Khoirunnisa Alyah Hafshoh. B0321045. 2025. Representation of Modern
Femme Fatale as a Criticism Towards Rape Culture in Promising Young Woman (Prime Video, 2020). Thesis: English
Department Cultural Sciences Faculty Universitas Sebelas Maret.
This research aims to examine how Casssandra Thomas in the film Promising
Young Woman (2020) is represented as a femme fatale who functions as a criticism of rape culture. Using Mary Ann
Doane's femme fatale theory and Johanes Ehrat's semiotics theory,
this research analyzes
the femme fatale character who is driven
by trauma and awareness of gender injustice. Through visual and narrative analysis,
it is found that the femme fatale is built through three main aspects:
physical appearance, manipulative skills, and past trauma as a motivation for
revenge to dismantle the patriarchal order that perpetuates sexual violence.
Her strategies in trapping predatory men, punishing institutions, and creating
experiences that position perpetrators of rape culture as victims show that
Cassie uses the logic of the patriarchal system.
Cassie has designed
a posthumous strategy
through sending evidence and
scheduled messages after her death as a form of final strategy to dismantle the
system that protects perpetrators of sexual violence as well as her declaration
of victory. The results show that her actions as a femme fatale are not centered
on the destruction of men personally, but on resistance to the power that
normalizes inequality and neglect of victims of sexual violence. Cassie is a form of modern
femme fatale who strongly criticizes that ultimately the only way to punish a broken
system is through death.
