In ancient Greece, a siren lured sailors to their destruction with her irresistible singing. The woman was evil while the men were the innocent victims. In American film, a powerful minority is portrayed using her power to seduce someone, whether through sex or goods, for a specific purpose before destroying the victim, creating a concept of “sirenism”. Sirenism can be attributed to multiple groups but the type of siren in this paper will focus on women and their associates. This paper uses five examples of fictional media to explore the enduring notion of female sirenism between the mid-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Early siren movies, Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Network (1976) use women to make overt political statements. The later movies Cruel Intentions (1999), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and the television show Orange is the New Black (2013) recognize women’s rights and instead show how women hurt other women when left with power. The recent women of power are increasingly more sympathetic characters, but are still portrayed as emotionally damaged. The reign of sirenism as the essence of powerful women continually sexualizes women, but the motive has turned from showing how women should not have power because they use it poorly, to showing women destroying women because of power.

 

Sunset Boulevard follows Norma Desmond in her effort to compete with the young, fresh-faced beautiful women of Hollywood[1]. Norma’s motive is herself because she wants a comeback and be the center of attention again. Norma has power because her past success as an actress financially supports her and she is able to support herself independently. A woman’s independence in 1950 was not tolerated: a woman was expected to be permanently dependent and submissive to a male breadwinner, whether her father or husband[2]. The filmmakers had to punish Norma to demonstrate the danger of independence and how it challenged the status quo.

 

Norma was punished through her mental and sexual state. Her sexuality is seen symbolically by where she lives. Norma lives in a mansion built in the 1920’s, an era infamous for its sexual excess and immortality[3]. Joe Gillis immediately notices an old car that had hardly been used. When cars became more accessible, young people could go on dates without a chaperone. The car then became a symbol for exploration[4]. As Norma hardly uses her car, it symbolically shows her sexuality waned with her age and independence. After three failed marriages, which allude to sexual dissatisfaction, she is attached to her dead pet monkey before becoming attached to Joe. Norma cannot even seduce Joe as a normal woman would. She seduces him with money and guilt after a suicide attempt. She puts pressure on him to love her, too: “What you’re trying to say is that you don’t want me to love you. Say it. Say it!”[5] In response to this, Joe’s sexuality is critiqued because he is weak enough to give in and is considered a male prostitute. During and after the World War II era, many prostitutes were in demand, however, they were women[6]. It is therefore a condemned reversal of gender roles in which Joe is the prostitute and Norma as the seducer.

 

Her means of seduction show how women who had their own money could not spend it wisely because power went to women’s heads, making them delusional. Norma is dependent on two men who must show her how to properly behave. Her first husband, Max Von Mayerling, becomes her butler out of guilt for knowing her fragile emotional state and responds to her endless demands. Norma relies on Joe’s writing skills to reclaim her former glory and needs him to edit her screenplay. Norma relies on Joe because of his supposed intelligence and relies on Max for serenity and pampering. Norma’s life is based around her supposed stardom and how it got to her head, but not humble Max. “No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes on a star”[7] is her justification for murdering Joe. The political statement in Sunset Boulevard shows Hollywood as dangerously backwards: the women are the rich, violent and powerful seducers while the men are weak and jobless. Women with power are dangerous because they cannot handle it and makes them delusional.

 

Network features siren Diana Christenson in her quest for corporate power[8]. Diana is the new authoritative executive for a failing television network and it is her mission to gain ratings and revenue. A clear message is sent about women in the workplace in the 1970’s. After decades of minority rights success at home and in politics, especially for women, the audience gets to see a powerful woman in the office, but it is not necessarily positive: “The war between feminism and antifeminism in the early 1970s raged throughout the media in an explicit, no-holds-barred action…the entertainment media were trying to figure out how to capitalize on feminism while containing ”[9]. The 1970s saw an increase in people in the same position as Diana: an adult living alone looking for sexual experimentation. In 1972 the Equal Rights Amendment was debated, which would have banned discrimination based on sex[10]. Howard Beale indirectly argues against the ERA in the movie. Women’s place in the office is emphasized by Howard’s rants recognizing the state of the economy in which “everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job”[11]. Diana’s position in the workplace reflected women working in any position at any type of corporation. Howard’s tagline is to shout “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” expressing how of America was in dire need of reform[12].

