Femme Fatale

Hi, my name is Phoebe Cates and I am in U. G. S.

Three or three modernity and the artery and candy with dr Archie.

And this is my final semester video presentation and it is titled

first off, what is fine fettle.

The french phrase fem fatal means fatal woman

directly translated and it describes how dangerous women can

be when they use their talents and seduction to get what they want or commit crimes.

So this literary trope is often portrayed through art

and literature as we have mentioned before in class.

So the first example that I have here is the apparition by Gustave Moreau.

The painting itself speaks volumes on this phrase um Salama standing there

almost nude in beautiful garments pointing to her prize and her prize is the head

of the man considered to be the holiest man after jesus christ john the baptist,

he was a very powerful person at that time.

Our second example is dracula by Bram stoker.

Um In this famous novel,

the rebellious woman and the stereotypical women are both portrayed to

the characters that we know and love lucy and Mina.

Mina is the cookie cutter victorian women. While lucy is the counter equal of Mina,

she is portrayed as a hyper sexual and unconventional woman.

She is in touch with her sexuality and she does not try to hide it.

So my third example is Medusa by franz von stuck.

We have analyzed multiple versions of this painting but I liked this one the

most because I thought it was the most chilling when you look at it.

Um but Medusa's head um could be compared to resemble john,

the baptist and the apparition.

Um the story of Medusa falls into the need for feminism in the world a misogyny.

So Medusa's story is

in a summarized version is essentially the

empowerment of women in greek mythology,

even though it's seen as a type of punishment towards women.

So Medusa was a commoner that was raped by Poseidon.

Um and Athena came to learn of this because she was a part of her

sort of like covenant where

abstinence was just something that they really valued.

And so she came to learn of this and she cursed Medusa with the

ability to turn men into stone if she looked directly into their eyes.

And this legend has always been seen as a curse.

You know, Medusa has always been seen as this disgusting ugly creature.

And I think that instead of treating her like some type of villain,

I think that we should treat her like a token of women's empowerment especially,

you know, and me too movements and things like that because

you know, if we turn it onto its head,

the gift or the ability that she was given to turn men

into stone was really a blessing because if she couldn't do that,

then she wouldn't be able to protect herself from men

and you know,

be able to protect yourself from that many people.

So

my main thesis for this project was

the creation of the femme fatal or new woman

in various art forms is the manifestation of the

male anxiety of women gain equality and is often

used to put down the idea of rebellious women.

So, just for historical context,

the feminist wave begins in the 1850s emphasizing legal rights and equal pay.

Um the women's suffrage movement begins in about 1890s to

1920s and it shifts to the women's suffrage movement.

So, first starting with my connection to dracula the male anxiety,

something that began during the first feminist movement,

and it continues to this day,

um men become scared of the power that

women slowly developed as they gain equal rights.

This was very prominent in dracula with lucy

because she is the definition of the new woman

undead. Lucy is described as a wanton of creature of ravenous sexual appetite and

in the demonic ST, Lucia's stands as a dangerous threat to men right there.

You know, 10uous self control

and therefore she must be destroyed.

That that's exactly what stoker does with lucy because

lucy's death returns her to more harmless state,

fixing a look of purity on her face being quoted that assures men

that the world and its women are exactly as they should be.

So,

the entire novel is put through the male gaze

and slightly strays away from it with lucy's death.

So stoker choosing to kill lucy in this novel speaks

volumes because he's putting down this newfound confidence and power.

Women have. Additionally,

since Lucy's outward appearance is the embodiment of the male gaze.

You know, he's still paying lucy as an incompetent, a rebellious victorian woman.

She is, you know, curvy, she's beautiful, she's everything that they would want,

right and they speak and they do say that in the novel.

But

the reason that he chooses to kill lucy and not Mina is to entirely

put down the idea of women having

this

sudden power over men.

And he had to do that. And that was a very prominent thing, especially

during the um

1890s, the late 1890s to the 1900s

and for Salone in the apparition,

Sloan is painted him in a very seductive dance for her father.

You know, the king in order to receive john the baptist's head for her mother.

So as we know,

john had been spreading very nasty rumors and

saying negative things about the queen and salam

took power into her own hands and praised

her father and he offered anything in exchange.

So hence why she asked for jOHn severed head on behalf of her mother

revenge. So she used her oppression as a power. She was being objectified.

She was being used as an object, but she used that ability

two

not only do something right for her mom,

but to prove that women can have this power even though they are being oppressed.

We have, they have the ability to use it

and that's exactly where all of this, you know, male anxiety stems from.

So,

You know,

this idea of a new woman took quite the

acceleration during the end of the 19th century.

And that's, you know, everything I've talked about so far. And

while doing the research for this project, it really brings up the idea, you know,

how are we, like, how has this changed? Has it changed? You know,

we still fight every day

um in this political climate, social climate, you know,

for the right of our own bodies, equal pay, equal opportunity, etcetera.

But the idea of women fighting for equality is not something new, as, you know,

we've seen in the past now, it's expressed in literature, it's, you know,

look back as an image of women's, you know,

um,

new rights. Right?

So, doing all this analysis brings up the question,

have we finally gained equality?

Has this idea of a new woman become the contemporary standards?

Well,

my personally, I think we have not, nothing has changed.

Um the idea that men are threatened by the

power that women are gaining has not subsided.

We still see tropes like this today in art and film, in music and literature.

You know, we have the masculine female heroine,

we have the female protagonist that never gets married

and the woman that becomes a millionaire without any man's help.

And, you know, a lot of these things are glamorized,

it's romanticized and it's seen as something unattainable,

even though it's something that we're trying to work towards every day.

But I do think that these characters and

personas that have been created to oppress women,

they hold less power now than they did back then.

So, you know this art, this literature like Bram stoker, he made this,

he wrote this in order to put these people down these women down.

And now of course these trips and these characters still exist,

but they hold less power.

We as a society has acknowledged that there we are all human

and that no one can make us feel inferior without our consent.

And therefore we are no longer able to be defined by society.

And it's something that,

you know, we all talk about an art and Philip and especially in class.

How does our society,

how does our modern view of these things affect how we look back at art and history?

And I think

now especially with this topic of them fatal that

it is it does still exist and we are still battling all these things.

But I think it doesn't matter anymore because we have paved our way and

that simply reading all of this literature and all this past work.

It's just a way for us to reflect and be able

to realize how differently we think about these things now.

Um I hope that

you have enjoyed my presentation and here are my sources.

I will also be attaching a document towards the end with

all the links and everything, So thank you for watching.

Femme Fatale

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