Empowerment Through Violence: Feminism and the Rape-Revenge Narrative in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

One of the many problematic facets of the constructions of rape victims in popular as well as news media is the way in which they are consistently denied agency. Passivity is deemed the hallmark of a ‘true victim’ (contrasted with those women who are accused of lying about rape or having ‘asked for it’ with their behavior), and the victim remains in this passivity while a supportive male avenges her. An alternative to this is presented by the rape-revenge narrative, in which the victim reclaims agency and resorts to violence to avenge her own rape, insinuating that brute physical force may be a victim’s only recourse in a rape culture dominated by systemic misogyny. Using as an example Stieg Larsson’s novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I examine the feminist potential of the rape-revenge narrative and its application in the novel.