I chose to use Written on the Body to look at The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo through the lens of queer theory. Throughout Written on the Body, readers call into question the narrator’s gender. There are what society would call contradicting clues, clues that could potentially give the narrator’s gender away—if the narrator identifies with one at all—but said clues are never consistent. This absence of gender also makes for an absence of sexuality. Is the narrator’s relationship with Louise a heterosexual one? A same-sex one? Neither? This is what I would like to attempt to apply to Lizbeth’s sexuality from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Perhaps Winterson did not include the narrator’s gender or sexuality to make a point about the unimportance of them. Not in a sense that gender and sexuality aren’t valuable parts of a person’s identity, but that from an objective point of view, they should not matter. In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, we are made aware of Lizbeth’s fluid—and very active—sexuality towards the beginning of the novel. She has had many lovers, mostly female. However, she also begins a sexual relationship with Blomkvist. The novel does not make Lizbeth’s sexuality something of importance, however the audience seems to have an inherent need to analyze it.
To go even further, both Winterson and Larsson could not only be making a statement about the objective unimportance of gender and sexuality, but also about society’s need for labels. When a person begins to struggle with their sexuality, they often attempt to fit it into one of the boxes society has created for queer persons (These persons are queer, why are we trying to box them again? This goes against the definition of queer.). This is because society has not only taught this person that being queer is not normal, but that this person now must name themselves so the rest of society can judge them based off of that name. We are afraid of the unknown, the anonymous. Perhaps this could formulate into why other characters from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo fear Lizbeth.
I really like your connection to the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”! I also felt Lisbeth’s strength and her being unapologetic for her desires and choices in lovers. We humans have a need to categorize so many things in our world and we develop schemas as the ultimate mental image for a particular “thing”. For example, I have definite mental picture of a guitar when I think of that instrument. How it is constructed, the weight of it on my shoulder strap, the silky feel of the wood, the clear sound of the high strings and warmth of the bass notes. But you’ve stated an important observation I hadn’t thought of… when a person is coming to learn of their own sexual orientation and questions of gender identity, escaping those “boxes” of schemas society wants to attach to a person must be a daunting and frightening event. I admire the courageous and brave souls that challenge the expectations and assumptions of a myopic society. You worded your post beautifully!