There are many reasons the character of Lisbeth Salander is appealing, most of them stem from the fact that she likely has an Asperger's-like disease: no fear whatsoever, incredible computer skills, photographic memory, very little emotion. She's like a superhero with a syndrome. Her lack of fear is one of the best things about her. While you're sitting there, book in hand, in the safety of your home fearing for her life, she's just like, fighting off giants and rapists and stuff. So bad ass. I started watching the Swedish films on Netflix too. They're very well done even if they can only scratch the surface of the story. Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress that was picked to play Lisbeth is dead on. Hard to imagine that someone can do better. But maybe Rooney Mara was good in her own way here in the good ol' USA. Why Hollywood has to remake European movies for American audiences is beyond me. Read a fucking subtitle, American people.
There are a few thematic threads throughout the three books, one of them being men who hate women. I understand from someone I met once that the sub-title of the book in Swedish is "Men Who Hate Women." I was unaware that misogyny was a problem in the liberal country of Sweden, but Larsson does cite some disturbing facts. The word most used in the book is "whore." It appears that men think this is a major insult: she's just a whore. And so this matters because? Like whores don't have feelings, or rights? Prostitution isn't even illegal in Sweden and yet whenever a woman in the book outsmarts these bad men, or shows a little stubborness to stand up for what's right, it's straight to the whoerery we go. For the bad men out there, it's a word that represents everything wrong with the female species. And yet, it doesn't feel all that insulting to me. Maybe because, in our own little way, we're all whores.
A whore is someone, most of the time female, who sells her body for sex to a paying male. There is a market for it, and she is on that market to make money so she can eat. That sounds like a job to me. A shitty job that I'd rather not do, but God knows if I had to, if it meant life or death, I would. Men have created the market; there is a high demand for sex in the world and women supply it. Pure economics. Look, It's your fucking market dudes, so why do you find it so repulsive? Do you find yourselves repulsive? What does that say about you and all your deep psychological complexities of shame and guilt and all that other baggage that people carry around. 'Sigh' Boring. It makes me think of the Evangelical Christian who is a closeted gay guy, or the righteous Elliott Spitzer with Client # 9. People who somehow can't own up to an aspect of who they are and reject it so wholeheartedly that they they go to extremes to hide it, demonize it and denounce it to everyone (and hate themselves somewhere deep down in there). Ugh, it's so frustrating I can't even write. But I must go on. I can't go on. Don't you wish you can sometimes say to people just deal? Or if you're unable to deal, just don't seek public office? Anyway, that's not to say I defend prostitution in any way. I wish it didn't exist. It sounds like a miserable job. But it's a sad reality that will likely not go away. So let us at least accept it as such and create a safer environment for it.
Have a good Memorial Day, everyone. And remember those who've experienced the sheer hell of war.
No comments:
Post a Comment