History Main / FemmeFataleSpy

See also GentlemanThief, ClassyCatBurglar, HoneyTrap, FemmeFatale, TheVamp and SpyCatsuit.

* UsefulNotes/MataHari is the most iconic example. She was an exotic dancer from UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands. During and before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI she was a courtesan to many high class officials, politicians, and military officers. She was a spy for the French, but was convicted of being a double agent for ''Germany'' and was eventually executed by firing squad by the French. Her life was later fictionalized into a story of her being an irresistible master spy, yet in reality she wasn't such a master spy at all. In fact, while movie adaptations of her story (most famously the 1931 version starring Creator/GretaGarbo) depict her as a sensational beauty, the real Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, while attractive, was more remarkable in her heyday for her sensual appeal than for her looks.

* In ''Film/{{Munich}}'' a character says "beware the local honeytrap"

* ''Film/TrueLies'' parodies this. Helen Tasker believes a pick-up routine from a sleazy liar who pretends to be a spy to seduce women. Of course she doesn't know her husband is ''actually'' a spy. When questioning her, she reveals she just wanted to do something exciting, so they put her on a fake mission to oblige - playing a prostitute named Michelle. [[spoiler: By the end she's a spy alongside her husband for real]].

* Undercover policewoman Kate Morton in ''Series/{{Eastenders}}'' became the girlfriend of Phil Mitchell to get him to confess if he murdered his ex

* Fiona from ''Series/BurnNotice'' has played this role occasionally. Although she generally prefers the MoreDakka approach.

* Katrina Petrovna (JoanCollins), in the 1986 miniseries ''Monte Carlo'', is a famous lounge singer who is also working for MI-6 and seduces an Italian general in the pursuit of intelligence on behalf of Great Britain.

** In the episode "Ms Hellfire" Prue goes undercover as a hitwoman sent to kill the sisters to find out who ordered the hit. Naturally this involves donning some sexy black dresses and going to a party.
** In "Used Karma" a backfiring spell causes Phoebe to get possessed by none other than UsefulNotes/MataHari herself. So she behaves as if she's this - and makes a deal with a group of demons to assassinate her ex-boyfriend.

* ''Theatre/MButterfly'' in which Song, a Chinese spy, poses as a woman to get information from Gallimard, a French soldier. He ends up falling in love with him after being his "mistress" for years.

* Milla Vodello from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is an attractive lady spy whose nickname is "The Mental Minx".

* EVA from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''. Snake ever refers to her as "a regular Mata Hari."

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins,'' Orlesian[[note]]A FantasyCounterpartCulture of France[[/note]] Bards fill this roll. Party member Leliana also doubles as a NaughtyNun and has trouble reconciling the two polar aspects of her being, since she enjoyed her former career as much as her newfound faith. [[spoiler: She does this by the time of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', by becoming a spy for the Church]].

* Cheryl Bentov (aka Cindy) was an American Mossad Agent who persuaded a former Israeli nuclear technician who had disclosed nuclear secrets by posing as an American tourist, becoming his lover, and persuading him to go to Italy with her... where, naturally, he was kidnapped and smuggled back to Israel.

* In 1987 a US Marine Sergent embassy guard in Moscow called Clayton J. Lonetree was convicted of spying against the United States for handing over documents he was assigned to after being honeytrapped and blackmailed by a female Soviet officer.
* Anna Chapman, who pled guilty to acting as a agent for a foreign government, has been described in the media as a "modern day Mata Hari" and a "honeytrap" for obtaining a British passport by marrying a British man and allegedly having affairs with prominent businessmen.
** She, at least, appears no more competent than the real Mata Hari, having been caught by U.S. authorities and extradited back to Russia via PrisonerExchange. With her cover thoroughly blown, she's been capitalizing on her looks and notoriety to become a media personality and TV host. She also did a photoshoot for Maxim magazine that played up this trope, posing in Agent Provocateur lingerie while holding a pistol.
* Alleged Russian spy Katja Zatuliveter, who worked as a researcher for the BBC and a politician's PA, has been labeled a honeytrap and "blonde temptress" by the UK press, who strongly imply the MP in question hired her out of lust and didn't do the proper background checks.

* M15 sent out a 14 page document to British banks, businesses and financial institutions warning about the danger of Chinese intelligence services blackmailing Western businesspeople over sexual relationships.

