Femme fatale
Dangerous alluring woman
A femme fatale is an alluring, seductive woman who leads men into dangerous or compromising situations.
The French phrase means "deadly woman." The type appears throughout literature and film noir—a mysterious beauty whose charms prove ruinous: She played the femme fatale in a dozen detective pictures.
The term can describe real women perceived as manipulative or destructive through sexual power.
- seductivePowerfully attractive, tempting
- film noirStylish, shadowy crime drama
- temptationUrge toward the unwise
- Mata HariArchetype of seductive espionage
- double agentSpy betraying their side
deadly beauty · pulp fiction · Cleopatra · Morgan le Fay · manipulative · Delilah · power dynamics · Circe · cunning · Salome · Helen of Troy · betrayal · kiss of death · alluring · siren song · enigmatic · moral ambiguity · dangerous
Femme fatalegirl next door
Wholesome, approachable young woman
damsel in distress · innocent · ingenue · protector · guardian angel
Femme fataleheroine
Brave female protagonist
saint · angel · faithful wife · Madonna · straight arrow
femme, female, feminine, femininity, feminism, feminist, effeminate, fatal, fatality