Different from simply viewing her as cunning or stereotypical, to me the femme fatale is vibrant and courageous, becoming somewhat intoxicating, and very different from her female counterparts such as the idealized domestic woman, or the shunned and ill-used fallen woman. Campy and unconventional though she may be at times, the femme fatale uses her mischief to show the less serious side of life, often laughing at her own foibles. The irony is that when the Contagious Disease Acts are enforced, fueling further social and political controversy, as the women’s movement progresses and becomes increasingly more organized, and as the boundaries between public and private life are obscured, encouraging women to enter previously male-defined professions, the image of the femme fatale changes from this rather charming, complex, devious young woman into a one-dimensional, dangerous archetype. Such a shift did not occur by accident, but seemed more a reaction to the increasing demands of middle-class and working-class women for equality. I wanted to explore this subject, uncovering and discovering some of the underlying truths of this century and the women who struggled through it, personified in the image of the femme fatale.
