Mata Hari (1876-1917) was the archetype of a femme fatale whose name is synonymous with seduction, mystique, and deception.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re talking about someone who was the archetype of a femme fatale. She employed her sexuality as a means to support herself and get what she wanted. Her name is synonymous with seduction, mystique, and deception. Let’s talk about Mata Hari!
Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on August 7, 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. She was the eldest child and only daughter of Adam and Antje Zelle. Her father, Adam, ran a hat shop, but the majority of his wealth came from successful investments in the oil industry. Due to this stream of income, Margaretha and her three younger brothers enjoyed a comfortable childhood.
Unfortunately, in 1889, the investments went south and Adam went bankrupt. Financial struggles and Margaretha’s mother’s illness put a strain on her parents’ marriage, and they ultimately divorced. Two years later, Margaretha’s mother died. At 15 years old, Margaretha was separated from her father and brothers and sent to live with her godfather. While living with her relatives, Margaretha attended a teacher-training college in South Holland. However, her enrollment was brief due to an affair she was rumored to be having with the headmaster. She was immediately expelled.
With little guidance in her life, Margaretha fell back on her father’s advice of being theatrical and bold in order to be successful. She decided that her exotic appearance and her sexuality would be her superpowers. So in 1894, Margaretha sent an alluring photo of herself to the military captain, Rudolph MacLeod, who had posted a newspaper ad looking for a wife. Six days after meeting, the two married on July 11, 1895, when Margaretha was 18 and Rudolph was 39.
The couple relocated to Rudolph’s military post on the Indonesian island of Java. The marriage was dysfunctional from the start. She was more interested in partaking in gossip and shopping. And his heavy drinking often resulted in infidelity and physically abusive fits of rage. Despite this friction, the couple had a son and a daughter in 1897 and 1898.
In an effort to escape her husband’s abuse, Margaretha immersed herself in Indonesian life. She joined a local dance company and studied the culture. It was during this time that she adopted her stage name Mata Hari which means “eye of the day” in Indonesian dialect.
Tragedy struck in 1899 when their 2-year-old son died. The cause of his death is uncertain as some say he died from complications related to treatment for syphilis, while the family believed he was poisoned by one of the nannies. The death of their son marked the end of their marriage. Mata Hari and Rudolph returned to Europe in 1902 and divorced shortly after. Although Mata Hari won custody of their daughter, she had no money and was forced to leave her daughter in the care of her ex-husband.
Left to her own devices, Mata Hari moved to Paris to reinvent herself. She tried her luck as a circus horseback rider and a model for artists, before landing as an exotic dancer. With her dark hair and olive skin, she claimed to be of Javanese descent. Her dances were slow and sensual and involved leisurely removing the draping veils and jewels she was adorned with until she was almost completely bare except for her breasts. Mata Hari described her performances as temple dances inspired by cultural and religious attributes of the Indies.
Her entry into the Paris salon scene could not have been better timed. The early 1900s were part of the Belle Epoque in France. This era was characterized by optimism, scientific and cultural innovations, peace, and economic prosperity. Patrons could convince themselves they were participating in an educational experience instead of indulging in what was really a striptease. Mata Hari dominated the Paris performance scene before taking her talents to other cosmopolitan cities throughout Europe.
After about a decade, many younger, more nimble copycat dancers began taking Mata Hari’s bookings, eventually leaving her out of work. With the knowledge that sex sells, Mata Hari found financial success in seducing wealthy government officials, aristocrats, and military men. She took full advantage of Holland’s neutrality during World War I and traveled across the continent taking up with various men of different origins and ranks. Her movements and bedfellows caused the British and French intelligence units to put her on their surveillance radar.
In 1916, Mata Hari fell in love with a young Russian pilot - Captain Vadim Maslov. Soon after they met, Maslov was gravely injured during a mission. On her way to the hospital, Mata Hari was stopped by French soldiers, including captain Georges Ladoux, who said she could only see Maslov if she a greed to use her seduction practices to extract high level German military secrets.
Mata Hari accepted and cozied up to German military attache, Major Arnold Kalle. She fed him frivolous bits of French gossip in hopes of reciprocation of more valuable information. Instead, Major Kalle sent radio messages naming Mata Hari as a German spy in a code that the French had already cracked. The French intercepted this message and arrested Mata Hari for espionage upon her return to Paris on February 13, 1917. She was thrown into a rat-infested cell where she spent five months suffering from malnourishment and isolation.
Despite no concrete evidence, Mata Hari was put on trial for being a German spy and blamed for the death of 50,000 French soldiers. At the time of her prosecution, the French army was suffering major military losses and steadily losing ground to the Germans. Mata Hari was an easy scapegoat for these losses. Captain George Ladoux even tampered with evidence to ensure a guilty verdict.
During the interrogation, Mata Hari’s two major admissions included trading money for sexual favors with a German officer and accepting 20,000 francs from a German diplomat to gather information while on her trips to France. But she insisted that she never fulfilled her end of the deal and only accepted the money as reimbursement for luggage and furs that had gone missing when she was being harassed by German soldiers on a train. Mata Hari maintained her innocence and proclaimed “A courtesan, I admit it. A spy, never!”
It only took the tribunal 45 minutes to deliberate and declare Mata Hari’s guilty verdict on July 25, 1917. Three months later, on October 15, 1917, Mata Hari was executed by firing squad. The legend says that upon arrival at the execution site, Mata Hari walked to the designated spot, declined the blindfold, and turned around and blew the soldiers a kiss before being shot multiple times.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding Mata Hari’s actual involvement in trading war secrets, she is portrayed as the quintessential female spy. Over time, she has become a symbol of female empowerment and agency.
All month, we’re talking about spies.
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