Wussification of Female Characters

[Kara_CS]

I haven't read the books personally(not my thing), but I heard the titular character from "the girl with the dragon tattoo" went the same route(friend read the books and was disgusted, warning me away from them). started out fearless and ended up getting cosmetic surgery and becoming more "feminine"(read stereotype girly, long hair, makeup, dresses) to "win the affection" of the male protagonist.

I didn't think I'd like the Millenium series because it starts off painfully slow, but they really are great books and Lisbeth Salander is an amazing character. I don't know what version your friend read, but that's not at all what happened. She does feel rejected by the male protagonist after she sees him with his longtime friend-with-benefits, and then she treats him like dirt or completely ignore him until about halfway through the third book (and by that time, she's completely over him). She does get a boob job after she acquires a ton of money, but it's because she's tired of being flat-chested. She does it for her, and NOT for Mikael. This is supported by the fact that the random people she sleeps with as she spends the next year traveling the world and her on-again-off-again female sex-bunny when she goes back to Sweden get to enjoy them and he doesn't. The reason she wears makeup and more feminine clothes and wigs is because she winds up being Sweden's most wanted and it makes a great disguise when she needs to leave her flat for things like food. Lisbeth NEVER stopped being fearless and kickass. She never tried to win Mikael's affections. As soon as she realized he wasn't the commitment type, she said "fuck it" and moved on. She never even tells him why, all he knows is that she broke all contact and doesn't want anything to do with him. He asks her several times later on, and if I remember right, she never gives him any explanation. It's not even until the very end of the last book that she makes any attempt to speak to him in person again instead of via email, and by that point he's with someone else and she's still not romantically interested in him.