Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Anderson, Kim

Keywords

Gender, Femme Fatale, Erotic Art, Sexualization

Area of Concentration

Art

Abstract

In contemporary erotic lowbrow art, there exists a problematic depiction of the femme fatale. I examine the problematic contemporary femme fatale in various ways in “Creatures of the Night: The Emergence and Complication of the Femme Fatale in Erotic Lowbrow Art.” In contemporary paintings and photographs of the femme fatale in erotic lowbrow art, the female figure lacks sexual control. These women are devoid of the capacity for pleasure as the male gaze exerts the full extent of his authority over her body. Although these female figures embody characteristics of the historical femme fatale model, contemporary artists such as Mark Ryden, Will Cotton and Audrey Kawasaki transform them into adolescents adorning vacant stares. My work confronts the current, eroticized depictions of the femme fatale in contemporary erotic, lowbrow art within a third-wave feminist theoretic framework and re-establishes her at full potential by embracing contemporary characteristics presented in the work of photographer Man Ray.

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