by lissaredshoes
“…[C]riminals are an exception among civilised people and women are the exception among criminals… As a double exception, then, the criminal woman is a monster.” – Cesare Lomroso. Italian Criminologist, 1893
The public’s fascination with women who murder is palpable, if not dangerously obscene. Apart from its statistical rarity, female killers (or those accused) fascinate us because we’re shocked when we see such beauty contort into the face of a monster. Simply put, stories of vicious vixens, blue-eyed butchers and crazy bitches on trial – plucked seemingly out of pulp novels or crime flicks – turn our cranks. In literary terms, they also stir up the power of myth, elegantly explored by the late Joseph Campbell (who may now be rolling in his grave at the mere thought of great myths falling into the grimy hands of true crime).
The Medusa
Across cultures and throughout the ages, the “femme fatale” has taken on many guises in popular culture, myth, art and history. Made obvious through its sensational play in the media, we are enthralled with female “monsters” who are not only murderous, but also attractive (and white). Like a modern-day Lilith or Medusa, these women are seducers of men or devourers of children—and occasionally, both. When angered, her face contorts and her body seethes as folding flesh turns into hissing coils of Medusa’s snakes. In a society saturated with media and entertainment TV, these ancient mythologies eerily slip into our national crime narratives.
Popular culture and the media play as much of a role in evoking myth today, as did the tragic Greek plays and bourgeois paintings of yesterday. The question, though, is whether these age old mythologies as told through true crime stories are enlightened escapes or irresponsible quips for society’s entertainment and greed.
Rosemary Valadon, Ros Reines (The pay off) with Charles Waterstreet, 2012
The femme fatale is the monstrous version of stereotypical femininity. Her qualities? Attractive, sexual, supernatural and deadly. In ancient myths, she is the Siren, the Succubus or the Witch – and she is deadly precisely because she is both beautiful and strange. This strangeness is something that all accused female killers share once pushed into the limelight. Their beauty rivals their “disturbed” side with an assortment of oddly reported behaviors that conveniently appear to justify guilt. (Never mind that many of the women may have suffered abuse or have no recorded history of mental health disorders or violence).
Some investigators, prosecutors and media pundits like Nancy Grace, froth at the mouth in their desire to control these deviant women once their “disturbed and beautiful” selves enter the spotlight – which, by the way, doesn’t end in the interrogation room or the courthouse. To our voyeuristic delight, we are privy to hoards of sensational videos or photographs of silly string funerals, boob jobs, spending sprees, wild parties and kinky sex acts. Yet, it doesn’t stop there! The more evil the act, the bigger the feeding frenzy with HLN re-enactments, tales of stalking, tell all books, and parodies slipped into shows like Law & Order: SVU. These newly minted myths, encrusted with scandalous gems, become laden with their own blinding bling and illusory glitter.
The brutal tales of notorious female killers (or those accused) such as Jodi Arias, Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox, Susan Wright, and the more recent “cliff pusher” Jordan Graham, are set within the framework of popular TV shows like Deadly Women, Snapped and Lifetime’s made-for-TV movies. I thought it might be worthy to take a tour of these Lifetime movies (with a peek into Jordan Graham hitting the future playlist). For some added dimension, I have bestowed each women with a “femme fatale” figure to help make my point.
Black Widow (aka Blue Beard) – Susan Wright – Blue-Eyed Butcher
Sara Paxton stars as Susan Wright in Lifetime’s “Blue-Eyed Butcher.”
It was no accident that, Susan Wright, convicted of stabbing her abusive husband 197 times was coined the Blue-Eyed Butcher. Does it ring any fairy tale bells? You might recall the story of Blue Beard. It is a rather grotesque tale, with the mutilated dead bodies of Bluebeard’s former wives, as a warning to obey. The prosecution portrayed Wright as a cold-hearted conniver who got tired of her husband and killed him for a $200,000 insurance policy, but she always claimed it was self-defence. Ironically, years later when the truth about her husband’s abusive ways came out in new testimony, it put an interesting twist on the original idea of the bloody chamber.