 

Diana exploits Howard’s rants because of his popularity among the American public and gets him his own show by seducing Max Shumacher. He must learn the secrets of democracy because of his ability to influence the public: “There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today”[13]. The lecture given to Howard is perhaps the most obvious political statement made by the movie. It tells minorities and people fighting for equal rights that it is not going to happen because democracy does not exist. It is only about the money and the people making money, who are old white men. The only two black people in the movie are a female communist and a male terrorist, both of which Diana is planning to exploit further showing a hunger for money in any way possible.

 

Diana’s sexuality sends a clear message that women should not be working. Diana’s marital status is never explicitly mentioned, but she is shown twice in bed, with a different man each time. The first time she is uninterested because the television distracts her. The second time, she enters into an affair with an ex-co-worker Max, and while she does have sex with him, she talks about her programming ideas the entire time. She admits that she is a “lousy lay” and not feminine enough for her partners. While Diana’s sexuality is existent, she cannot have a good relationship because her job consumes her. Diana is a siren because she cannot return love and her go too far in hurting people, resulting in the murder of Howard. While Diana is struggling to climb the corporate ladder, she is proven a distraction and nuisance.

 

In the 1980s, feminist’s movements started to divide because of thoughts on feminist issues. One issue was whether or not participating in pornography was liberating for women or exploiting them.[14] With the momentum of the Republican Party, the New Right gained a lot of influence starting around the Reagan era, as President Reagan supported the New Right. The New Right put emphasis on family values[15]. This thought aimed to keep white women as stay at home wives, homosexuals out of mind and minority races down from view. The AIDS epidemic and lack of knowledge about the disease put American gay men to the center of the media’s attention. The attention focused on their hard partying and non-monogamist lifestyles that stereotyped the entire gay community[16]. The affects of the New Right did not leave with Regan. The media is now focused more on women hurting women to blame them for their own problems, thus subtly implying women in power are dangerous. Ariel Levy in Female Chauvinist Pigs confirms the idea of women hurting women sexually when she explains how women peer pressure other women to act a certain way[17].

 

The story resumes in 1999 with wealthy New York City high school students. Kathryn Mertueil’s opening scene in Cruel Intentions shows her properly sitting in a skirt suit, offering mentorship to an innocent rising freshman, Cecile Caldwell, and her conservative mother[18]. Kathryn’s ladylike attitude and condemnation her stepbrother Sebastian for being a womanizer, is a mask of her real self. As soon as the Caldwell’s leave, she strips off her blazer to her corset. She is shown as extremely sexual. She begs her stepbrother for his support in her master plan to destroy innocent Cecile. While Kathryn is demonstrating obvious sirenism, this movie shows how women hurt other women because of boy drama. While Sebastian is being himself, Kathryn is deceiving the world. If Sebastian complies and succeeds, Kathryn promises to “fuck [his] brains out” and “allow him to put it anywhere”[19]. Kathryn’s hyper-sexuality is emphasized throughout the movie when she is teaching Cecile how to pleasure and by pleasured by men while secretly plotting her destructing due to jealousy about boys. It is also amplified in contrast to Annette, the innocent virgin, whose virginity Sebastian is scheming to take.

 

Both Kathryn and Sebastian’s power is driven by their popularity and reputations. While the movie shows that both men and women can use sex for their own destructive good, this mimics an anti-feminist media tactic: “There is not basis for feminism in women’s everyday, lived experience, because women aren’t truly oppressed. To be equal to men, and to be able to do what men do, women have to pretend and lie, since equality is impossible”[20]. This theory would mean that Kathryn is not oppressed because she came up with her own plan and her own ideas. She recognizes that she could never be equal to Sebastian so therefore she has to hide her sexuality and lie and deceive to get her way. Finally, her dependence on men comes from Kathryn’s own self-confidence issues. Cruel Intentions is therefore showing how a woman’s emotions cause her to destroy other women.

 

Further affects of the New Right are apparent. The one black guy in the entire movie was discriminated against for loving white women, upsetting the conservative mother who claimed she employed him. In response, he tells Mrs. Caldwell he lives on the Upper East Side and attends Julliard breaking down some racial stereotypes. Many homophobic gay references are made. When Annette claims she wants to keep her virginity, Sebastian claims he is getting a “lesbian vibe” in a demeaning way[21]. Sebastian’s friend is openly gay, but is having sex with a classmate still in the closet. It was seen in the movie as life-ruining to be gay. Kathryn and Sebastian’s sexuality is never question because they are supposed to be the deceitful, strong and hypersexual ones. Kathryn taught Cecile how to kiss, creating a public make out scene, yet there are no homosexual connotations because it is something that simply “girls teach each other”[22] giving the audience the idea that powerful women are not lesbians.

