![]() Beardsley and Wilde’s collaboration in a way stomps all over the arresting social norms for women of that time. Her desire to kill John the Baptist becomes entirely independent of her mother’s vengeance. Instead, I see a self-sufficient woman adopting a persona and her mother’s goal as her own. Through Beardsley’s illustrations, I am able to see past the surface of Salomé’s character as a vengeful vixen. As motivated by her mother, Salomé asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Seduced by her erotic dance, Herod was ready to give Salomé anything she asked for. When Herod was hosting a feast, Salomé, his step daughter, danced for the event. According to the Bible, Salomé’s mother Herodias wanted John the Baptist killed because he spoke against her marriage to her brother-in-law, Herod. I’d never heard of Salomé prior to the lecture and researching her story helped me view Beardsley’s illustration with some more context. In this exploration, my overall objective is to have a better understanding of whether the femme fatale trope celebrates the power and capabilities of women, if it implies the dangers of female sexuality when it’s unleashed, or indicates a combination of both motives. I will be reflecting on Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration of Salomé, Gustav Klimt’s painting of Judith and the Head of Holofernes, and the popularity of femme fatale characters (Kitty Collins for example) in Film Noir. I’m specifically interested in how this trope was depicted during its prevalence in Art Nouveau and in Film Noir. ![]() However-after seeing Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration in one of the lectures-I wanted to have a better understanding of the history of the femme fatale trope. My notion of femme fatale stems from how women’s sexuality had been manipulated in the media during the late 90s up until the early 2000s. The first image that appeared in my mind was that of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy in 1997’s Batman and Robin. A femme fatale is a character that I’ve always associated with sexuality, power and insanity. For my study of tropes in the media, I’ve chosen to explore the different depictions and symbols of femme fatale in history. ![]()
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