* In 2018, US prosecutor unmasked [[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/19/politics/maria-butina-paul-erickson-russian-sex-lies-guns/index.html Maria Butina]], who used among other things "sex, lies and gun" to infiltrate the NRA and undermine the US election.

* In 2018, US prosecutor unmasked [[https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/19/politics/maria-butina-paul-erickson-russian-sex-lies-guns/index.html Maria Butina]], who used among other things "sex, lies and gun" to infiltrate the NRA and undermine the US election.

** This was a very common tactic used by the [[MoscowCentre KGB]], which trained attractive female personnel known as "sparrows" to lure Westerners into [[HoneyTrap sexual situations]] by which they could be blackmailed into working for the Soviets or at least giving classified information to them. Smart victims of this plot would refuse and immediately contact the American embassy.

** She, at least, appears no more competent than the real Mata Hari, having been caught by U.S. authorities and extradited back to Russia via PrisonerExchange. With her cover thoroughly blown, she's been capitalizing on her looks and notoriety to become a media personality and TV host.

* Subverted in the 1979 mini-series ''A Man Called Intrepid''. DavidNiven's character objects to a beautiful woman being used as a spy because "anyone who saw her would never forget her". Because she's highly qualified she's sent into France anyway; sure enough a German sentry remembers her face and it leads to her capture.

* Russian spy Dottie Underwood from ''Series/AgentCarter'' is an early graduate of the country's Black Widow program, where orphan girls are trained to be spies. Her most successful mission was seducing Howard Stark and stealing his designs, a nod to the comics where Natasha Romanov--the ComicBook/BlackWidow we know and love--initially played this role. Dottie goes on to become Peggy Carter's personal archenemy.

* Marcus' sister in ''Film/BadBoys2''

* Hey, guess what ''Film/MataHari'' is about? Creator/GretaGarbo plays the titular sexy dancing spy in a VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory account. You can thank this film and folklore for codifying this trope. In reality, Mata Hari didn't do much to help the French - most of the information she was able to get they already had for instance.

* Hey, guess what ''Film/MataHari'' is about? Creator/GretaGarbo plays the titular sexy dancing spy in a VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory account.

* Mandy in ''Series/TwentyFour''.

* In the first manual written on the subject, a British intelligence colonel discussed this trope, and even raises a gender-inversion.

* In a 1904 manual on field intelligence, a British colonel discusses the advantages (and disadvantages) of using women in espionage, notably that an attractive woman is welcome anywhere she goes.

* UsefulNotes/MataHari is the most iconic example. She was an exotic dancer from UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands. During and before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI she was a courtesan to many high class officials, politicians, and military officers. She was a spy for the French, but was convicted of being a double agent for ''Germany'' and was eventually executed by firing squad by the French. Her life was later fictionalized into a story of her being an irresistible master spy, yet in reality she wasn't such a master spy at all. In fact, while movie adaptations of her story (most famously the 1931 version starring GretaGarbo) depict her as a sensational beauty, the real Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, while attractive, was more remarkable in her heyday for her sensual appeal than for her looks.

* Lori from ''Film/TotalRecall'' poses as the amnesiac protagonist's wife. When her cover is blown, she reveals herself as a DarkActionGirl.

* WW2 American spy Betty Pack used her feminine wiles to get an Italian naval attache to give her the Italian Naval Code book (some say he gave her fake codes but the Italian fleets movements were predicted much more accurately suggesting he didn't) and seduced the French Embassy's press attache who gave her information to use against the Nazis.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Barbie ends up playing this role in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. She did love Ken before realizing what was really going on at Sunnyside and then rejected him. [[spoiler: She played this role well enough to push him into a HeelFaceTurn, and they end the movie HappilyMarried]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TintinAndTheLakeOfSharks'': The housekeeper Madame Black is a female spy, but an old lady, this not exactly this trope. When Tintin catches [[TheMole ugly old housekeeper Madame Black]] red-handed, he tells her "Spies have changed a lot since Mata Hari, haven't they?"

* Irina Jelavić in ''Anime/AssassinationClassroom'' is a stock example of this. A professional assassin who tends to default to seduction in order to get close to her targets.

* The ComicBook/BlackWidow was this in her early appearances as an ComicBook/IronMan villain: a Russian spy sent by the KGB to romance him while stealing his secrets. She also initially manipulated ComicBook/Hawkeye in order to get him to help her.