Lisbeth Salander—Feminist Icon?
General Reviews
When thinking of which of my favourite female characters to write about for this prompt, my mind went to Lizbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I’m not sure what this says about me, but Fincher’s version is honestly one of my comfort movies. I watch it at least once a year. I’m sad that the rest of the trilogy didn’t get adapted into English—the Swedish versions leave something to be desired—but also the third book is boring as hell. And don’t get me started on my thoughts about The Girl in the Spider’s Web! I digress.
I love Lisbeth because she’s hot and looks cool, of course—her motorcycle and outfits are just so good—but really she is one of my favourites because of her drive, independence, and give no fucks take no shit attitude.
Her ability to be unapologetically herself is so admirable. She remains her authentic self despite society being less than accepting of her, like the people that give her weird looks at her job, or how her social worker judges her based on her appearance, trusting her less (but Nils Bjurman is ultimately an asshole). She refuses to be controlled and moulded by others, which is a really valuable trait. Lisbeth shows great resilience despite the circumstances she was given.
She may be introverted and antisocial, but Lisbeth is smart and good at her job, and that’s what matters. Her intelligence is so enviable! Her observational and technical skills lead Mikael Blomkvist to finally have a breakthrough in the case. I would love to have a photographic memory and to be skilled with technology like that. I am constantly looking up YouTube tutorials for the dumbest stuff on Adobe Suite.
Lisbeth has a questionable moral compass, yes, but has a strong sense of justice, standing up for victims of abuse and women that haven’t had a voice or been able to fight back. The fact that she takes pleasure in torturing Martin Vanger at the end isn’t awesome, but my favourite part is the montage at the end where she goes to Switzerland and empties all the bank accounts. So badass.
However, as much as I adore Lisbeth, she (and the movie, more broadly speaking) is not without her faults. In high school, I wrote a comparative essay for my English class about feminist heroines throughout space and time, and one concern that I address was whether a character can be feminist if written by a man. That question resurfaced when thinking about this prompt, because wouldn’t the ultimate female character be one written by a woman in order to honour women’s day? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo doesn’t even pass the Bechdel Test. sigh. The first chapter of the second book talks about how the first thing she does with her money is get a boob job. Let me sigh again! But that’s just what happens when you’re written by a man, even with the best intentions—you can’t be unconventional for long.
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