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The Femme Fatale and the (continuing) Threat of Women

 

Aubrey Beardsley's Climax, 1893

 

Edvard Munch's Madonna, 1893-1894

 

Edvard Munch's lithograph of Salome, 1903

 

Gustave Moreau's The Apparition, 1874-1876

 

Edvard Munch's The Kiss of Death, 1899

 

John Singer Sargent's Ellen Tracy as Lady Macbeth, 1889

 

Edvard Munch's Vampire

 

Charles Dana Gibson's The Weaker Sex. II, 1903

 

Charlese Dana Gibson's Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo, 1926

 

Women's Fashion Plates from the 19th Century

 

Edward Burne-Jones' The Golden Stairs, 1880 (detail)

 

Edward Burne-Jones' Laus Veneris, 1873 (detail)

 

Auguste Renoir's Madame Renoir and Son Pierre (Maternite), 1885

 

Fernand Khnopff's Caress, 1896

 

Khnopff's Caress (detail)

 

Jean-Auguste-Domnique Ingres' Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1808

 

Edvard Munch's Self-Portrait with a Burning Cigarette, 1895

 

Women's Suffrage Parade: New York, 1912

 

Discussion Questions:

-Would a femme fatale character be a role model for you in your struggle in a male-dominated society?

-When I discussed the Pre-Raphaelites, I mentioned that women were often displayed as having masculine qualities.  Some have argued that this was the rise of lesbian art at the time, but I also see it as a warning sign for women against the evils they (women) posses.  What is your opinion?

-At the end of my paper I included Munch’s self-portrait.  It has the same characterizations as his femme fatale images.  Is this a way to make him a force of destruction or is he trapped in an extremely masculine world?