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Tropes vs. Women: #4 The Evil Demon Seductress

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    A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in a character that conveys information to the audience.
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    A trope becomes a cliche when it’s overused. Sadly, some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.
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    Does this remind you of a woman? How about this one? Or that one?
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    Ya me neither.... but somehow these insects have become the inspiration for a whole trope of sexy female characters.
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    The Evil Demon Seductress is a supernatural creature usually a demon, robot, alien, vampire most often disguised as a sexy human female.
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    She uses her sexuality and sexual wiles to manipulate, seduce, and kill and often eat poor, hapless men by luring them into her evil web.
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    One example of this trope shows up in the form of a Deceptacon in Transformers 2, where Isabel Lucas plays an alien robot disguised as a sexy college co-ed sent to kill poor Sam.
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    "I can explain"
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    Then who can forget back in 1995 when Natasha Henstridge starred in the horror film Species playing the sexy half human/half alien hybrid created by the U.S. government.
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    When the alien hybrid escapes into the real world she see that women have babies and therefore she wants one too.
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    "Listen, I want a baby"
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    "WHAT!? Excuse me?"
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    So she uses her sexual wiles to lure men in and her alien strength to kill them.
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    And in the Batman universe Poison Ivy is another example of the Evil Demon Seductress.
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    "That feels so much better."
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    "And now we'll grow together"
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    And this trope even makes a couple of appearances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer first when Xander is seduced by his sexy teacher who is really happens to be a giant preying mantis.
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    "I think it's eenie, meenie, miney..."
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    And then again in the last season when performer Ashanti seduces Xander.
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    "It can't just keep happening that demon women find me attractive, there's gotta be a reason"
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    "You just seem like a nice guy, that's all, and I wanted to get to know you."
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    "And kill me?"
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    "Sure"
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    It might also be worth mentioning at this point that one of the roots of this trope is based on a misconception that dates back to 1886 with a scientist name Leland Ossian Howard.
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    Howard made the claim that the female praying mantis cannibalizes the heads of her sexual partner after mating,
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    well... turns out, this isn't exactly true.
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    New scientific research that found the vast majority of female Praying Mantis species do not in fact kill their mate.

    So back to this trope,
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    the amount of times that this character appears in speculative fiction is kind of astounding, the list goes on and on and on.
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    In Star Trek's First Contact we have the Borg Queen trying to seduce Data.
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    Keanu Reeves is taken advantage of by the Brides of Dracula.
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    And then some years later in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilles meets these three sisters.
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    In the science fiction show Farscape there's the villain Grayza with her enchanting body sweat.
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    There are the evil mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean 4.
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    And Mystique in X-Men often fulfills this trope.
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    In the opening scene of Battlestar Galactica we meet a human looking cylon woman who seduces and kills a man.
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    Men in Black 2 stars a shapeshifting alien who disguises herself as a Victoria Secret model
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    And Megan Fox as a man eating demon in Jennifer's Body.
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    alright, we get the idea, it's everywhere and you'll notice that there's variations of this trope between mermaids, and sirens and vampires
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    and their expressions of supernatural evil seductress varies but the basic characteristics remain the same, they're using their sexuality as a weapon.
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    This trope is closely connected to its counterparts The Vamp, The Black Widow, The Femme Fatale which are human women using their sexuality to manipulate men.
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    Here I'm only focusing on supernatural creatures but you can see how insidious this trope has become in popular culture.
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    Let's dig a little deeper into what this means, we have a whole collection of supernatural creatures using their sexuality to manipulate and control men in order to fulfill some nefarious plan of doom.
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    You'll notice that these supernatural creatures are not necessarily enjoying or exploring their sexuality, they're not even really being genuinely sexual, they are just using it to manipulate and trick men.
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    So we see over and over again female characters written as The Evil Demon Seductress who are portraying women as manipulative, conniving and controlling,
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    that these demon women always have ulterior motives, and that there sexuality is dangerous and they'll probably bite your head off.
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    The harmful misogynist myth that this tropes reinforces is that women primarily use their so-called sexual power as a way to manipulate, trick and control men.
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    This fallacy is widespread and pervasive and some men even claim that women hold more power in society purely based on this absurd myth.
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    Thank you Hollywood for encouraging and promoting sexist thinking.
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    So what do Hollywood, male viewers and even female viewers to a lesser extent get out of the Evil Demon Seductress trope?
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    Well, Hollywood is in the business of selling the status quo they use these characters to appeal to a male demographic.
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    When an Evil Demon Seductress is on screen men get to objectify her while having these sexist preconceived notions reconfirmed that women are in fact manipulative and deceitful.
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    And there is a danger of real world women internalizing this sexist myth.
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    Instead of believing that our sexuality is something to be explored and celebrated we are repeatedly told that it is our only form of social power.
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    Hollywood writers, I don't have a problem with you occasionally making some of your villains female, but you've gotta stop writing women who's primary weapon is her sexuality.
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    I'll leave you with a clip of Alicia Silverstone in one of the worst movies ever made... saying something kinda cool.
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    "Using feminine wiles to get what you want, trading on your looks? Read a book sister, that passive aggressive number went out long ago, chicks like you give women a bad name"
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    Ooooh here she comes, watch out boy she'll chew you up,
    oooh here she comes she's a maneater.
Title:
Tropes vs. Women: #4 The Evil Demon Seductress
Description:

The Evil Demon Seductress is a supernatural creature usually a demon, alien, robot, vampire etc. who is most often disguised as a sexy human female. She uses her sexuality and sexual wiles to manipulate, seduce, kill and often eat poor, hapless men by luring them into her evil web.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
Duration:
06:45

English subtitles

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