Violent Women are not "Normal"

As we watched the videos in class yesterday, I was thinking about a lot of ways in which men over-power women. I was also thinking about violent females in the media and how they are portrayed. Of course there are not that many movies in which females are violent (compared to male violence), but the one I thought of was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This movie is based on a novel, but was made in Sweden. An American version will come out at the end of this year.
One thing I want to mention is that the female lead, Lisbeth Salander, was abused by males in this film. One of the first scenes in the film is her walking past a group of guy’s who push her and punch her. She is a small woman, and this group of guys just decides to call her a bitch and beat her up. She also gets raped by her legal guardian in order for her to receive the money that belongs to her. There is a horrible scene in which she it brutally beaten. This is another example in which the male is violent.
Lisbeth, too, is violent in the film. She never beats up random males like in the first example. She does, however, beat up her legal guardian. She sexually molests him, which is another thing we talked about in class. This was not supposed to be a funny scene. It was a revenge scene, in which it was “ok” for her to do this because of what she suffered. She also marked him with a tattoo that said, “I am a sadist pig and a rapist”. Although, she is violent, this is still not normal. Lisbeth is not a “normal” woman. She is always wearing dark clothes and has piercings and tattoos (which is another media issue). She also came from a very dark past. She is portrayed as a “hurt” person. She is this violent for a reason, not just because it is in her nature.