The+Femme+Fatale

=__The Femme Fatale __ =

She holds a lit cigarette between her blood red lips, a cloud of smoke shrouds a soft face as she casually puffs away. Her eyes meet yours, they scan over you, simultaneously leaving a boil in your blood and a chill in your spine. A vague smile crosses her lips, and she sways across the room to sit beside you. She whispers softly in your ear. And then she kills you.

This woman is the infamous femme fatale, a name derived from the French, meaning "deadly woman". The femme fatale can often be identified by a cigarette dangling from her mouth, tight fitting dark clothing, a stunning physical form, a seductive voice, and a trail of ill-fated men following close behind. The femme fatale archetype is never afraid to use her body to seduce men and then use them to accomplish whatever dark agenda she may possess. The typical femme fatale will seek out a man whom they can win over using her womanly ways, this man will often have something of use to the femme fatale; be it information, money, power, etc., in addition to the pleasure the femme fatale characteristically receives from the very act of seducing her victims.

After obtaining, or perhaps even in order to obtain, what she desires from her seduced "host", it is often that the femme fatale will help them "move on to greener fields". Silent and stealthy weapons, such as knives or poison are often the femme's weapon of choice. Though the femme fatale does not always kill her victim lover, usually he gets the raw deal of the bargain, to say the least, as he usually has some aspect of his formerly well put-together life torn apart by the deadly woman's interference in his life. [|(https://www.amazines.com/Vamp_(woman)_related.html)]



Though it was an age before cigarettes and tight black clothing, we can still identify Delilah, from the Old Testament, as a femme fatale fairly quickly. Delilah is a familiar character from Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic mythologies best known for catalyzing the downfall of Samson. Her story has been told for thousands of years to serve as a warning for the millions of powerful, though gullible and lonely, men throughout history.

The story begins with Samson, who was given incredibly large muscles the easy way, not by working our at the the gym, but by God himself. God told Samson "I want you to crush the enemies of Israel with your pecs"(I may be paraphrasing), and so he did. Samson tore countless enemies to shreds with his bare hands, all with his beautiful dreadlocks flowing in the cool breeze.

The enemies of Israel were quite upset. They knew of no way to destroy Samson, so they turned to a young, beautiful fox of a lady named Delilah to discover the source of Samson's weakness. Having observed Samson to indeed be a man, they knew that a hot bod and a sharp mind like Delilah had could do the trick. Delilah batted her eyes and wore skimpy clothing, all the while asking Samson again and again for his secret. Eventually he could just no longer resist, he cracked and told her it was his gorgeous locks. That night, Delilah chopped off his hair of power, leaving him vulnerable to his enemies' attacks, leading to his eventual demise. Delilah was then free to spend her reward money on whatever she wished. [|(http://www.friendshipbaptistchurch.com/cmay.html)]

Another group of femmes fatales was the dreaded Sirens of the sea. The legend of Sirens originated in the stories of Greek mythology, particularly Homer's Odyssey, though their story has made it's way into Roman mythology, as well as others, and evolved through these different takes on the myth. Traditionally, the Sirens possess a song so beautiful, no man can resist their sound. Their voices are more beautiful than that of Clay Aiken, and hence the Sirens lay waiting on islands and rocky alcoves all day singing and splashing at waiting for their next boy-toy to row on by and be drawn in by their beauty and their sound. Depending on the myth, the doomed sailors will then, unable to control themselves, pummel into the shallow shores, to drown and be swallowed by the wrath of Poseidon, or even worse, the sirens will entrance them so that they could either a) be prepared as a five course a-la sailor dinner venue, or b) be driven into senseless madness and deafness as they become overwhelmed by their song.

Originally, Sirens existed primarily as half-bird half-woman creatures. These creatures relied more on the beauty of their song than on the beauty physically and overall sexuality. However, as the myth was translated into different cultures and subsequently different artistic interpretations, thus sirens became versatile in their form as a whole but always maintained the same idea. They may have been have female, half bird, half woman, half mermaid, etc, yet the conclusion of almost every encounter is understandable, seeing as few sailors find anything particularly alluring about bird bodies. However, as myths evolved and expanded, sirens took many different physical forms, depicted in many samples of art, this includes all variations, yet the story undoubtedly ends the same, a sailor, homesick and longing for the comforts of home and his female counterpart, being drowned because he succumb to his desires. [| (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546538/Siren)]



Poison Ivy is an especially dangerous super-villianess, and of course femme fatale, from the Batman comics/movies/whatever. In the movie Batman and Robin, she originated as a scientist named Dr. Pamela Isley, who was happily performing experiments on various plant toxins. One day in the lab, poor Dr. Isley tragically tumbled into an enormous vat of plant poison. Of course, this being a superhero movie, she does not die an excruciating death, instead she gains awesome plant powers, particularly the ability to control various mind-controlling pheromones, and an especially poisonous touch.

