Film Studies, Psychology, and Sociology
The Power of Film
Film noir, film, and media as a whole has the unqiue ability to reflect changes in culture and systems, as sampled by film noir and its ties with World War II and post-war expression. As unrelated as a film in trope is on the surface, the Femme Fatale represents the influx of feminist progress following World War II and even before, such as with the Women's Suffragist Movement reaching a fever pitch in 1920 with the passing of the 19th Amendment. The Femme Fatale also documents the growing fear of women as able to devastate a man; disrupting the status quo of the United States.
Film noir and the Femme Fatale is just a single example of how History bleeds into Film Studies, and even into the social sciences of Psychology and Sociology. Representation in media has the power to alter the reality for an indiviual, and film noir's Femme Fatale is no different. In fact, the Femme Fatale is considered an expression of "masculine paranoid fantasies" that perpetuate hyperfeminity as inherently vicious. For this reason, it is critical for all audiences, beyond those of film noir, to consider how media affects perception of minority group or reinforces bigoted ideologies.