Femme Fatale Since the beginning of recorded history we have been held to witness the influence of women and their sexuality on mankind. As sexual creatures, humans desire each other; generally men are more inclined to be seen as the ones who “need” the physical sexual act. This “need” that men have gives women an important power and opportunity over men. By controlling sex women can basically rule the world. This idea tends to scare men because men like to be the ones in control, but at the same time this thought of powerful dominating women is a sexual turn on. These natural curiosities we all have with our bodies, and fantasies we create, led to the eventual naming of this phenomenon as the Femme Fatale, coined by the French. Prior …show more content…
The artists and their works, which I stated before, are Kirchner with his piece Street, Berlin, Beardsley, with his drawing Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, and Munch with his work Vampire. Before we can address how they compare with each other we must first recognize the formal elements in general for each.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s painting Street, Berlin is exactly what the title suggests a street in the city of Berlin. The composition is busy. The general arrangement of the work is crowded figures in the middle ground with very little background and foreground. There are several figures which seem unimportant. The ones of importance seem to be the two women walking, although more focused on one of the women than the other, and the man crouching down in front of the window. The objects that seem to be most important are the ones that are painted more colorful, the woman of focus is the only person wearing color, and the rest are in all black and white attire. Kirchner attempts to create an illusion of three dimensional space by using a one point perspective which draws us into the work like we are looking down the sidewalk with all these people walking toward us, interestingly he does not really attempt to make the figures three dimensional they are pretty much
Color is highly evident in this painting, and helps to draw the viewer’s eye to certain places in the painting. The café is yellow, and adds a boisterous feeling to that section of the piece. The yellow light spills onto the street and walls of the town, creating bright colors and drawing the eye. The sky and town use dark colors to illustrate nighttime, although the bright spots of the stars cause the viewer to look to the sky.
The woman’s role in society had many changes during the era of WWII to the baby boom era. It went from the strong independent woman that can work in a factory to a house wife that takes care of the family to the final slightly dominant, but still dependent female. All of these different feminine mystiques were changed because of society and through indirect propaganda in TV shows and
In Hollywood film women 's roles have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and period settings. These factors contribute to the different representations of women 's roles in the film they are present in. The roles are diverse going from the traditional maternal role to that of manipulative murderer. Women 's roles in movies can be almost equal to the male roles, and the co-stars are not given the majority of the acclaims just because they are male. Society has set certain standards that women are supposed to follow. The most common image of women is that they are very passive and try to avoid conflict in any situation. More and more in society women are breaking down the social barriers that confine them to their specific roles. The films Rear Window and Resident Evil show women in roles that are untraditional for our society. These two movies help to show how women are rebelling against social norms and that they are taking more active and aggressive roles. In film noir’s we can see women represented as the femme fatale, a woman whose mysterious and seductive charms leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. In action movies we see the heroine who is strong both physically and mentally, and has the ability to use weapons. Women seem to be more trapped than men because they are supposed to live up to society’s standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics. These specific guidelines have been set by
The classic femme fatale in forced to resort 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, author of Women's place: The absent family, the women of film noir are "presented as prizes, desirable objects" for the leading men of these films. The femme fatale's unique power is her brazen willingness and ability to express herself in sexual terms. By this the femme fatale threatens the status quo, and the hero, because she controls her own sexuality outside of marriage. She uses sex for pleasure and as a weapon or a tool to control men, not merely in the culturally acceptable capacity of procreation within marriage. Her sexual emancipation commands the gaze of the hero, the audience, and the camera in a way that cannot be erased by her final punishment. Attempts to neutralise the power and blatant sexuality of the femme fatale by destroying her at the end are usually unsuccessful, because her power extends beyond death. Noir films immediately convey the intense sexual presence of the femme fatale by introducing her as a fully established object of the hero's obsession. Since the camera often represents the hero's subjective memory, revealed
The Feminine Mystique is a first person narrative about the struggles of feminism. It highlights the problems of women in the 1950s to the 1960s and challenges gender roles. The book includes several first person interviews and discusses the Second Wave of feminism. It introduces the idea of the sexulization of women being used in consumerism and the lack of sexual education in school during the time. The Feminine Mystique is a useful resource because it is considered the groundbreaking book about feminism and lists issues that women have had to deal with from the 1960s until now. The book could be used to argue the struggles that women have faced and continue to face.