This transformation gives birth to the newest deadly woman in town, known now as Poison Ivy. Ivy takes advantage of her newly given powers, which add the "fatale" (poison death kisses, mind-control plant dust) to her already in place "femme" (skin tight green clothes, sexy Uma Thurman voice). This combination proves troublesome to the Caped Crusader and his boy companion, who find it difficult to resist her alluring ways, on top of already having Mr. Freeze (a.k.a. Mr. Bad Pun) on their hands. While in the movie she was defeated eventually, the wreaks much more havoc throughout the comics, delivering her famed kiss of death to scores of unknowing victims.[|(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118688/plotsummary)]



Catherine Tramell isn't quite the same as Poison Ivy in her "villianess" ways. She is more of a realistic character using both her physical attributes and intelligence to confuse, baffle, and seduce men into becoming the pawns for her master plan. She is sexual in every sense of the word, but it is what she says, and what she doesn't say, how she reacts, connives, and plans that makes her most dangerous, that combined with the fact that no man would be able to thwart her plan when she's showing that much skin, or when she's being that suggestive. It's the classic hit them on the right when they're looking at the legs, i mean the left. In the movie Basic Instinct, she plays a novelist who's ex-current-quasi-lover (a character commonly seen with the femme fatale) is murdered in the exact style as the character in her recent book was, tied up to a bed post by a white scarf with an ice pick to the jugular. She proclaims innocence, and proceeds to seduce, and bewilder the main detective (played by Micheal Douglas) on the case. She aggressively flirts, and tempts, then recoils and hides away. She uses her current lesbian lover, Roxy as a force to destroy the detective in jealously, leading all the people around her into a bitter, raging fit of obsession over her, which leads almost everyone to their death, and overall demise.




 * The Psychology of the Femme Fatale**

The myths consisting of the femme fatale archetype, like in most stories and myths of old, were repeatedly told with the purpose of building a strong moral foundation in society. This archetype was created in myth to warn young men of the dangers of seduction, which in truth, is not a positive light to put women in. Many people in those times believed that the only way a woman could gain power was by stripping it from a man, so woman were made out to be the "deadly"ones that mean had to watch out for. Did the men listen? Of course not. Nothing can help a man resist the power of the of the femme, no matter how deadly she may be.

In modern entertainment, we of course have abandoned all original purposes of moral building and lesson learning. Instead, we pursue what entertains us most, and so the femme fatale archetype still thrives, more prominent than ever before.The femme fatale appeals to our greatest obsessions in life, sex and death. It only makes sense that these two things would converge into one single archetype, that which appeals to mind in terms of sex appeal, as well as appealing to our primal fears of death, which somehow we crave in entertainment, along with the entertaining action and mystery that inevitably pervades it all.

__**A Woman's Point Of View**__ To women, the femme fatale may represent more of a power figure. She expresses what almost every woman does on a regular basis in a more dramatic scale. Women, in their own way, use what they have at their advantage to achieve what they want. It could be flirting with the police officer to get out of a speed ticket, or maybe wearing the dress thats a little tighter to the dinner party to get the attention of someone in particular. Also, any man who has been in a relationship with a woman can say she's used her wits and certain way of phrasing things to "get what she wanted". This intelligence and sexuality is exemplified by the femme fatale. It lets women identify, envy, and become empowered by what she represents. She is a threat, a force not to be reckoned with. A myth once created by men to show the demons of lust and women can now be contrived as a power symbol. As a woman, if you can confidently say you've never tried the femme fatale tactics, can you confidently say you don't want too.. even a little bit... deep down in the corner of your brain that shrieks, hey if men have a advantage with strength, why can't my particular strengths be used to my advantage?

__**Our Femme Fatale Sources**__ [|https://www.amazines.com/Vamp_(woman)_related.html] http://www.friendshipbaptistchurch.com/cmay.html http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546538/Siren http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118688/plotsummary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_fatale http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/film_noir/index.html http://www.history.ca/content/ContentDetail.aspx?ContentId=73