'Femme Fatale' - The Female Archetype

The male archetype is fairly easy to describe and decipher. whether in literature or, as almost every woman may very well know, in real life as well. There's not a whole lot of cross referencing betweent the two types of man, they're either the hero, or the villain. Positive and Negetive. Yet, as in real life as well, when one starts to describe the female archetype, the lines become more obscurred with cross referencing and given examlples of women being both positive and negetive. On the positive side there the plutonic ideal (look but no touch), there is the earth goddess, and the Great Mother (Gaea), among other examples. All over the world, almost every culture has an example of a planetary mother, who's son born of a virgin birth becomes savior of the world. Virgin Mary anyone??? Anyway, on this positive side, women are seen as this because they are seen as the all creating of life (besides the gods that rule what goes on). Life comes from them, almost as if by an unknown source. This enveloped women in a "feminine mystique" as my old English teacher would say. Everything about a woman is mysterious, for no one really knows their ways but they.

On the negetive side, there is the the symbols of women's very own evil. The temptress character, the devouring mother, femme fatale (or sex object that will lead men to do dangerous things), and so on. These are seen to be in a woman's nature. Symbols of these women include Medusa, Sirens, Cleopatra, the Sphynx, etc. . The list of good and evil can go on and on and on. Yet, i cant help but bring up the phrase feminine mystique again. The reason the female archetype is so hard to describe, but so intriguing, is the fact that the positive and the negetive side are so intertwined within one another. As with the hero and the villain, one cannot exist without the other. Yet for men, it is simpler, because the hero and villain are usually two seperate characters and examplse. The reason there's a mystique around women is that they are both negetive and positive at the same time. Within the same creature, the same human being, there is the good and evil. So trying to decipher one from the other is a vast challeng in itself. Many times the woman or woman equivilant is Gaea, Medusa, and Beatrice, and there is no way on earth one will be able to try and tell when one persona is being dominant, for they are always there, and always popping up.

One can go on forever on the topic of the female archetype, the Greeks have been doing it for centuries! They, and the Chinese, have mastered the idea of positive and negetive forces. They have lists of things and their opposites (yin and yeng). Depending on the customs of the culture, the lists may vary, but women are always on the dark, evil side of things. Which may be a good and bad thing once one has allowed oneself to look and deliberate on the meaning of the lists. They're intriguing, go read them. Google them.