Jezebel – Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret
The Jodi Arias swimming pool scene in Dirty Little Secret
Jezebel was a Phoenician princess in the 9th century who married Ahab, the prince of Israel. Ruling as king and queen, Jezebel continued to worship the god Baal, reviled by her citizens and a prophet. Preparing herself to be murdered, she applied makeup and dressed in her finery before show was thrown to the dogs. Jodi Arias made herself infamous by smiling for mug shots and the media has eaten her alive ever since. Like Jezebel, Arias symbolizes a cunning, ruthless and reprehensible woman who typifies evil. In the movie, the actor who plays Arias prances around in skimpy underwear, slashes tires and then attacks Alexander in a shower scene straight out of Psycho. In another bizarre scene, Arias announces her conversion to Mormonism, goes down on Alexander in a hot tub before re-emerging in a baptismal pool. Need I say more?
Witch – Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy
FICTIONALIZED scene in Amanda Fox: Murder on Trial in Italy, Amanda Knox (Hayden Panettiere) shown grabbing a screaming Meredith (Amanda Fernando Stevens) – as Raffaele Sollecito (Paolo Romio) tries to kiss her.
Continually referred to in the media as Foxy Knoxy, Amanda Knox’s portrayal typifies the vicious vixen or the witch. The archetype appears in many cultures, and is obviously linked with witchcraft. Some oft-cited historical examples include Cleopatra, the silent film actress, Theda Bara, and the dancer/spy Mata Hari. This seems the perfect for a young woman who is sexually open, outspoken and not afraid to stand up or out (her Beatles t-shirt). However, her antics were used to an absurd extreme in the movie. She is shown hanging out at a drug-fueled party with Guede (they were never friends), and most of the court scenes show her waving and smiling to the crowds in her low cut shirts as she makes her entrance into the court room as if walking on a red carpet. A modern day witch trial with all the glamour of Hollywood.
Vampire – Lizzie Borden
Scheduled for release in January of 2014, this new Lizzie Borden played by Christina Ricci will be sure to personify how Lifetime loves to glamorize females accused of murder. The poster shows a very vamped up Lizzie carrying a gory axe, with blood spattering the lace around the bottom of her long white, off the shoulder, nightgown. Ridiculous! Borden was a Sunday school teacher accused (and acquitted) of killing her parents in 1892. This movies looks to declare her guilty. As the case raged on in 1892, the courtroom proceedings fueled an enormous amount of sensationalized stories in newspapers that has left her in murderous infamy. The suggestive figure of the vampiric femme fatale made an early appearance in Christian and pagan folklore as a deity associated with death and rebirth, but principally with an excessive sexual appetite. Lizzie’s been vamped.
The Siren – Jordan Graham
Waterhouse, John William (1849–1917)
The Sirens were dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured sailors with their enchanting music and voices to their death. Newlywed bride, Jordan Graham, stands accused of murdering her husband, Cody Johnson, by pushing him to his death from a cliff in Glacier National Park. Prosecutors claim that she blindfolded him and falsely claimed that she came across Cody’s body while searching for him when he failed to come home. Graham claims that she pushed her husband during an argument, which resulted in him falling off the cliff. A movie is not yet in the works, but I suspect it will make the list if the case continues to make headlines.
As we can see, viewers thrive on these twisted re-telling of true crime stories with female leads. These trashier-than-life TV movies permeate our screens with familiar star images that blur the lines between fact and fiction. The producers bring stories to life by making the women appear as conniving, outrageous and as sexual as possible with over-the-top scenes, seductive costumes and a specious portrayal of the “facts.” Humans thrive on fantasy. We have a long history of exploring our own dark psyches through fairy tales and art. Do we buy into these stories simply because they fuel our own greed and lust for tawdry tales and those “crazy bitches” on trial?
lissaredshoes is a visual artist and writer living in Canada who writes about art and the criminal justice system with a special focus on wrongful convictions and the role media and arts play in contemporary culture. She runs her own blog, My Spotted Couch, a website for her visual art, and writes occasionally for Galleries West. http://spottedcouch.wordpress.com/