 

Despite both Kathryn and Sebastian’s destruction, Kathryn’s reputation takes a bigger hit than her deceased stepbrother. Sebastian was hit by a cab while saving the life of his true love Annette. Kathryn, however, was warned she was going too far to destroy the innocent. She is destroyed because her classmates discover her cocaine addiction, her lies and her evil intentions when published by Annette and Cecile. While the two both used sex for bad methods to get their own way, Sebastian reformed while Kathryn was stuck in her siren ways. In this way, the movie does show how a woman could act like a man and use her power. The caveat is that a woman cannot get away with it.

 

Miranda Priestly leaves the car, red heels first, immediately sexualizing her command as Editor of Runway Magazine right after an opening sequence in which all employees were getting ready wearing lingerie[23]. Fashion is immediately sexualized. In the Devil Wears Prada, Miranda is the siren because she seduces employees with fashion and destroys them with high demands they must satisfy to keep their job. Miranda has power because she controls the magazine that controls the entire fashion industry. When new assistant Andy Sachs calls the clothing “stuff”, Miranda replies: “the blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it’s sort of comical how you think that you made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff”[24]. Miranda’s fashion magazine combines sex appeal with retail and global impact. Andy is eventually seduced by Miranda’s demands and the world of fashion when she realizes that while her college education is helpful, but so is her appearance. Additionally recognizing a 1950s view, Andy’s boyfriend Nate is upset at the time she spends at her new job. However, this message is lessened when one considers that Andy works in an industry that is based on appearance and Nate is mostly upset that Andy has changed to fit the superficial mold.

 

Miranda’s takes an emotional toll on Andy, as she does to all other employees. Nigel for example, was promised a promotion but it fell through: “Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. Means it’s time for a promotion”[25]. While Nigel was the character who had worked alongside for Miranda, he is also the character that sticks up for her the most. Like other people in the office who were seduced by fashion he understands Miranda is “just doing her job”. Although the character Miranda’s actions are tyrannical, it shows how a woman in the workplace must take a stronger stance to get her way. Miranda is still the siren but the movie sticks up for her motives and accomplishments: “Truth is, there’s no one that can do what I do. Including [Jacqueline]. Any of the other choices would have found that job impossible and the magazine would have suffered”[26]. Miranda gained sympathy because she showed herself human when upset about another pending divorce and her passion for Runway. Miranda is good at her job and knows what she needs to do to keep Runway going and the fashion industry moving, even if it means being harsh on employees and losing time with loved ones, a choice men make as well, but do not get punished for.

 

While The Devil Wears Prada shows that women can work high in the corporate ladder, this corporation is filled with women and superficiality. According to Judith Butler, Miranda’s association with a stereotypically non-masculine trade is because “The effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body, and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self”[27]. In order to keep her femininity, she had to work in the fashion industry and around mostly women. While the movie includes gay and non-white people in a non-stereotypical way, or at least not as stereotypical in the past, it recognizes femininity as necessary. The movie reflects the similar split between feminists in the 1980s when some feminists argued expressing the physicality of oneself was liberating, while others found it humiliating[28]. An audience interested in fashion would be in awe of Miranda and view the movie as a comedy and support for physical female expression. An audience without an interest in fashion would see the movie as women hurting women with superficial requirements.

 

When Piper Chapman enters a New York women’s correctional facility, the prison executives are noticeably surprised[29]. No one believed a blonde educated woman from an upper class family belonged in prison. In “I Wasn’t Ready”, an inmate tells Piper about the help system: “It’s tribal not racist” and focuses more on helping Chapman than the black and Latina women she enters the prison with[30]. Chapman tricked them based on her presumed appearance. Chapman is the siren because she lured the prison executives to her side with her status but her outspoken nature makes her advisor Mr. Healy her enemy. As the storyline behind Chapman unfolds, Chapman has been the siren.

 

Although she is engaged to a man, her past lesbian relationship with international drug lord Alex Vause puts her in jail. Vause was able to use Chapman because she was a “rich bitch looking to fuck a woman or a black guy”[31], before the two ended up falling in love with each other. Chapman’s sexually deviant relationship with Vause is therefore seen as a rebellion against the upper class society[32]. It also associates homosexuality and interracial sex as something that is rebellious but not intermixed. There are therefore two sirens, showing women who hurt women and how women respond by hurting back. Chapman’s motive is seeking danger while Vause’s motive is to get a shorter prison sentence and revenge.

