Temptress: from the original bad girls to women on top

191 Pages·2004·3.565 MB·English

by  Billinghurst, Jane

TemptressPaperbackCover 1/12/04 14:36 Page 1
the irresistible bad girls
“
whose gorgeous images light up these pages form the true feminist vanguard
jane billinghurst
ofWestern culture. celebrates the daring ofthose
control
‘who claim over their bodies and proudly display what is theirs as they see
distraction.
fit’—particularly ifit drives the men who try to control them to
images
Too many people see these in simplistic black and white terms,
positive
and Billinghurst’s understanding ofthe long-term e¤ects ofthese women’s

‘subversion’ ·
ofmale dominance is a very bracing corrective.”

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B R A M D I J K S T R A,
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author ofIdols of Perversity and Evil Sisters
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·
t
Men have always justified their domination of women by claiming to be the
superior sex. But in the bedroom, it is often the men who surrender to these e
supposedly inferior beings. To save face, men created the temptress: an irre-
m
sistible woman set on bringing men down.
There have always been temptresses in the margins of men’s minds. They may be
p
beautiful or menacing, dangerous or delightful, passive or predatory. The men they
encounter are like putty in their hands. At least that is the myth.
t
In this lusciously illustrated exploration of the temptress, Jane Billinghurst looks at
reported sightings oftemptresses in myth, history, and film, beginning with the original r
bad girls (Lilith and Eve) and ending with women on top Mae West and Madonna. From
shadowy demonic presences to in-your-face performance artists, the images of the e
temptress reflect the ebb and flow ofmen’s fears and fantasies. It is a tantalizing look at
how men have created the idea ofthe temptress and how women now have increasingly s
taken a hand in defining that vision themselves.
s
Jane Billinghurst holds an m.a. in German and Philosophy from Oxford University
·
and is the author of numerous nonfiction books. She is also an editor and director of

Simon Fraser University’s Summer Book Editing Workshop. She lives in Saskatoon, ·

