The Femme Fatale: Falling Out Of Favor

The femme fataleÐ'--a popular character archetype in hard-boiled detective film and detective fiction. French for "deadly woman", she is the character who uses her sex appeal to lure the detective or lays down a sob story to get the hard-boiled detective to help her, then uses her cunning to dupe the sap, usually in finding the culprit or seducing him into committing a crime (cf. Double Indemnity). The femme fatale can still be found today, but given the shifts in the social climate and how the world of entertainment and advertising has pushed the envelope on what is acceptable, the femme fatale isn't as common as it once was.

There is a spectrum of different types of women portrayed in the media, from the clingy, weak-willed princess who needs a man to actually feel like a woman (Scarlett O'Hara, from both the book and movie version of Gone With The Wind comes to mind) to the "independent woman"Ð'--also known as the career woman; this is the type of woman who purports herself to be strong enough to be successful in a world where men are considered the successful ones, and everything in between (the ice queen [the woman who has a strong aversion to anything sexual, or is seen as having no compassion for anyone else], the golddigger [a sort of sub-genre of "femme fatale" who uses rich men for their wealth and leave when the money's gone or another man comes along with a bigger wallet; the rap song "Golddigger" by Kanye West and another rap song, this time by alterna-rap group De La Soul called "Shopping Bags" both tell of the consequences men get into when they date women who only want them for their income; an example of a golddiger in pop culture is Peggy Bundy from the raunchy FOX sitcom, MarriedÐ'...With Children, who manages to swipe what little her shoe-selling husband, Al, can earn at his dead-end job], the party girl [the girl who likes to dance, drink heavily, and engage in wild, reckless behavior, preferably in a party setting], the soccer mom [the mother who balances her career with being a motherÐ'--this archetype is usually associated with censorship of television shows (because the soccer mom uses the television as a baby-sitter for her children and expects it to provide her children with education and good, moral values because she's too busy to do it herself)], the desperate housewife [made popular by the ABC comedy/drama of the same name; a married woman in her late 30's to 40's whose marriage is falling apart and is in need of some excitement in her life before she becomes too old and senile to enjoy life], the slut [the woman who is mostly known for her sexual exploits; also referred to by many names, including: "skank", "tramp", "trollop", "ho", "skirt", "piece of ass", "sperm bank", "chickenhead" (usually referring to a woman who engages in oral sex with a man), "bicycle" (as in "She's like a bicycleÐ'--everybody gets a ride"), and "the good time had by all" (once used to refer to actress/sex symbol Marilyn Monroe)], the debutante/socialite/"rich bitch" [the woman who grew up with the best of everything, has money to burn, and often looks down on others who aren't as rich or beautiful as she isÐ'--Paris Hilton immediately comes to mind], the Lolita [the drop dead gorgeous girl who is under the legal age to have consensual sex (in most states, it's 18 years old) ], the bimbo [usually blond and big-chested (by natural or artificial means), this is the woman who is regarded as a sex symbol, but is lacking in depth and intellect (often to the point of being functionally illiterate, but that really depends on how far a writer or actor plays up this archetype), the geek girl [the girl whose beauty and social graces are in some way impaired, but what makes her alluring is her intellectÐ'--at least to the one guy who doesn't fall for a girl for her looks. The title character in the MTV cartoon Daria is a prime example of the geek girl, as she is the polar opposite of her gorgeous, photogenic, fashion-obsessed sister, QuinnÐ'--she's interested in writing, she doesn't believe in following what other girls consider to be cool or hip, and she's not obsessed with beauty], the cradle-robber [the "older woman" who dates men who look young enough to be their sons], the homewrecker [the woman who dates married men and, like a femme fatale, causes ruin for the man when the man's wife divorces him and takes him for all he has in divorce court (unless the man and his wife signed a prenup over who gets what should they divorce)], the fag hag [the woman who is a best friend and/or confidante to homosexual men who act feminine; cf. Megan Mullaly's character Karen from NBC's Will and Grace], and the tomboy [this is the woman who is similar to the "independent woman", but she is friendlier to men than the "independent woman" is and is often mistaken for being a lesbian because she doesn't act in what others perceive to be feminine]). In said spectrum, the femme fatale lies somewhere between the ice queen (based on her ability to manipulate men into doing her bidding) and the clingy, weak-willed princess, at least in the film noir movies of the 1930's and 1940's, because, when all is said and done, the femme fatale will crack under masculine pressure when the hard-boiled detective begins to see through the machinations of the femme fatale and become a scared, confused little girl who either was used as a pawn by a man or tried too hard to be tough in a man's world and failed miserably.

Which brings us to the questionÐ'--Is the femme fatale apparent in the films, ads, and videos of today? While there are exceptions, like the enigmatic bounty hunter