Anita Blake, Femme Fatale

The other day I asked a group of friends what they thought of when they heard the phrase "femme fatale." Each one of this described a femme fatale as something along the lines of, "...an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations." Personally, I do not see a femme fatale in this light. I think of someone who is empowering and challenges female gender roles. On Wikipedia, both definitions are listed. The first, as quoted above, is stated. The second reads, "...remains an example of female independence and a threat to traditional female gender roles." And I think Anita Blake does this, or at least tries heavily to attempt to do this. For example, the picture to the above. She's dressed beautifully, in a pink fluffy dress. However, it's obvious that she's not playing into stereotypical gender roles. If she were, instead of having guns she'd be wearing a corsage, or holding her purse close.

Although at times the graphic novel portrays women in a slightly sexist way (huge breast, big lips and hair, tiny waist, etc), the graphic novel is very progressive. Anita Blake is progressive because unlike other novels we've read, she's not focused on love. Instead, she's very much focused on her job. Even with her job, Anita Blake challenges traditional gender roles. I mean, just look at what she does. She's not your typical Suzie-Homemaker, no. She's a Necromancer (animator), vampire slayer, who sometimes works with the police. These three things are crucial to her character. They are also important because they highly separate Anita Blake's story from other stories. For one, out of the three other animators (Zachary, Manny, Bert), Anita is the only woman. Only one police officer is seen, he is male. However, Anita works with the police. This is important because women only make up 15% of the workforce in Law Enforcement(1). Cathrine, Anita's friend is a lawyer. Women only make up 24% of the workforce in Law(2). Anita's friend Veronica (Ronnie) is a private investigator. Women only make up 15% of the workforce in private investigation (3). The fact that these characters hold these jobs that are seen as typically being a male oriented job, prove that Anita Blake (both the character and the graphic novel) challenges gender roles.

The graphic novel is very progressive in the way humans are portrayed, and I believe the same can be said for the vampires. Although male vampires out number female vampires, there is a class system. A female vampire is above the male vampires. The vampire Nikolaos is very old and very powerful. Nikolaos is a very stark contrast to the stereotypical male head vampire, such as Dracula. Where Dracula had many wives, Nikolaos had many male followers that would do her bidding at her command. Nickolas was able to be a powerful leader. She took on a stereotypical "man's job" much in the same way as Anita Blake.

Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, let me say that I love Anita Blake. She reminds me of an older, wiser Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both Buffy and Anita Blake I see as being a femme fatale. They take their own paths and break away from the norm. They are both powerful, strong women. I would love to kick some ass with them.


(1)http://www.military.com/Careers/Content1?file=careersArticlesWomenBadges.htm&area=Reference
(2)http://www.uslaw.com/library/article/ABAWomenJustice.html
(3)http://www.pimagazine.com/FAQ/private_investigator_statistics.htm