General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Empowering or exploitive to women? [View all]Are_grits_groceries
(17,139 posts)then you felt a fraction of what a victim feels. People don't understand that rape isn't about sex. It's about power and the forcible use of sex to use that power over the victims. Unfortunately, that power can keep a hold for years.
Is what happened farfetched? No. Rape survivors have gone through much worse at times. Some are held for hours and raped repeatedly. People who work with survivors or are involved in catching and prosecuting sex crimes can tell stories that would curl your hair at the very least.
These books use one of the more gruesome depiction of rape. When portrayed in other books, it is usually a much more cleaned up scene. If it bothered you, good! It should, but not because he dared to make it graphic. He dared to make it realistic and representative of some rapes.
This society ignores or refuses to understand anything to do with sex including rape and abuse. People don't want to talk about it or deal with it. Because of that, the crimes are never fully understood and many falsehoods take hold.
Read some transcripts of some trials. Those will make you discomfited and disturbed. They are boiled down to the stark reality. Larsson just put it in a book.
