The Art of Seduction (6 page)

love-longing drift like an
physical pleasure, because his life so lacks it. The Siren does not have to
anchorless ship. This

worry about finding the right victim. Her magic works on one and all.
charming young princess,

First and foremost, a Siren must distinguish herself from other women.
discreet and courteous

Isolde, drew thoughts from

She is by nature a rare thing, mythic, only one to a group; she is also a valu
the hearts that enshrined
able prize to be wrested away from other men. Cleopatra made herself dif
them as a lodestone draws
ferent through her sense of high drama; the Empress Josephine Bonaparte's
in ships to the sound of the

device was her extreme languorousness; Marilyn Monroe's was her little
Sirens' song. She sang
openly and secretly, in

girl quality. Physicality offers the best opportunities here, since a Siren is
through ears and eyes to
preeminently a sight to behold. A highly feminine and sexual presence,
where many a heart was

even to the point of caricature, will quickly differentiate you, since most
stirred. The song which she

sang openly in this and

women lack the confidence to project such an image.

other places was her own

Once the Siren has made herself stand out from others, she must have
sweet singing and soft

two other critical qualities: the ability to get the male to pursue her so
sounding of strings that

echoed for all to hear
feverishly that he loses control; and a touch of the dangerous. Danger is
through the kingdom of the
surprisingly seductive. To get the male to pursue you is relatively simple: a
ears deep down into the
highly sexual presence will do this quite well. But you must not resemble a
heart. But her secret song

courtesan or whore, whom the male may pursue only to quickly lose inter
was her wondrous beauty
that stole with its rapturous

est in her. Instead, you are slightly elusive and distant, a fantasy come to life.
music hidden and unseen

During the Renaissance, the great Sirens, such as Tullia d'Aragona, would
through the windows of the

act and look like Grecian goddesses—the fantasy of the day. Today you
eyes into many noble

hearts and smoothed on the
might model yourself on a film goddess—anything that seems larger than
magic which took thoughts

life, even awe inspiring. These qualities will make a man chase you vehe
prisoner suddenly, and,
mently, and the more he chases, the more he will feel that he is acting on
taking them, fettered them

with desire!

his own initiative. This is an excellent way of disguising how deeply you

—GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG,

are manipulating him.

TRISTAN,
TRANSLATED BY

The notion of danger, challenge, sometimes death, might seem outA . T . HATTO

dated, but danger is critical in seduction. It adds emotional spice and is particularly appealing to men today, who are normally so rational and repressed. Danger is present in the original myth of the Siren. In Homer's
Odyssey,
the hero Odysseus must sail by the rocks where the Sirens, strange
The Siren • 13

female creatures, sing and beckon sailors to their destruction. They sing of
Falling in love with statues
the glories of the past, of a world like childhood, without responsibilities, a
and paintings, even
making love to them is an

world of pure pleasure. Their voices are like water, liquid and inviting.
ancient fantasy, one of
Sailors would leap into the water to join them, and drown; or, distracted
which the Renaissance was

and entranced, they would steer their ship into the rocks. To protect his
keenly aware. Giorgio
sailors from the Sirens, Odysseus has their ears filled with wax; he himself is
Vasari, writing in the

introductory section of the

tied to the mast, so he can both hear the Sirens and live to tell of it—a
Lives about art in

strange desire, since the thrill of the Sirens is giving in to the temptation to
antiquity, tells how men
follow them.

violated the laws, going

into the temples at night

Just as the ancient sailors had to row and steer, ignoring all distractions,
and making love with
a man today must work and follow a straight path in life. The call of some-
statues of Venus. In the
thing dangerous, emotional, unknown is all the more powerful because it is
morning, priests would
enter the sanctuaries to find

so forbidden. Think of the victims of the great Sirens of history: Paris
stains on the marble
causes a war for the sake of Helen of Troy, Caesar risks an empire and
figures.
Antony loses his power and his life for Cleopatra, Napoleon becomes a —LYNNE LAWNER, laughingstock over Josephine, DiMaggio never gets over Marilyn, and
LIVES OF THE COURTESANS

Arthur Miller can't write for years. A man is often ruined by a Siren, yet cannot tear himself away. (Many powerful men have a masochistic streak.) An element of danger is easy to hint at, and will enhance your other Siren characteristics—the touch of madness in Marilyn, for example, that pulled men in. Sirens are often fantastically irrational, which is immensely attractive to men who are oppressed by their own reasonableness. An element of fear is also critical: keeping a man at a proper distance creates respect, so that he doesn't get close enough to see through you or notice your weaker qualities. Create such fear by suddenly changing your moods, keeping the man off balance, occasionally intimidating him with capricious behavior. The most important element for an aspiring Siren is always the physical, the Siren's main instrument of power. Physical qualities—a scent, a heightened femininity evoked through makeup or through elaborate or seductive clothing—act all the more powerfully on men because they have no meaning. In their immediacy they bypass rational processes, having the same effect that a decoy has on an animal, or the movement of a cape on a bull. The proper Siren appearance is often confused with physical beauty, particularly the face. But a beautiful face does not a Siren make: instead it creates too much distance and coldness. (Neither Cleopatra nor Marilyn Monroe, the two greatest Sirens in history, were known for their beautiful faces.) Although a smile and an inviting look are infinitely seductive, they must never dominate your appearance. They are too obvious and direct. The Siren must stimulate a generalized desire, and the best way to do this is by creating an overall impression that is both distracting and alluring. It is not one particular trait, but a combination of qualities:

The voice.
Clearly a critical quality, as the legend indicates, the Siren's voice has an immediate animal presence with incredible suggestive power. Perhaps that power is regressive, recalling the ability of the mother's voice
14
•
The Art of Seduction

to calm or excite her child even before the child understood what she was saying. The Siren must have an insinuating voice that hints at the erotic, more often subliminally than overtly. Almost everyone who met Cleopatra commented on her delightful, sweet-sounding voice, which had a mesmerizing quality. The Empress Josephine, one of the great seductresses of the late eighteenth century, had a languorous voice that men found exotic, and suggestive of her Creole origins. Marilyn Monroe was born with her

breathy, childlike voice, but she learned to lower to make it truly seductive. Lauren Bacall's voice is naturally low; its seductive power comes from its slow, suggestive delivery. The Siren never speaks quickly, aggressively, or at a high pitch. Her voice is calm and unhurried, as if she had never quite woken up—or left her bed.

