Gender Roles In The Classic Femme Fatale

For the most part, stereotypical gender roles exist because society chooses to accept them, but it is easy to say that the media is a profoundly influential source to the problem. We constantly see gender stereotypes in film and television, where the man is portrayed to be the strong, dominant character; he is the breadwinner and the hero, while the woman is a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued. This type of representation of women is quite the opposite in film noir. The classic femme fatale of film noir is a strong and confident woman who disrupts traditional family values; she refuses to play the typical role that society prescribes. Instead, the femme fatale uses her beauty to manipulate men in order to achieve power and independence.