Femme fatale

:For the song by The Velvet Underground see Femme Fatale (Song).

Related Topics:
The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale (Song)

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:For the 2002 film directed by Brian De Palma see Femme Fatale (2002 film).

Related Topics:
2002 - Brian De Palma - Femme Fatale (2002 film)

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:When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm even better. — Mae West

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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.

Related Topics:
Stock character - Villain - Woman - Sexuality - Hero - French

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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 Judeo-Christian 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.

Related Topics:
Sumer - Ishtar - Lilith - Eve - Delilah - Salomé - Oscar Wilde - Edvard Munch - Gustav Klimt - Film noir - 1940s - Pop culture - Espionage - Thriller - Adventure - Comic strips - The Spirit - Will Eisner - Terry and the Pirates - Milton Caniff

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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. Only by escaping her embraces could the hero be rescued. On this account, in earlier American slang femmes fatales were often called "vamps", a word that is associated with the fashions of the 1920s. A classic portrayal of a femme fatale is given in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet in the character of Justine.

Related Topics:
Anglo-Saxon - Vampire - American - Slang - Vamp - 1920s

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This stock character is celebrated in the song Femme Fatale by The Velvet Underground. In opera and musical theater, the femme fatale is usually played by a mezzo-soprano, and is sometimes the enemy of the ingenue and/or the damsel in distress

Related Topics:
The Velvet Underground - Opera - Musical theater - Mezzo-soprano - Ingenue - Damsel in distress

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Femme Fatale is also the name of a character from The Powerpuff Girls, voiced by Grey Delisle. She is a misandric bank robber and thief that cons the Girls into being sexist against males. She, at the end of the episode "Equal Fights" (also her premiere episode) is promptly beaten and taken to jail after the Girls tell her who the suffragist Susan B. Anthony was. It's never stated why Femme hates men; one theory is that she was badly mistreated by her boyfriend/husband, and it caused her great emotional discomfort.

Related Topics:
Femme Fatale - The Powerpuff Girls - Grey Delisle - Misandric

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