Just recently I viewed the movie “the girl with the dragon tattoo”. Though I had never read the book, rave reviews had me really excited to see the film. Ill do my best not to spoil anything for those who still plan on seeing it or those who have not read the book, however there were a few things that definitely stuck out to me.
For one thing, I took notice of how the main character was viewed and treated as a result of her appearance. I would love to say I was shocked, but it is very representative of what goes on everyday in our society. The main character seemed to be a rebel from her piercings and tattoos down to the way that she chose to dress. Because of this, certain people with whom she worked closely with doubted her ability to complete intricate tasks successfully, though she would prove throughout the movie that she was clearly the best for the job.
At times, the movie reminded me of a class discussion that we had towards the beginning of the semester when we talked about embodiment and how mental abilities are separate yet go hand in hand with what is embodied in physical form. The main character in the movie, who was a warden of the state, was deemed incompetent and as a result was not in charge of everyday things like her own finances for example. It was interesting to me how certain authorities that she had to report to, acted as this so called “mental incompetence” viewed her body. I think this often times happens during this day and age which leads to serious things such as violence as well as sexual assault.
Unruly Bodies 
I will say that I think in the book, Larsson makes more clear that she’s considered to be a sociopath, although it seems like from her interactions she falls more on the autism spectrum… Which leads to a whole other discussion about how society interprets developmental differences, which could be a whole different post 🙂
What I wanted to get at is that this puts me in mind of the discussions about eugenics and “female conditions” such as hysteria that we talked about earlier this week. There’s a history in the 19th and 20th century of not only diagnosing women “scientifically” with diminished mental capacity, but also arguing that said diminished capacity led inevitably to nymphomania/ promiscuity. This not only medicalized women’s emotions, but made them easy prey for sexual abuse by doctors and others.
I think the important thing that Girl With the Dragon Tattoo shows us is that these aren’t ancient practices. Infantilizing women is still a common form of social control, albeit one that we might be more aware of.
stegan74, I find the words you used, “easy prey”, as words that are problematic in regards to the characterization of sexually abused women. Maybe sexual abusers not getting adequate punishment for what they did was “easy”…but people are never easy nor are they ever prey.
In response to the original poster, it was disgusting to see the way people treated Lisbeth’s (main character) body (i.e. the sexual abuse). I watched most of the movie, but I couldn’t look at certain parts because it was too triggering. So, I’m not sure I saw a direct link between mental incompetence and treatment of her body being portrayed in the film.
According to this link: http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/3925/myths.html, assailants look for victims who they think are vulnerable. So, I think that sexual abusers thinking that someone is supposedly mentally incompetent could possibly be part of their much flawed thinking process in looking for someone they think is vulnerable, as those who are deemed mentally incompetent are often also deemed powerless.
While I will concede that I could have used a better metaphor, I was trying to point out that the actions of the doctors and other mental health professionals which resulted in sexual abuse were predatory at their core. I should have been more clear.