To which femme fatale do you fall prey?
The Femme Fatale! A categorization of female traits collected throughout history with the intention of villianizing women through their own sexual and intellectual freedom.
Oh, the horror of a woman in touch with her full potential.
Pulling from Vogue in Fin-de-Siècle America, Yoko Minowa, Lorna Stevens, and Pauline Maclaran place the Femme Fatale in four categories: Diana, Venus, Amazon, and Sappho. Using art from Vogue to illustrate masculine traits in each character, women are placed on a scale from sexual to pecuniary, and inner focused to outer focused.
It’s hard not to point out the hypocrisy of looking down upon women who are made the villain by adopting “masculine” behaviors, while still embodying everything traditionally beautiful. God forbid a woman have it all.
“The end justifies the means.”
Amazon
Sappho
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Amazon is outer focused and sexual.
She’s the ultimate conqueror. Recognized as an equestrian, she has a lot of experience controlling large animals…Which means you’ll be no problem! She’s all brawn and no brain, making her level of conquest subversively masculine. Naturally. Between her controlling personality and need to dominate, everyone should watch out.
(but pisces men most of all. You won’t recover from this one.)
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The Self-Reliant
Sappho is Inner-Focused and Pecuniary.
The world’s most famous lesbian, she’ll steal the hearts and minds of any who comes near her. She’s put together and professional. Her intellect is unmatched. She can argue her way in or out of anything. Her poems bring men to tears and ladies to ecstasy. Intellectually stimulating while stimulating in…other ways, she’s the whole devastating package. Men, watch your girls. Girls, it’s over. Between a run in with Sappho and your crushing mommy issues, I would just give up now.
Venus
Diana
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Venus is Inner Focused and Sexual.
She’s easily blinded by passion and constantly overcome with sexual desire. You crave her and she craves you. She’s the ultimate vice, the starter of wars, and your most pleasurable nightmare. Pack an energy drink and an extra pair of socks. You never know where this whirlwind romance is going to take you. Though, don’t be surprised if you end up on the curb by dawn! What did you think? One person can only be so exciting…
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Diana is outerfocused and pecuniary.
She’s all about the money, baby! She doesn’t care about sex or affection, she’s here to swindle you out of everything you have. The ultimate con woman, she’s cold and calculated. She wants it all, and she’s gonna get it. Polish those platinum cards gentlemen! She’s not sticking around for your personality.
Based on the archetypes discussed in~The Femme Fatale in Vogue: Femininity Ideologies in Fin-de-Siècle America~ written by Yuko Minowa, Pauline MacClaren, and Lorna Stevens.
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