The Femme Fatale By Lynn Bracken And Dinah Brand

Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer is written by Katie Alender. The book starts out by telling about a person being murdered in Paris. There wasn’t much detail about the murder, except that the person was beheaded. At that part of the book, the point of view was from the person who was being murdered, so obviously once they died the point of view changed. The next narrator was Colette Iselin.

Breast cancer can be a very scary experience, not just for the patient, but also for the patient’s family. While patients go through the process of being diagnosed with breast cancer and the treatment that goes with it there are many highs and lows. The themes of uncertainty, family, and isolation can be seen throughout Audre Lorde’s journal, and even though the poems are small you can still see the same themes throughout most of them.

Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.

Ann Lauinger, a literature professor at Sarah Lawrence College and winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, in her narrative-like poem, “Marvell Noir”, published in 2005, describes a tale about a man interacting romantically with a woman who is serving time in prison. This man with a tough-like persona speaks diligently with a loving passion for this woman until his demeanor turns dark and reminds her about the past crime she has committed and how he must move on because he is not suited to life in jail unlike her, ultimately leading to their fallen and broken relationship. Lauinger’s purpose is revealing a prevalent theme in poetry, carpe diem, which translates to relishing and seizing opportunities in the day and simply making the most

In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.

A shiny, crisp red fruit hangs enticingly off a lush verdant branch; a sly, seductive serpent and a woman in the nude converse under the sacred tree, and then Eve tentatively reaches up and plucks the juicy crimson fruit, a look of panic only reflected on her face once she realizes the gravity of her decision. She picks the forbidden fruit and her ignorance is ripped away from her like a newspaper on a windy day, and this single act started a trend of succumbing to temptations throughout human history. Even in the novels The Hours and The Awakening, the characters are tempted by someone else or a different idea; however, some of these characters exhibit strong self control and avoid their demise. The fine line between success and failure when it comes to avoiding temptation is most obviously demonstrated by Edna Pontellier and Laura Brown, and these two women showcase the destructive power of seduction and the strength of will it takes to deny the enticement. The allure of the unknown is not exclusive to the female sex either, many men in the novel also suffer from it, namely Robert Lebrun. The secret snare of temptation is interwoven throughout the stories, and the sliver of thread can be glimpsed between the inky words.

The Revolution released the potential for America to become very democratic; allowing space for political and social struggles to spread ideas of freedom and challenge the old way of doing things. Ideas of liberty invigorated attacks on both British and domestic American foundations and so did the beliefs of equality in the Declaration of Independence, which caused many in society who were seen as the substandard bunch such as women, slaves and free blacks to question the sanction of their superiors.

In Webs of Violence: The Camp Grant Indian Massacre, Nation, and Genocidal Alliances by Nicole Guidotti indepthly analyzes the endless possibilities that surround such a brutal tragedy and critically questions our basis of understanding that is derived from mass produced narratives. The Camp Grant Massacre exemplifies the paradigm of a mass produced historical narrative that erases, silences, and conceals various aspects of what took place at the time. Guidotti makes this notion of incomplete storytelling evident numerous times throughout the chapter. Guidotti references countless historians, socialists, and individuals from countless fields, in order to not only strengthen her arguments, but to also provide a more detailed comprehension in

Bailey, Beth. Sex in the Heartland. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

When reading From Women in Combat to Top Brass by Jena McGregor I learned what kind of hard ships women will go through when the ban was lifted. This is an important part of the essay because it tells how women will have to give men orders or fight with men on the front lines.

Red Harvest’s femme fatale, Dinah Brand, is not the epitome of seduction and yet, she is able to manipulate the men around her to her own needs. Described in harsh detail, she is not the seductress that one would expect; ‘Her coarse hair – brown – needed trimming and was parted crookedly. One side of her upper lip had been rouged higher than the other. Her dress was a particularly unbecoming wine color’ . Presented as badly dressed and disarrayed woman who has little sexual appeal. Yet, she can have her ‘pick of Poisonville’s men’ . Dinah Brand gains her power through her ability to manipulate those around her as she desires. It is Dinah Brand who ‘seems to have had everyone on her string at one time or another’ and use them to her own greedy

In the article “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin offers several examples of women overpowering men. The inequality between men and women has become a critical issue in today’s society. According to Rosin, women are slowly surging ahead in the workforce and family life while men are left behind struggling to meet expectations. Rosin argues that this role reversal is taking place because women are simply better suited for postindustrial society.

The femme fatale was identified as ‘vicious women’ by critics and yet, the women in Red Harvest and L.A Confidential show no attributes that do not first appear in the male characters. The strong female characters challenge the presentation of traditional masculinity and femininity, creating a crossover between the two which creates this ‘vicious women’ that challenges the masculine position of power. Dinah Brand is open about her sins; especially her greed. Financial freedom, means independence. Whereas men had existed in the work field, and the women in the domestic, the femme fatale defies this. Therefore, she becomes the ‘vicious women’ threatening the man’s position as the financial provider in the relationship. However, I would argue

Whilst it would seem at face value that the portrayal of a strong female heroine is empowering for all women in a society of unequal gendered stereotypes, the explanations as to why the female heroine is so strong, seems only to be justified through motivation instead of ‘natural’ strength. To many theorists this motivation can only be explained through a woman’s maternal instincts, or a female link to the power and dominance projected by men which is portrayed through a female’s identification with herself and the ‘lack’, leading to a sense of heightened power through the phallic. In this essay I will be analysing whether a heroine is personally empowered through self-determination as a strong women, or instead motivated by external situations such as maternal instincts, or problems associated with gender differences.