Melissa Blakely says that because “men held the power in writing” the femme fatale was created to depict their “misogynistic viewpoint of women as seductresses trying to lead them astray” (The Seductress).
Melissa Blakely gives her definition of a femme fatale: “The term femme fatale is French for fatal woman, and she is often fatal to the men she tangles with, usually being cast as a villain in the story. Femme fatales were a popular figure in the film-noir era of the 1940s and 50s, crime dramas with a cynical and sexual woman often playing a villainous role” (The Seductress).
Blakely writes, “the seductress can be seen as a sign of female independence. It is looked at, not as demeaning to women, but as a sign of female power and perspicacity.
