Femme Fatales, women’s suffrage, and our depictions of the “Enemy”

What happens when our depictions and assumptions around those who are “other” are based in fear and the desire to control? Through looking at the microcosm of the Women’s Suffrage movement in Britain, we can gain insight into how perceptions of groups and movements change based upon people’s own context, fears, and desires. While officially becoming a national movement in 1872 and ending in 1928, women had been calling for the right to vote since the early 1800s in Britain. The responses to this call was wide and varying with some men, like the economist and parliamentary member J.S. Mill, calling for women to have rights and others starting their own anti-suffrage leagues with as many as 20,000 members. The artworks around this time reflect the turmoil of this political and social moment.  Some artworks view the suffragettes as heroic—a marginalized group fighting their way in from the fringes of society and power—others as salacious monsters or femme fatales who are set upon destroying society. This diaspora of viewpoints reminds us all that what we see and assume about people and movements depend a lot on where we are standing as well as how our own selfish fears and desires are being challenged or promoted.

Lady Lilith, Dante Rossetti, 1867, Watercolor and Bodycolor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inscribed on the original frame of Lady Lilith is an excerpt from Goethe’s Faust which reads, “Beware . . . for she excels all women in the magic of her locks, and when she twines them round a young man’s neck, she will not ever set him free again.” Goethe in his work is describing Lilith; a demonic and seductive character from Jewish folklore who was Adam’s first wife and who, having lost her own child, prowls at night preying on children. Through the Lilith mythology, Rossetti is connecting his work to the Femme Fatale trope. The femme fatale are predatory and destructive figures, often called “grim ladies” or “earthly chimeras,” who use their seductive beauty to ensnare men. The femme fatale and Lilith often explicitly and implicitly represent suffragettes who men feared would become themselves “child killers” as their emancipation brought them more bargaining power to bear less children.

Circe, Bertram Mackennal, c.1893, bronze sculpture, National Gallery of Australia

This work is a depiction of the character Circe from Homer’s Odyssey. In the Odyssey, Circe is a sorceress who ensnares and traps the hero Odysseus and his men and then turns his men into swine. She is depicted here with her arms outstretched as if she is both casting a dreadful curse on and marionetting the hero and his crew like puppets. In this we see the Femme Fatale trope at work—depicting women, specifically in this cultural moment suffragettes, as both forces of destruction and seduction.

Universal Suffrage or the Scum Uppermost, George Cruikshank, 1819, hand colored engraving on paper, People’s History Museum

First printed in 1819 when only around 2% of Britain’s population had the right to vote, this print depicts the dangers of giving more people the right to vote. The beast of universal suffrage is depicted standing upon the values of British society and British institutions—namely the arts, royalty, and religion. While not only referring to the fears around women getting the right to vote, the beast tells of the foreboding and destructive nature of giving those who are “other” power.

June 18 1910, Mary Lanchester, 1910, woodcut color print, The British Museum

This print depicts a suffrage procession that occurred on June 18^th, 1910. One of the earliest mass marches with over 15,000 women, women are seen carrying various banners indicative of the suffrage movement. At this march (although not depicted in the print), many women carried poles with arrows attached to them to symbolize their imprisonment because of their suffragette activities. This work shows a very different world than the destructive and monstrous one foretold by Cruikshank in his print. While the volume of people creates a level of chaos, there is order and solidarity between the protestors and the bystanders alike.

Poster, Electors Only, Suffrage Atelier, 1909-1913, print poster, Museum of London

This poster was created by a pro-suffrage print shop, the Suffrage Atelier, to help galvanize artists and women alike to promote and forward the suffrage movement. It depicts a woman sitting outside of the doors of parliament, cut off from having political power and having her interests and needs be considered. In this depiction, women are shown as human beings who have been blocked from the nexus of change and power in their society—a far cry from a Femme Fatale or a monstrous beast seeking to destroy and devour.