Men Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses: Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy in Feminist Perspective

Introduction

xiii Introduction M en Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses got its start in the summer of 2010, when the final installment of the Millennium trilogy was released in the United States, fueling sales of all three volumes. People could be seen reading Stieg Larsson’s books on planes, in trains, at the beach, in backyard lounge chairs, and in bed, sitting up late into the night. What struck us in our own readings of Larsson was the unexpected combination of familiar crime fiction devices—rape, murder, mayhem, etc., often at women’s expense and described in excruciating detail—served up with a distinctly feminist flavor and with some remarkable feminist characters. The juxtaposition was jarring, yet strangely compelling, and the question it raised more than any other was “What do other feminists think about these books?” The Millennium trilogy revolves around two main protagonists, Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. In book 1, we are introduced to Blomkvist, a middle-aged investigative journalist recently convicted of libeling a powerful businessman. In trying to extricate himself from this legal mess, he crosses paths with Henrik Vanger, a formerly powerful industrialist who offers to support Blomkvist in exchange for help in unraveling a family mystery. Through his involvement with the Vanger family, Blomkvist eventually meets Lisbeth Salander, a freelance hacker and investigator with a punk, tattooed appearance and a mysterious past. As the trilogy unfolds, we learn more about Salander and her troubled background, which includes a horrifically abusive father and a victimized mother, a sadistic state psychiatrist who enjoyed torturing her while she was under his care, a guardian who rapes her, a violent and thuggish half-brother, and a corrupt criminal justice system intent on prosecuting her for murders she did not commit. Salander saves Blomkvist’s life early in xiv Men Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses the trilogy, and Blomkvist later gathers a small but devoted group of friends and allies to work on Salander’s behalf. Along the way, we meet a remarkable cast of supporting characters . There is Erika Berger, who is Blomkvist’s friend, his married lover, his colleague, and his editor in chief at Millennium, and Miriam Wu, a half-Swedish, half-Asian lesbian with whom Salander is both friend and lover. There are good men (such as Salander’s first guardian and her former boss) and there are bad men (such as her father, her half-brother, and a cast of assorted goons and thugs). We meet strong women who stand up for themselves and defend themselves, and we meet many nameless women who are victims of men’s sexual abuse and human trafficking. Some critics argue that many of the trilogy’s characters are onedimensional and lack complexity. For instance, Salander’s father and half-brother are simply evil and devoid of any goodness. In contrast, Salander’s first guardian is a kind and gentle man who views her as an equal and provides her with wise counsel. While some characters lack nuance, Larsson’s ability to pack many different social issues and controversies into his complex stories keeps us talking about them. Violence against women takes center stage, and Larsson also examines shoddy journalism, out-of-control capitalism, incompetent law enforcement, and a Swedish state that fails to protect its citizens. Racism, sexism, the role of cutting-edge technology, and the ability of hackers to penetrate into any system are also some of the topics he addresses. While Salander attracts most of the attention from critics, Larsson’s wide-ranging social critiques strike us as equally responsible for popular interest in the trilogy. Men Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses uses a variety of feminist approaches to examine the tensions inherent in many of the issues Larsson’s work raises. For example, is the explicit portrayal of violence against women a predictable convention intended to sell the books? Is it simply encouraging voyeurism? Or is Larsson providing an unvarnished view of a harsh reality that more people need to recognize in order to stop the violence? Is Salander a hero for women everywhere, with her gender ambiguity and her feminist avenging power? Or is she a cautionary tale about body hatred and the consequences of going it alone in the face of sexual Introduction xv abuse and harassment? Is Sweden a bastion of social progressivism, gender equity, and sexual freedom...