Saskatchewan, Canada, where she does a mean belly dance. ·

·

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g $26.95 canada· $19.95 u.s.a
vancouver/toronto/berkeley
www.greystonebooks.com
Cover design by Peter Cocking and Jessica Sullivan
Cover illustration Lilithby John Collier. Courtesy Atkinson
Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire, U.K.
Printed and bound in Hong Kong
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
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Temptress
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g
Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group
vancouver/toronto/berkeley/new york
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To Tom for his delight and the Wildcats for theirs
Text copyright © 2003 by Jane Billinghurst
Illustrations copyright © 2003 as credited
First United States edition published in 2004
03 04 05 06 07 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, without the prior written consent ofthe publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copy-
right Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll
free to 1-800-893-5777.
Greystone Books
A division ofDouglas & McIntyre Ltd.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada v5t 4s7
www.greystonebooks.com
national library of canada cataloguing in publication data
Billinghurst, Jane, 1958-
Temptress : from the original bad girls to women on top / Jane Billinghurst.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 1-55054-999-5
1.Femmes fatales. 2.Women in popular culture—History. I.Title.
hq1122.b58 2003 305.42'09 c2003-910364-1
Library ofCongress information is available upon request
Editing by Nancy Flight
Copy editing by Pamela Robertson
Jacket illustrationLilithby John Collier. Courtesy Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancashire, U.K.
Jacket and interior design by Peter Cocking and Val Speidel
Printed and bound in China by C.S. Graphics Pte. Ltd.
Printed on acid-free paper
Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support ofthe Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts
Council, and the Government ofCanada through the Book Publishing Industry Development
Program (bpidp) for our publishing activities.
Every effort has been made to trace accurate ownership ofcopyright text and visual material used in this book.
Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions, provided notification is sent to the publisher.
TemptressInteriorLayout.final 11/29/07 11:26 AM Page v
Contents
Introduction: Sizzle 1
1
The Original Bad Girls 15
2
Mythical Maidens 27
3
Cleopatra 41
4
Mistresses 57
5
Subversive Seductresses 75
6
The Vamp 93
7
The Bombshell 105
8
The Femme Fatale 115
9
The Sex Kitten 127
10
The Matron and the Nymphet 135
11
The Ultimate Bitch 147
12
Women on Top 157
Notes 173
Bibliography 177
Illustration Credits 180
Index 181
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facing page: In the 1981 movie Body Heat,
Kathleen Turner’s character leads her victim
astray, then leaves him to his fate while she
savors her freedom on a sun-drenched beach.
Introduction
Sizzle
A
tall, cool blonde in a white dress threads
her way through a darkly sweating crowd.
From the oppressive shadows at the edge of
the evening, a man watches, then follows her to the railing
along a boardwalk. Standing slightly apart, the couple leans toward the night
ocean. Even here, at the edge ofthe water, there is no relieffrom the heat.
He o¤ers to buy her a drink, and she says she’ll take a cone ofshaved ice.
Cherry.
As the conversation nudges forward, he remarks that she looks well
tended and says that he wouldn’t mind being tended himself. She
recommends marriage. When he replies that he meant being tended just for
the night, she laughs and chokes on her ice cone. Red-tinted crystals fall
from the paper cup and a crimson stain spreads across the front ofher dress.
As he sets o¤ to get her a paper towel, she turns to face him. “You don’t want
to lick it?” she challenges. In that instant, every nerve in his body goes into
overdrive. By the time he returns, she is gone from the boardwalk but firmly
etched in his mind.
1
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It is 1981, and the movie is Body Heat,starring William Hurt as Ned
Racine and Kathleen Turner as Matty Walker. In the opening scenes ofthe
movie, we watch as Ned becomes a stepping stone in Matty’s personal jour-
ney to an earthly paradise. She will lead him to believe that he is the driving
force behind their plan to murder her husband and make away with his
millions. Only when Ned is sitting in his prison cell at the end ofthe movie
does he realize that Matty sought him out as the man most likely to get her
what she wants.
Why does Ned go along with her criminal plan? The answer is simple:
he has fallen victim to a temptress, a woman who emanates such a strong
field ofattraction that it disrupts a man’s view ofthe world. Instead ofusing
his intellect to examine his experiences, he responds viscerally to the primal
forces he senses in that oh-so-cool blonde (or brunette or black-haired)
beauty. The underlying message is that intellectual responses to experience
are what hold the world together; once Ned sets the filter ofreason aside,
there is nowhere to go but down.
Matty leaps o¤ the screen the moment we see her and sears herselfinto
Ned’s consciousness. To get Ned thinking he might be able to take advantage
ofher charms, she delivers the line about licking the red ice crystals o¤ the
front ofher dress. Skilled temptresses know that, consciously or uncon-
sciously, the radar ofthe male mind is always scanning for signs that a
woman might be available to him. The more desirable the woman, the more
it will mean to him to score. Ifshe will have him, he must be special indeed.
Matty lets Ned know that she has singled him out above all the others.
When he tracks her down at her local bar—as she knew he would—she tells
him that the other men in the room would kill to sit on the bar stool next to
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her, but she would never let them. When Matty and Ned make love, she
makes it clear how much she wants him and that only he is man enough to
fully satisfy the hugely desirable creature that she is. Finally, she gives him to
understand that she desperately needs his help. She is only a woman. What
can she do? Ifshe is going to survive in this world, she needs a big strong
protector by her side. What man could resist such deliciously satisfying
strokes to his ego and his body? He doesn’t stop to ask himselfwhat Matty
might be getting out ofthe arrangement—presumably the joy ofbeing with
him is suªcient to satisfy her desires.
The moment Ned accepts Matty’s version ofreality, he steps o¤ the
precipice. He has ignored the warning signs. And there have been a few:
Matty’s appetite for sex is perhaps a little too voracious; other men whose
levels oftestosterone are not quite so elevated in her presence can almost
taste danger, and have told him so. Once Matty has led Ned to the brink,
however, his powers ofreasoning are no match for his visceral responses to
her allure. He brushes o¤ his friends’ warnings and makes that fatal move.
“You’re not too smart, are you?” Matty observes at one point. “I like that
in a man.”
When Ned steps into the void, his descent takes an agonizingly long
time. Piece by intricate piece, Matty’s master plan is revealed, but the full
horror ofher machinations becomes clear only after she has gone too far to
be stopped—and even then the depths ofher depravity are known only to
her victim. Ned’s pain at the end ofthe movie is all the greater because he is
the only one who understands how successful she has been.
In the final shot ofBody Heat,Matty relaxes on a tropical beach as an
attractive young male waiter serves her a long, cool drink. She is clearly
sizzle 3