Lisa Scottoline in the novel, Lady Killer, skillfully illustrates the reality between the law and relationships. Scottoline supports her demonstration by telling the story between Mary DiNunzio, her work, and friendships. Scottoline’s purpose is to capture the reader with realistic events that are normally not talked about in order to grasp the interest of her readers, and reveal the reality of criminal justice. Scottoline writes in a conversational tone for her young readers without previous knowledge about criminals nor law.
In today’s world, men and women are perceived equally by the society. In the past, authority and control define men while women are given the characteristic of helplessness. Men are able to get hold of high positions while women usually are subservient to them. In movies, we would usually see women portray roles that are degrading due to the stereotypical notions they associate with this gender group. Moulin Rouge, a movie set during the 1900s narrates the story of a courtesan woman, Satine, as she undergoes hardships to earn money, experiences love but unfortunately, due to her irrational choices, faces tragic consequences at the end. Satine is a symbol of how women are being treated by the society during the era before post-feminism,
Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are
We have all heard of strange and gory stories that are supposedly true, experienced by a friend of a friend. Whether true or not these so called "urban legends" tend to circulate throughout society thriving on each individual's fears and curiosity. What most people don't realize is, within these tales lies the attitudes and values of a community. These tales do not survive throughout the years solely on the basis of their entertainment level, but due to the fact that they reflect society's fears and anxieties. In dissecting these tales one can indefinitely find the social fallacy against females that has existed for decades, as well as the fears women have against men. However, more importantly, the values that society hold are
Throughout history, violent women and women with violent intent have starkly emerged from many countries, carving their niches in myths and legends. The creation of these stories suggests that men began to notice lethality in feminine charm centuries back.
Street Berlin is an oil on canvas painting, painted by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1913, just before World War I occurred. Kirchner created this painting during a period of loneliness and insecurity shortly after the Brucke group disbanded in 1913. The painting portrays to well dress women walking down the streets, surrounded by men glancing at them. For Kirchner, the women are a symbol of the modern city, where glamour and danger, and intimacy and alienation coexisted. The clashing colours showcase the excitement and anxiety Street Berlin displays, whilst the tilted horizon destabilises the scene.
The “femme fatale” was a common theme in the 1940’s it is a female lead who uses sensuality and mystery to seduce and manipulate the male character of the film. No American detective novel written in the thirties would be complete without the figure of the "femme fatale," a French term meaning deadly woman. A femme fatale is an irresistibly beautiful woman who uses her sexuality to seduce men and lure them into dangerous situations to serve her own selfish interests. There is a fair few of these in The Big Sleep, but none of them is quite the dynamo that Vivian turns out to be. I also believe that Carmen Sternwood could be considered a femme fatale as well.
Phedre illustrates the attitude of men toward women in the Age of Reason and political Absolutism, in which men represent logic, order, and strength while women represent emotions, weakness, and disorder. Using evidence from the play, discuss how Racine’s Phedre reinforces the stereotype of woman as a destructive force in nature, known as a femme fatale.
Femme fatale. Every culture has a mystical femme fatale that is known for being beautiful, enticing and deadly. A female being that has the ability to entice a man with the intent to destroy his very being. The Mermaids, Nymphs, Undines and Sirens, these beautiful and deadly creatures are known all over the world. The alluring charms of these creatures are legendary and have been known globally for centuries. The femme fatale is known for being able to charm and lure wayward men for safety into an out of element location. These men have been away from the company of women or just wanting the female company. The idea of a beautiful and seductive female looking for carnal pleasure is usually desired when a person is in need of physical and
While the idea of the femme fatale came to a peak in the 1940’s, the femme fatale idea is ageless. Famous actresses such as Lana Turner and Ava Gardner built careers on being a sexy, seductive women, who ultimately spelled disaster for the men they became involved with. They were seen as temptresses and enchantresses who ensnared men into a dangerous web; this stereotype has been perpetuated for ages and accepted by many. In 1677, Jean Racine wrote the play Phaedra. In this play, the character of Phaedra embodies the stereotypical femme fatale.