Representation of women

Femme Fatale

An alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype or stock character of literature and art. Her ability to entrance and hypnotize her male victim was in the earliest stories seen as being literally supernatural, hence the most prosaic femme fatale today is still described as having a power akin to an enchantress, vampire, female monster or demon.

Femme Fatale

The phrase is French for "deadly woman". A femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Typically, she is exceptionally well-endowed with these qualities. In some situations, she uses lying or coercion rather than charm. She may also be (or imply to be) a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape; The Lady from Shanghai (a 1948 film noir) giving one such example.

Mata Hari figure

Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle, a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I.

Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, she captivated her audiences and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet on 13 March, 1905. She became the long-time mistress of the millionaire Lyon industrialist Emile Etienne Guimet, who had founded the Musée. She posed as a Java princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. Some of these pictures were obtained by MacLeod and strengthened his case in keeping custody of their daughter.

Mata Hari By 1905, she began to win fame as an

exotic dancer. It was then that she adopted the stage name Mata Hari. Mata Hari was also a successful courtesan, though she was known more for her sensuality and eroticism rather than for striking classical beauty. She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential ositions in many countries, including the German crown prince, who paid for her luxurious lifestyle. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Prior to World War I, she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian, but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress.

Mata Hari

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. She was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. She was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917, at the age of 41.

Film Noir

"Ladies are hard luck for men of action."-- The Saint in New York

Wars tend to stir the heterosexual libido. After the thirties, where Tarzan and Jane seemed to be the only ones having any fun, the finality and fatality of World War II seemed to get the public and the movies interested in the peculiar carnal desires of men and women when danger loomed -- especially when danger loomed. Thus came the birth of the Femme Fatale. Sexy, confident, sensual, dangerous... everything a man ready to die for his country could ever desire. And desire they did. Suspense and noir films carried femme fatales into the 1950s too, but there is nothing quite like a 1940s femme fatale. It's like somebody discovering for the first time that being naughty can be more fun than being nice.

Film Noir The classic femme fatale resorts to

murder to free herself from an unbearable relationship with a man who would try to possess and control her, as if she were a piece of property or a pet. According to Sylvia Harvey, the women of film noir are "presented as prizes, desirable objects" for the men of these films, and men's treatment of women as mere possessions is a recurring theme in film noir. In a telling scene from an early noir thriller, I Wake Up Screaming (1941), three men sit in a bar lamenting their unsuccessful attempts to seduce the femme fatale, clearly resenting her inexplicable refusal to be possessed. When one man complains that "Women are all alike," another responds simply, "Well, you've got to have them around — they're standard equipment."

Classic Femme Fatale’s

• Mari Fari• Theda Bara – ‘A fool there was’ • Janet Leigh- ‘Psycho’• Lana Turner- ‘The postman

always rings twice’ • Miss Scarlet- ‘Cluedo’• Nikita- ‘Moulin Rouge’• Alida Valli- ‘The Paradine Case’ • Roxie Hart- Chicago