Body and adornment.
If the voice must lull, the body and its adornment must dazzle. It is with her clothes that the Siren aims to create the goddess effect that Baudelaire described in his essay "In Praise of Makeup":

"Woman is well within her rights, and indeed she is accomplishing a kind of duty in striving to appear magical and supernatural. She must astonish and bewitch; an idol, she must adorn herself with gold in order to be adored. She must borrow from all of the arts in order to raise herself above nature, the better to subjugate hearts and stir souls."

A Siren who was a genius of clothes and adornment was Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon. Pauline consciously strove for a goddess effect, fashioning hair, makeup, and clothes to evoke the look and air of Venus, the goddess of love. No one in history could boast a more extensive and elaborate wardrobe. Pauline's entrance at a ball in 1798 created an astounding effect. She asked the hostess, Madame Permon, if she could dress at her house, so no one would see her clothes as she came in. When she came down the stairs, everyone stopped dead in stunned silence. She wore the headdress of a bacchante—clusters of gold grapes interlaced in her hair, which was done up in the Greek style. Her Greek tunic, with its goldembroidered hem, showed off her goddesslike figure. Below her breasts was a girdle of burnished gold, held by a magnificent jewel. "No words can convey the loveliness of her appearance," wrote the Duchess d'Abrantes.

"The very room grew brighter as she entered. The whole ensemble was so harmonious that her appearance was greeted with a buzz of admiration which continued with utter disregard of all the other women."

The key: everything must dazzle, but must also be harmonious, so that no single ornament draws attention. Your presence must be charged, larger than life, a fantasy come true. Ornament is used to cast a spell and distract. The Siren can also use clothing to hint at the sexual, at times overtly but more often by suggesting it rather than screaming it—that would make you seem manipulative. Related to this is the notion of selective disclosure, the revealing of only a part of the body—but a part that will excite and stir the imagination. In the late sixteenth century, Marguerite de Valois, the infa-
The Siren
•
15

mous daughter of Queen Catherine de Médicis of France, was one of the first women ever to incorporate decolletage in her wardrobe, simply because she had the most beautiful breasts in the realm. For Josephine Bonaparte it was her arms, which she carefully always left bare.
Movement and demeanor.
In the fifth century B.C., King Kou Chien chose the Chinese Siren Hsi Shih from among all the women of his realm to seduce and destroy his rival Fu Chai, King of Wu; for this purpose, he had the young woman instructed in the arts of seduction. Most important of these was movement—how to move gracefully and suggestively. Hsi

Shih learned to give the impression of floating across the floor in her court robes. When she was finally unleashed on Fu Chai, he quickly fell under her spell. She walked and moved like no one he had ever seen. He became obsessed with her tremulous presence, her manner and nonchalant air. Fu Chai fell so deeply in love that he let his kingdom fall to pieces, allowing Kou Chien to march in and conquer it without a fight.

The Siren moves gracefully and unhurriedly. The proper gestures,

movement, and demeanor for a Siren are like the proper voice: they hint at something exciting, stirring desire without being obvious. Your air must be languorous, as if you had all the time in the world for love and pleasure. Your gestures must have a certain ambiguity, suggesting something both innocent and erotic. Anything that cannot immediately be understood is supremely seductive, and all the more so if it permeates your manner.

Symbol:
Water.

The song of the Siren is liquid and

enticing, and the Siren herself is fluid and un-

graspable. Like the sea, the Siren lures you with the

promise of infinite adventure and pleasure. Forgetting past

and future, men follow her far out to sea, where they drown.

16 • The Art of Seduction

Dangers

No matter how enlightened the age, no woman can maintain the image

of being devoted to pleasure completely comfortably. And no matter

how hard she tries to distance herself from it, the taint of being easy always follows the Siren. Cleopatra was hated in Rome as the Egyptian whore. That hatred eventually lead to her downfall, as Octavius and the Roman army sought to extirpate the stain on Roman manhood that she came to represent. Even so, men are often forgiving when it comes to the Siren's reputation. But danger often lies in the envy she stirs up among other women; much of Rome's hatred for Cleopatra originated in the resentment she provoked among the city's stern matrons. By playing up her innocence, by making herself seem the victim of male desire, the Siren can somewhat blunt the effects of feminine envy. But on the whole there is little she can do—her power comes from her effect on men, and she must learn to accept, or ignore, the envy of other women. Finally, the intense attention that the Siren attracts can prove irritating and worse. Sometimes she will pine for relief from it; sometimes, too, she will want to attract an attention that is not sexual. Also, unfortunately, physical beauty fades; although the Siren effect depends not on a beautiful face but on an overall impression, past a certain age that impression gets hard to project. Both of these factors contributed to the suicide of Marilyn Monroe. It takes a genius on the level of Madame de Pompadour, the Siren mistress of King Louis XV, to make the transition into the role of the spirited older woman who continues to seduce with her nonphysical charms. Cleopatra had such an intellect, and had she lived long enough, she would have remained a potent seductress for many years. The Siren must prepare for age by paying attention early on to the more psychological, less physical forms of coquetry that can continue to bring her power once her beauty starts to fade.