Femme Fatale -- a male fantasy?

[nice90sguy]

Over the last few months I've watched dozens of movies featuring Femme Fatales. I've always had a fatal attraction to them. It may be a basic instinct, wired into me from an early age.

With few exceptions they get their come-uppance -- which pisses me off. Two noteable exceptions are "Red-Headed Woman", from 1932, and, more recently, "The Last Seduction", from 1994.

My own stories usually feature a femme-fatale, and she always gets away with it. No women are punished in the making of my stories, no matter how immorally they act.

I was interested to read that "Red-Headed Woman", along with "Baby Face" from 1933, where Barbabra Stanwick almost gets away with it (at least she doesn't die or lose her ill-gotten wealth), were both inteded for the woman's market. Back then, women wanted to see femme fatales screwing over a lot of guys.

It made me wonder if the allure of the femme fatale is not necessarly a male thing. Or is it?

 

[onehitwanda]

Villanelle may be my favourite femme fatale of all time.

 

[HordHolm]

Over the last few months I've watched dozens of movies featuring Femme Fatales. I've always had a fatal attraction to them. It may be a basic instinct, wired into me from an early age.

With few exceptions they get their come-uppance -- which pisses me off. Two noteable exceptions are "Red-Headed Woman", from 1932, and, more recently, "The Last Seduction", from 1994.

My own stories usually feature a femme-fatale, and she always gets away with it. No women are punished in the making of my stories, no matter how immorally they act.

I was interested to read that "Red-Headed Woman", along with "Baby Face" from 1933, where Barbabra Stanwick almost gets away with it (at least she doesn't die or lose her ill-gotten wealth), were both inteded for the woman's market. Back then, women wanted to see femme fatales screwing over a lot of guys.

It made me wonder if the allure of the femme fatale is not necessarly a male thing. Or is it?

The film adaptation was lousy, but the book, Royal Flash, features one of the ultimate Femme Fatales of real life, Lola Montez. She's only a supporting character but she does, after a fashion, get away with it.

 

[AchtungNight]

I personally like the younger femme fatale types like ScarJo & Florence Pugh in Black Widow or Erika Christensen in Swimfan. It’s not a dying archetype. My Erotic Horror story on Lit features a stripper femme fatale.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It made me wonder if the allure of the femme fatale is not necessarily a male thing. Or is it?

My wife loves those types of characters. Any sort of villain is going to play to his or her strengths. It's not hard to imagine a beautiful woman using her appeal and the ease with which she can manipulate men, to get what she wants. She's strong, confident, and sexy. It's easy to appreciate and admire.

 

[AlinaX]

... and, more recently, "The Last Seduction", from 1994.

One of my favourite films.

 

[Sinstories]

Over the last few months I've watched dozens of movies featuring Femme Fatales. I've always had a fatal attraction to them. It may be a basic instinct, wired into me from an early age.

With few exceptions they get their come-uppance -- which pisses me off. Two noteable exceptions are "Red-Headed Woman", from 1932, and, more recently, "The Last Seduction", from 1994.

My own stories usually feature a femme-fatale, and she always gets away with it. No women are punished in the making of my stories, no matter how immorally they act.

I was interested to read that "Red-Headed Woman", along with "Baby Face" from 1933, where Barbabra Stanwick almost gets away with it (at least she doesn't die or lose her ill-gotten wealth), were both inteded for the woman's market. Back then, women wanted to see femme fatales screwing over a lot of guys.

It made me wonder if the allure of the femme fatale is not necessarly a male thing. Or is it?

Thank you for doing something you didn't know you were doing.

Had a concept for a story I want to write, new idea, something more challenging for me, a real story that weaves in eroticism (in other words a story that could exist without the sex, but belongs here because of the sex, plus I like writing about sex, sorry, not sorry). My struggle was, how to work sex into the story without it being porn like (two people going about their day, boom, they're naked and having sex) and you just gave me the answer....one of the characters would make a wonderful femme-fatale...and that would create the opening for the erotic parts....now the question I need to answer is...does she get away with it or does the frumpy female hero win in the end? Inquiring minds want to know...at least I do.

 

[countdowntolov3]

This is perhaps just me projecting. But at least for me, the Femme Fatale trope does read as male fantasy.

My evidence is another trope, Mary Sue. The archetypical Mary Sue gets the guy(s) and wins the day. But she does not intentionally use her sexually to do it. She is wanted and desired, sure. But this is because she is naturally sexy, not because she tries to be.

I think the nature of Mary Sue is that she is the woman's self insert. If I read a Mary Sue character, and I allow myself to ignore the sickly sweetness of it all, I can fall into imagining myself in her role. On a similar note, a lot has been said about how Bella from Twilight and whats-her-name from 50 Shades or Grey are passive and bland, for easy self insertion.

So I think that's an argument against Femme Fatale as a woman's fantasy. But that doesn't mean she's a man's fantasy, right? For that portion of the argument, I want to invoke the gender swapped Mary Sue, in the form of James Bond. My point about how Mary Sue is sexy, but does not wield it like a weapon? Bond inverts that. The male self insert does wield their sexuality with intention. And so, I submit that the Femme Fatale is a man's idea of a woman's hero, because she is a gender swapped version of the male idealized self insert.

Put another way: When I watched Twilight, I wanted to be Bella. When I watched Salt, Angelina was cool and all, but I didn't feel the same way. Which of those characters are men more interested in?

I'm well aware there's a good chance this says more about my psyche than anything else though...

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Not really my fantasy to get taken advantage of by some selfish woman.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Over the last few months I've watched dozens of movies featuring Femme Fatales. I've always had a fatal attraction to them. It may be a basic instinct, wired into me from an early age.

This got me thinking - are the ladies in Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct actually femme fatales. I mean obviously they both meet the literal definition of 'fatal females' but I always thing of femme fatales as being more noirish - they are women, usually with their own agenda, who trap the hero into dangerous situations that they would have avoided were it not for the femmes using their femminess to override the male's better judgement. They're not usually unhinged to the level of Fatal Attraction (can't remember much about Basic Instinct apart from 'that moment', but the synopsis suggests it might be similar). A femme fatale may point a gun at you, or give you a swift knee where it counts to make their exit, but they're not normally chopping you up into little bits. Or am I wrong?

It made me wonder if the allure of the femme fatale is not necessarly a male thing. Or is it?

I would have thought that the good femme fatale, the one who is street smart, uses her sexuality to get her own way and when her own way is for a basically sympathetic cause, would have some appeal to women. But again, whadda I know?

Definitely a male fantasy though.

 

[SimonDoom]

Definitely a male fantasy figure. The femme fatale almost always exists in a story that is told from a male perspective. She combines eroticism and danger, a combination that dives deep into male psychology and centuries-old social/religious expectations. Eve was the original femme fatale, and every femme fatale since her in one way or another plays a similar role: tempting the male lead irresistibly to stray from his righteous path. The femme fatale makes the act of straying more forgivable, because, after all, where desire is concerned, the man can't really help himself, can he?

If you like these figures, I'd strongly recommend seeing the film Body Heat, with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt.

 

[nice90sguy]

Body Heat, with Kathleen Turner and William Hurt.

Know that movie very well, one of the best neo-noir movies, plot-wise.

Eve was the original femme fatale

True!