Nov 22 2008
Rethinking the Femme Fatale
In movies and literature casual mention is made of the femme fatale, but have you every thought about what this means? The femme fatale is a dangerous woman. Dangerous, implicitly but specifically, to a man (the ‘hero’). She is seen as sexually attractive, but she is aloof and does not allow the man to reliably establish or control a relationship. Indeed, if a relationship occurs she normal initiates it–she is thus labelled a ’seductress’. And by entering this relationship the man puts himself in a dangerous situation. Whether or not the dangerous is directly a result of the woman’s intent does not seem to factor into whether she attracts this label.
Across history strong-minded men have been sexually magnetic, have seduced women, and in doing so have endangered them–at the very least by ruining reputations, but also potentially spreading disease, causing unwanted pregnancy, or drawing the attention of a villain to the woman and putting her life directly at risk–sometimes to directly exploit her by learning her secrets. They have, for the most part been call rakes and womanisers, normally with more admiration than horror. These men are essentially thinking of themselves, of the women they want, of their own goals and desires, and of using women to further these goals and desires. They are putting themselves and/or their cause first. In many cases, from Casanova to James Bond, these characters are heroes.
The femme fatale is simply a female character who puts her own needs and goals first. She may exploit the hero or she may be indifferent to his needs, in some cases characters called femme fatalesaren’t trying to harm the hero at all they just fail to sacrifice themselves to protect him. The femme fatale is, in essence, a virile action hero with a vagina.
With time powerful horror/villain figures have cross the line to become potential hero material. Stories have been written or filmed with heroes who are vampires, thieves, assassins, or even serial murderers. With time, perhaps, the same will occur with the same for the femme fatale. The women who is who pursues her own agenda, and who is sexual–not to be gratuitously manipulative, or to be a sex object, or due to some deviant nymphomania–but simply because she is if she wants to have sex, she has sex–and if she sex will further a goal, she will use it.
It is time we saw more female characters who act as a hero, or as a villain, but always as herself and for herself–as the protagonist not the ‘love interest’ who is judge only in accordance with her suitability for that role for the hero’s self-interested point of view. Goodbye femme fatale; enter pussy puissant. The action hero who is a woman, without any conflict between the two roles. The female hero (’heroine’ becoming as obsolete as ‘actress’) who is sans bikini, bitch-personna, or drag-king roleplay. She may have a love interest or a sidekick, but will never be one. Her time has come, but can you guess which characters I think fit the bill?
p.s. bonus points for identifying the character below.
Very good…
One of my favourite femme fatales too! Servalan and Avon were made for each other!
The Servalan/Avon scenes later in the series were IMHO the best bits in the whole show :)
A Pussy Puissant? Wonder Woman. I’ve been reading some of comics as research for some work I’m doing and she really seems like the kind of person who takes the lead and deserves more respect then she recieves by the public.
I used to watch a show called The Tribe. To be honest I think one character that could be described as a having transition from Femme Fatale to Pussy Puissant is Ebony. She hovers the line of good and bad, doing what she needs to do (including having sex) in order to get ahead, but when she plays the hero she is more of strong female character then a character who needs to get rid of her sex in order to be strong.