 

Lesbians in prisons have historically been very discriminated against. While the lesbians in prison were not actively discriminated against until after World War II, black women were seen as the aggressive compliment to the femininity of white inmates[33]. The series channels Estelle Freedman and Ann Bannon in the episode “Fucksgiving”. Bannon wrote books about lesbian lovers which “did not deny lesbian sex or cloak it in euphemisms, nor were her characters filled with self-hate, depression and loneliness”[34]. First, Freedman’s research about lesbian relationships in prison confirmed the realness of why Chapman was sentenced to solitary confinement. Mr. Healy, the homophobic prison counselor punished Chapman because she was supposed to be the heterosexual upper class woman, not the lesbian. Mr. Healy’s homophobia is seen as a nuisance in the show. Secondly, the reason Chapman sought Vause and the two forgave each other is because they were depressed and lonely without each other and the sirens become people to root for.

 

There is a caveat to this new sirenism. Relating to the portrayal of lesbians, there are explicit sexual scenes. This is progressive because while gays and lesbians have been portrayed in the media before, there has been little recognition of intimacy. The problem is that the explicit scenes are only shown between white people. There is a black woman who chose to transition into a woman during her prison sentence but there are no detailed minority lesbians and there are no interracial relationships that extend beyond friendship. While the show recognizes complicated women, the show also shows how far American media needs to go. Despite Chapman’s power, she is still under the male authority because they run the prison. The women are still bound by an outside force they cannot control, race is still a boundary, and so is sexual orientation. Furthermore, fights in the prison ensue because women get angry at each other, not the authority figures that are punishing them, blaming women for their own problems.

 

At what price should representation come? How can the age of increased media usage be used to effectively break down the barriers of stereotypes? While women in the media and other minorities are increasingly being represented, it is not necessarily positive. Despite women’s political advancements and achievements, they are still portrayed as a siren if they have power. The power of women since at least the 1950s has been recognized but has also been undermined by hurdles such as their own emotions. Minority power affects the status quo, providing filmmakers with motive to portray these minorities in specific lights. While the media is portraying diversity, it comes at the prices of stereotypes being placed upon people, and the concept of diversity is therefore artificial. For women, they are sexualized constantly. At first, women faced the problem of being kept down by men. Now the focus turns to women and how they keep down other women with their own emotional problems. The new notion of the sexualized, self-destructive powerful siren brings up new conversations that all genders, races and sexual identities must participate in.

 

 

 

[1] Wilder, Billy, dir. Sunset Boulevard. 1950. Paramount Pictures. DVD.[2] Mora, Anthony. History 353. October 21, 2013.[3] Mora, September 21, 2013.[4] Mora, September 9, 2013[5] Sunset Boulevard[6] Bailey, The First Strange Place: Race and Sex in World War II Hawaii, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 95-132.[7] Sunset Boulevard.[8] Lumet, Sidney, dir. Network. 1976. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. DVD.[9] Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, (New York: Times Books, 1995), pp. 193.[10] Mora, December 2, 2013.[11] Network.[12] Network.[13] Network.[14] Mora, December 2, 2013.[15] Mora, November 18, 2013[16] Phil Tiemeyer, “Flight Attendants and the Origins of an Epidemic,” in Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), pp. 136-167.[17] Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free Press, 2005.[18] Kumble, Roger, dir. Cruel Intentions. 1999. Columbia Pictures Corporation. DVD.[19] Cruel Intentions.[20] Douglas, 198.[21] Cruel Intentions.[22] Cruel Intentions.[23] Frankel, David, dir. The Devil Wears Prada. 2006. Twentieth Century Fox. DVD.[24] The Devil Wears Prada.[25] The Devil Wears Prada.[26] The Devil Wears Prada.[27] Judith Butler, “From Interiority to Gender Performatives,” as printed in Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject, Fabio Cleto, ed., (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 366.[28] Levy, 60.[29] Kohan, Jenji, dir. Orange is the New Black. 2013. Lionsgate Television. DVD.[30] “I Wasn’t Ready”, Orange is the New Black.[31] “Fucksgiving”, Orange is the New Black.[32] Donna Penn, “The Sexualized Woman: The Lesbian, the Prostitute, and the Containment of Female Sexuality in Postwar America,” in Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1940-1960, Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), pp158-381.[33] Estelle Freedman, “The Prison Lesbian: Race, Class, and the Construction of the Aggressive Female Homosexual, 1915-1965,” in Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History, Martha Hodes, ed., (New York: New York University Press, 1999), pp. 423-443.[34] Ann Bannon, Beebo Brinker, excerpt printed in American Sexual Histories, Elizabeth Reis Editor, (Malden: Blackwell, 2001), pp. 339.