Femininity in movies should be discussed with references to the variety of images presented on screen. On the one hand, there is still a stereotyped image of women, according to which females can be discussed as subordinate to males, and they are depicted as focused on households, appearance, beauty, family, and children. On the other hand, there is the opposite image presented in modern movies as the new female archetype. According to this archetype, women seem to lose their female attributes and acquiring more male features.
The example of the movie which presents such a complex modern archetype is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) directed by David Fincher and representing the character of Lisbeth Salander, a talented hacker (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”).
To provide the support for discussing this new archetype, it is necessary to analyze it with references to Donna Haraway’s vision of cyborgs. Although Lisbeth Salander is often considered as the modern active female character to support the feminist ideals, the heroine should also be discussed from the point of Haraway’s cyborg feminism because Lisbeth is the vivid example of the new archetype who is androgynous, violating the social norms, and socializing with the help of technologies.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is the American-Swedish movie based on the book of Stieg Larsson. The main heroine of the movie is Lisbeth Salander who is described by the other characters of the movie as a talented but asocial hacker. Lisbeth’s life is full of traumas and painful situations, as a result of which Lisbeth is declared as mentally ill.
However, Lisbeth’s talent is computing and working with computer systems allows her to play the active role in the lives of such movie’s characters as Mikael Blomkvist and Henrik Vanger (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”). Lisbeth’s character is full of contradictions, and her femininity is rather questionable that is why it is necessary to discuss Donna Haraway’s cyborg feminism theory in detail.
In her work “A Cyborg Manifesto”, Haraway discusses the notion of ‘cyborg’ which is characterized as not only the result of fiction but also as the specific non-gendered organism. According to Haraway, a cyborg is “a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” (Haraway par. 2). Furthermore, this cybernetic organism is often the result of the “struggle over life and death”, as it is related to stating the boundary between the role of fiction and social reality in forming the image of a cyborg (Haraway par. 2).
While focusing on the role of a cyborg for femininity, it is significant to pay attention to the fact that a cyborg is a “creature in a post-gender world”, and moreover, an image of a cyborg should be discussed as having “no truck with bisexuality” (Haraway par. 5). That is why, the identification of a cyborg should not be based on discussing the idea of gender or sexuality in order to classify the cybernetic organism.
This non-gender approach can be discussed as Haraway’s cyborg feminism which is the alternative to the popular feminist visions. However, Haraway’s notion of ‘cyborg’ can be successfully used to analyze the modern female archetype while referring to the main female character in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Lisbeth Salander represents the new archetype of the female character who demonstrates the loose connections with the traditional visions of a woman. From this point, Lisbeth is the modern representation of the active feminist image. However, focusing on the attributes of Lisbeth and on Haraway’s discussion of a cyborg, it is possible to note that Lisbeth is a non-gendered cyborg rather than the active female heroine. Lisbeth is androgynous and bisexual, and these aspects which are actively discussed in the feminist theory should also be considered from Haraway’s point.
In her work, Haraway notes, “Cyborgs might consider more seriously the partial, fluid, sometimes aspect of sex and sexual embodiment” (Haraway par. 87). In spite of the fact that Lisbeth’s bisexuality cannot support the idea that the girl is a cyborg directly because cyborgs are not identified according to their sexuality, the fact that Lisbeth’s is bisexual explains her androgynous appearance and behavior. The depth of Lisbeth’s androgynity can be discussed with references to her cybernetic nature.
Lisbeth pays little attention to the gender and sexual roles, and her actions are caused by her vision of justice and power (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”). Lisbeth is a cybernetic organism whose mind is focused on understanding the computer world and whose appearance is changed with the help of piercing and tattoos. Thus, Lisbeth has no typical female appearance, and her appearance reflects her inner world which today can be described with the focus on the word ‘hi-tech’. Technologies become one the main sources for Lisbeth’s socialization.
Lisbeth’s actions and behavior provide more support to discuss this heroine as a modern cyborg which is the result of developing the feminist theory. On the one hand, Lisbeth is the embodiment of the modern feminist ideas because the girl is uncompromising, and she does not allow the other people to see her as a victim or a weak person. Lisbeth is decisive and she hates men. On the other hand, Lisbeth plays at the boundary while being interested in the traditionally male occupations and focusing on her female seductiveness (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”).
This controversy can be explained with references to Haraway’s ideas who states that the “cyborgs populating feminist science fiction make very problematic the statuses of man or woman, human, artefact, member of a race, individual entity, or body” (Haraway par. 84). That is why, Lisbeth’s status of a cyborg is accentuated with a range of contradictions found while analyzing her character and actions.
Lisbeth Salander as the main female character of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be discussed as the representation of the new female archetype. However, the discussion of the archetype from the point of its femininity is possible only while referring to the Haraway’s cyborg feminism. Although a cyborg is usually non-gendered, it is possible to refer to the gender while discussing the feminist ideals and stereotypes followed in the society.
From this point, Lisbeth is to high extent is a cyborg because her gender is only partially affected by her sexuality and social roles. In most cases, Lisbeth is the active androgynous hacker who acts decisively and without referring to her gender or role. The only problem is in the fact that the female nature is often the cause of Lisbeth’s sufferings. That is why, the girl ignores her gender and acts according to her own visions of the roles distribution.
Works Cited
Haraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. 1991.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 2011. Web.