This past yr, I even have fallen in love with Lisbeth Salander, one of the vital riveting, exciting, tough, and empowered literary heroines ever created. And what kills me is that a person conjured her up, giving her skills, smarts, and strength with which to defend herself against a misogynistic and violent society that targets women and their supposed frailty. Lisbeth Salander is perhaps lower than five feet tall, but she fights back physically and intellectually, her instincts for survival acute and relentless. She takes a bat to a college bully that beats her up at school, lights her violent and degenerate father on fire, and withstands abuse from a psychiatrist in an establishment when she is just twelve. She fights back with equal fervor when she is beaten up by drunk men within the train station, raped by her guardian, chased by the police, shot by her father, and buried alive by her half-brother… and he or she is in a position to do all this alone, without the assistance of anyone — man or woman.
In accordance with Amnesty International, “in america alone 700,000 women are raped annually.” It also cites the next examples for violence towards women:
- In Bangladesh, 50% of all murders are of ladies by their partners
- In Britain, there may be a call for help from victims of domestic violence every minute
- In accordance with the World Bank, at the very least one in five women and girls has been beaten or sexually abused at some stage in the life.
Stieg Larsson was progressive enough to create a heroine that each one women could look as much as and learn from — especially since his three books are all framed around the topic of female strength, female warriors, and the incontrovertible fact that the world openly castigates and attempts to victimize them. Listed here are a couple of suggestions with which to follow Lisbeth Salander’s variety of self-defense — sans the photographic memory and hacking skills that Larsson endowed her with:
Mace or Pepper Spray: Lisbeth carries a bag stuffed with interesting objects, and one among them is Mace — which might temporarily blind your attacker for as much as 60 minutes –rendering him powerless and providing you with enough time to get away. Women’s Law is an important site for girls that informs you on the difference between Mace and pepper spray in addition to your rights if you find yourself being targeted.
Taser Gun: Because she’s so small, Lisbeth must first subdue her “victims,” and I place this word inside quotation marks because they usually are not really victims — they’re often gangsters, rapists, and murderers –although they do cry once they find themselves at her mercy. When aimed toward someone, an electrical current disrupts control of his muscles, rendering him yet again — powerless. This permits our heroine to tie them up in very creative and resourceful ways in order that she will interrogate or punish them. Not a nasty little weapon to put in our bags — just in case.
Boxing: Lisbeth doesn’t only use weapons to render her attackers immobile long enough to get away from them — she has also acquired boxing skills, which is revealed to us within the second book The Girl Who Played with Fire. Of her own volition, she walks right into a boxing club stuffed with guys and stubbornly insists that she be taught to fight the boys — and he or she does. She takes their punches, falls on her face, and gets right back up to fight some more. She is just not afraid to get hurt, especially while she is learning necessary self-defense tactics that she will use to save lots of her life and protect herself against greater, stronger men.
Trust No One: There are only a few those that Lisbeth trusts. She trusts her girlfriend/lover to whom she entrusts her apartment; Mikael Blomkvist, the journalist who rallies in her defense through his writing; and ally hackers whom she knows only by name. With great rigidity, she refuses to trust cops, lawyers, or Doctors — for they’ve all proven themselves to be hypocritical and shamelessly vile — barring a couple of exceptions who exit of their strategy to prove themselves to her through their actions. Truth be told, we must always trust sparingly — not everyone has good intentions.
Protect Your Secrets: Because she trusts nobody, Lisbeth is a woman of few words — and her secrets — well, they belong only to her. She is a dark, quiet, thoughtful, and suspicious person — and these qualities serve her well. The one time her secrets come out, it’s to nail shut the coffin on the lads who took advantage of and abused her. Secrets are called secrets because they shouldn’t see the sunshine of day — and since we trust too easily, we allow them to spill from the dark chasms of our lives — our inner yearnings to be understood and seen and recognized by others — but they fare higher once they too are nailed shut contained in the coffin of our minds.
Poker Face and Outer Shell: Lisbeth hides her real self behind a poker face and an outer shell. Her face, pierced and painted — her body covered with a dragon tattoo — her flesh concealed beneath dark grunge clothing — are all combined to attract a portrait of self-control and detachment. She loves, she feels, she hates and hurts, but nobody would understand it. She hides every little thing that she is, believes, and knows beneath an exaggerated and socially unacceptable caricature of a persona that almost all people wouldn’t feel comfortable approaching. Her garb and her outward appearance make her unapproachable, and thus, protect her from intentional attacks which might be normally targeted towards women. Her face — stone cold and unyielding to smiles and wiles — offer much more protection from emotional and psychological assaults. She is well-guarded, in and out, and only the necessary people in her life — few and much in between — see the true her. It is a little bit of an extreme, but those that have poker faces are often not taken advantage of. For those who wear your heart in your sleeve and your feelings throughout your face — people are likely to know learn how to get to you and at you.