While viewing the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I fell in love with Lisbeth Salander, whole played the role of a female heroic figure and displays characteristics of female empowerment, brilliance, and dominating. Typically, women do not play heroic figures in Hollywood films, especially one that consists of sexual violence. I felt like I was walking in Lisbeth’s shoes during the film, but I was unaware of what is yet to come. For example, during the scene where Lisbeth met her guardian, Bjurman, for the first time, I was not surprised by his controlling behavior. I was also not shocked when he raped Lisbeth and started battering her in a sexually sadistic way. But instead, Lisbeth started to excel and conquered misogynistic men throughout
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Rather, she conquered and demolished Bjurman’s masculinity by raping him and videoing him raping her. With this intention, Lisbeth threatens Bjurman’s integrity by asking him to give her control of her life and finances or else she will reveal the sex tape to the government. Both Steinem and Wolfe remind us that, “men have a special responsibility to provide models of manhood that are fully human” (Wolfe and Steinem 2012). However, that was not the case for Bjurman because his masculinity was shattered and unpurified, which resulted in shame. In the end, Lisbeth got what she wanted from her guardian and she was able to move on with her role. I thought Lisbeth was a “perfect queer heroine in terms of the intensity of her commitments, the flexibility of her sexual orientation and her gender” (Halberstam 2010). Lisbeth proves to her viewers that females like herself, that are, gothic, the victim of sexual abuse, and bisexual can play the lead role in a Hollywood film, which is not the norm. Sexuality not only takes time to develop, but it is natural for an individual to experience numerous changes in order to discover one’s sexual identity. Growing up, women like Lisbeth were portrayed as the white female who is below the poverty line and is living day by day on welfare. Instead, in the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she was portrayed as …show more content…
With that being said, viewing both Ennis and Jack, homosexual lovers, as the lead characters in a Hollywood film is not seen as the norm. That is to say, society refuses to accept the fact that the practice of heterosexuality is not the type of sexuality. As for me, I fell in love with Ennis’ character because he is calm, adventurous, and reticent. For that reason, I think Ennis’ past had an impact on his love life. Growing up, at age twelve with the help of his dad, Ennis and his brother were both able to view an incident that took place in their community. A man became the victim of a homophobic crime, that is, penectomy. From there, Ennis learned that being gay was not acceptable by both his father and the community. As a result, he explains to Jack that they can both get together once in a blue moon in the middle of nowhere, but they won’t live together (Gyllenhaal and Ledger 2005). Jack was more determined and opened to having a relationship with Ennis, regardless of his dad’s homophobic belief. But instead, Ennis was being “trapped in a world in which he doesn’t fit, and hopelessly incapable of seeing any alternative” (Hicklin 2015). Hence, Ennis was forced to marry his wife because of his fear of being involved with Jack. As Proulx puts it, “there was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe,
Rather, she conquered and demolished Bjurman’s masculinity by raping him and videoing him raping her. With this intention, Lisbeth threatens Bjurman’s integrity by asking him to give her control of her life and finances or else she will reveal the sex tape to the government. Both Steinem and Wolfe remind us that, “men have a special responsibility to provide models of manhood that are fully human” (Wolfe and Steinem 2012). However, that was not the case for Bjurman because his masculinity was shattered and unpurified, which resulted in shame. In the end, Lisbeth got what she wanted from her guardian and she was able to move on with her role. I thought Lisbeth was a “perfect queer heroine in terms of the intensity of her commitments, the flexibility of her sexual orientation and her gender” (Halberstam 2010). Lisbeth proves to her viewers that females like herself, that are, gothic, the victim of sexual abuse, and bisexual can play the lead role in a Hollywood film, which is not the norm. Sexuality not only takes time to develop, but it is natural for an individual to experience numerous changes in order to discover one’s sexual identity. Growing up, women like Lisbeth were portrayed as the white female who is below the poverty line and is living day by day on welfare. Instead, in the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, she was portrayed as …show more content…
With that being said, viewing both Ennis and Jack, homosexual lovers, as the lead characters in a Hollywood film is not seen as the norm. That is to say, society refuses to accept the fact that the practice of heterosexuality is not the type of sexuality. As for me, I fell in love with Ennis’ character because he is calm, adventurous, and reticent. For that reason, I think Ennis’ past had an impact on his love life. Growing up, at age twelve with the help of his dad, Ennis and his brother were both able to view an incident that took place in their community. A man became the victim of a homophobic crime, that is, penectomy. From there, Ennis learned that being gay was not acceptable by both his father and the community. As a result, he explains to Jack that they can both get together once in a blue moon in the middle of nowhere, but they won’t live together (Gyllenhaal and Ledger 2005). Jack was more determined and opened to having a relationship with Ennis, regardless of his dad’s homophobic belief. But instead, Ennis was being “trapped in a world in which he doesn’t fit, and hopelessly incapable of seeing any alternative” (Hicklin 2015). Hence, Ennis was forced to marry his wife because of his fear of being involved with Jack. As Proulx puts it, “there was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe,