Femme Fatale (Reprise)
BY ALPER ÖZKAN (MBG/IV)
d_ozkan@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
As you may remember, Derya wrote earlier this semester on the femme fatale archetype, characterized by manipulative women using their charm to get whatever it is that they desire. I believe it would be interesting for two column writers to write on the same topic, so I've gotten her permission and decided to write my own version. While hers covered the femme fatales in film, I don't know much about cinema, so I'll try to cover my incompetence with history and folklore.
While not a femme fatale per se, Araweelo definitely is a good start for this column. This Queen of Somalia was a figure of authority instead of a seductress, which disqualifies her from the femme fatale archetype, but it appears that her rule was fatal enough to compensate. Since Araweelo lived over two millenia ago in a culture heavily dominated by oral lore, accounts of her vary greatly, but somewhere along her rule, she apparently decided that men were a terrible thing - the usual explanation I see involves her husband standing up to her and claiming that women shouldn't involve themselves in duties traditionally seen fit for men (that is to say, hunting and foraging). In her defense, I'd be pretty angry too.
Whatever the reason, she decided to take some drastic measures after coming to power, and by drastic, I mean hanging men by the testicles and/or castrating them. Apparently she is so feared that her name is still used to scare children into behaving, while we tend to threaten children with the bogeyman (or gulyabani). Somalian children are told that should they refuse to go to bed in time, Queen Araweelo will come and castrate them. I don't know about you, but I'll definitely take my chances with the bogeyman! I have no idea what girls are threatened with, though a certain story about Ökuninushi-no-Kami makes him a good equivalent. But he's Japanese, and therefore the subject of another week's column.
Another famous figure is Salome (whom I, for some reason, keep confusing with Salmacis) who, like Araweelo, wasn't exactly a femme fatale but is certainly interesting enough. Salome performed a dance, which would later become the famed Dance of the Seven Veils, for her stepfather Herod Antipas (not to be confused by his father, or his brothers, many of whom are also Herod. The Herodian Dynasty wasn't called that for nothing), who was so pleased that he offered to fulfill whatever Salome wished for, up to half of his kingdom. If you recall the Hindu antics involving boons from last week, you probably see why this is a very bad idea. Salome asked her mother what she should wish for, and her mother, displeased with John the Baptist, said that she desired the head of John served on a platter. Poor King Herod had no choice but to comply. Moral of the story: do not give anyone open-ended boons, not even your stepdaughter. And here we go, at the end of a column supposedly about femme fatales, with minimal mention of femme fatales (I feel like a broken record).
Anyhow, I almost forgot about the most important part of this column, talking about the weather! Autumn is taking revenge for the last winter's mildness, so beware of colds - wouldn't be nice at all to catch one just before an exam, or, Heaven forbid, TOEFL or GRE. Have a nice, germ-free week!