Femme fatale

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Image:Matahari.jpg A femme fatale is a stock character, a villainous woman who uses the malign power of sexuality in order to ensnare the hapless hero. The phrase is French for "deadly woman". She is typically portrayed as sexually insatiable. Although typically a villain, femme fatales have also been known to be antiheroes in some stories and sometimes even repentant heroines. Generally today, the archtype is seen as a character who constantly crosses the line between good and evil.

1 History
2 Famous femmes fatale
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

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History

She has existed, in one form or another, in folklore and myth in nearly all cultures. Some of the earliest examples include the Sumerian goddess Ishtar and the Biblical characters Lilith, Eve, Delilah and Salomé. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the femme fatale became ubiquitous in Western culture and can be found in the works of Oscar Wilde, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, among others. This is likely to have been a reaction to women's movements and the changing role of women at the time. With the introduction of film noir in the 1940s, the femme fatale began to flourish in pop culture. Examples include espionage thrillers, and in a number of adventure comic strips, such as The Spirit by Will Eisner, or Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, she is often of foreign extraction. She is often portrayed as a sort of sexual vampire; Her dark appetites were thought to be able to leach away the virility and independence of her lovers, leaving them shells of their former selves. On this account, in earlier American slang femmes fatales were often called "vamps", a word that is associated with the fashions of the 1920s. The term "vamp" was short for "vampire", so called because the characters drained the life from their victims, not by drinking blood but from sexual and economic exploitation. A classic portrayal of a femme fatale is given in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet in the character of Justine.

In opera and musical theater, the femme fatale is usually played by a mezzo-soprano, and is sometimes the foil or the enemy of the ingenue and/or the damsel in distress.

Some argue that the figure has a male counterpart. Some examples could be Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, or many of the heroes in Lord Byron's books.

Although often depicted in ancient text as a symbol of corruption, in the more recent times where feminism and the concept of free emotion have thrived, the femme fatale has shown itself in better light in lots of fiction as a symbol of free will for women and unrestrained passion. Indeed, the archtype has quite a debatable meaning to many.

There has been a greater attention to sexist and male-biased points of view in older fiction in recent centuries. Many women state that many of the so-called villianous women in literature are merely seeking more self improvement or satisfaction, which has raised questions about the view of women as subservant and unworthy of free will in the eyes of some men in history. A big point of debate is the subject of Lillith, the first wife of Adam before Eve. In most texts depicting Lilith, many point out that Lilith's only real crime against Adam and god was voicing her own opinion. She is sentenced to Satan and hell, and god creates a new woman for Adam in the form of Eve. Eve, however, is considerably more subservant to Adam than Lilith was, who showed signs of wishing more equal treatment. This text has infuriated many women for centuries, who argue that the passage is extremely male biased. Many people (including those with religious beliefs) question the validity of such a religious statement of subservience, questioning whether or not any god would wish such an unfair fate upon all women. This is a very deep and ongoing debate along the lines of religion's opinion on homosexuality. [1] [2] and it has been suggested by many that religious books are heavily influenced by male values of the time, such as men's believed superiority over women.

Because of this growing awarness to the free will of women however, the Femme Fatale has enjoyed better depiction and opinion. Even Femme Fatales in older texts have been at times looked upon in a different light.

In modern media, the Femme Fatale archtype can actually be seen quite often. Popular examples of this character type are the movies La Femme Nikita, Moulin Rouge to name a few, and a high number of assorted media from video games to comic books. Elektra, a character from the Marvel Comics universe is arguably a femme fatale and is quite a well known character in comic circles, as is Catwoman from the various Batman stories. The stunning Ada Wong from the Resident Evil series of video games is a great example of a modern femme fatale. Morrigan Aensland from the Darkstalkers series definitely falls in this catagory. Miriya Jenius from Macross is arguably a femme fatale. The female Ninja, the Kunoichi depicted in countless media are very well known and legendary for being trained in very femme fatale like methods, using their sexuality as fluidly as their deadly assassination skill.

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Famous femmes fatale

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References

Bram Dijkstra has written two books that discuss the Femme fatale-stereotype at great length:

Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-De-Siecle Culture, ISBN 0195056523
Evil Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Culture, ISBN 0805055495

The Velvet Underground have a song off their album The Velvet Underground and Nico titled "Femme Fatale".

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