On the Teenage Femme Fatale of Postfeminism
The article discusses the femme fatale figure as a projection of social anxieties about shifts in gender power dynamics. Drawing on the perspectives of postfeminism and neoliberalism, it analyses the rise of the teenage version of the femme fatale, the fille fatale, which, at the turn of the millennium, developed at the intersection of empowerment and the discourse of “girls in crisis”. Through film examples (Pretty Persuasion [2005], Cruel Intentions [1999]) and the work of Katherine Farrimond, it highlights four key factors: socio-political conditions, beauty standards, the character of the seduced, and genre conventions related to film depictions of the femme fatale. The analysis shows that the modern femme fatale embodies the belief that feminism has created pathologically aggressive girls whose sexuality, despite apparent empowerment and free choice, remains trapped by the objectifying male gaze.
Text is available in pdf format: