characters must endure. Lisbeth, who I admire (as much as you can admire a fictional character), is raped and beaten. Harriet Vanger was a victim of rape and incest. All the women that were investigated were brutally tortured, raped, and murdered.

Seriously what the f-ck?


I'm not against telling stories about violence against women, it happens, A LOT, 1 in 4 women are victims of sexual assault, think of the 4 most important women in you life, one of them has experienced some kind of sexual abuse, so not to talk about or address it, to just sweep it under the rug would be doing the women who are abused a disservice. HOWEVER, was it necessary for essentially every woman in this story (the movie was based on a book) to have been sexually assaulted in such terrible ways? Could we not get a respite? Because I felt it went beyond the point of telling the story of violence against women and crossed the line of exploitation. It got to a point where I was sick to my stomach.

Lisbeth, Harriet, Liv, Magda, Sarah, Mari, BJ, all the nameless women who showed up in the killer's trophy photos, beaten, raped, and most of them killed. The Swedish title of the book/movie is called 'Men Who Hate Women'. Really, because much of human history and current events could not tell me that, I needed a book and movie to let me in on this inside information.
This movie left a dark cloud over my soul because I've seen this story line many times before, maybe too many times. I'm trying to be as pragmatic as possible here, to ensure that I'm not overreacting but I don't think I am. Lisbeth's rape was particularly brutal as you saw everything, and despite her getting revenge on her attacker, I still felt deeply upset by it. Even though you don't see Harriet get abused, in a flashback you see a 16 year old girl, face bloodied, blouse torn open, exposing her bra, running away from her shirtless, drunken father, even a scene like that is enough to leave me shaken.

If it was strictly a murder mystery without the torture and rape I think I would have appreciated the movie more but with all this sexual violence, despite Lisbeth and Harriet's strong spirit, this movie just left me feeling empty inside and proving once again that women are only vehicle's for men's desires, fears, and fantasies.

The book was a trilogy and there are two other movies that have been made, I might see them because I am curious about Lisbeth Salander's story, she was the best part of the movie, and I think I'll make a separate post on her alone but if I do decide to see the other two movies, I'll mentally prepare myself because to be honest The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo blindsided me.