Feather Boa Constrictor

"You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a snake."

"It is as if I have draped myself in a penis!"

— Jane, Nobody Scores!

Basically wearing a snake (real or fake) as though it's a fashion accessory. This can often be seen with a Jungle Princess (especially if she has a Fur Bikini), The Chief's Daughter, or a Nubile Savage.

A Femme Fatale or Dragon Lady would use a venomous one, to show she has some connection with these creatures. Ms. Fanservice might use the snake in place of one or more items of clothing (because Snakes Are Sexy, y'know), taking the Theiss Titillation Theory to its limits.

Rock singers or Professional Wrestlers might also wear one, just to look badass. So do clowns for Rule of Funny purposes.

In Real Life, it's actually a practical way to carry some smaller snakes (as long as you do it right, or else they'll turn into Killer Rabbits). Larger snakes can be difficult to carry this way for long, as they are heavier than you might expect due to the high percentage of muscle and, in the case of constrictors, they will tense up their muscles to brace themselves if held in a way that makes them feel like they are about to fall. In fiction, it's meant to give a "wild and untamed" look to the wearer.

Not to be confused with the actual costume piece called a Feather Boa. Or Feathered Serpent.

Compare Friend to All Living Things, Live Mink Coat, Mister Muffykins, Parrot Pet Position, and Head Pet.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Hotarubi from Basilisk has a pet viper that coils round her neck. The snake isn't only for show, as it works also as a scout and a bodyguard. It even saw through Kisaragi Saemon's disguise, though Hotarubi couldn't understand why her pet acted so hostile towards her lover.
• In Black Butler, Snake owns several snakes named after literary characters that he keeps wrapped around his person at all times and uses to speak for him.
• Mitsuko Kongou from A Certain Scientific Railgun wears a snake during the Beach Episode. It's her pet, Ekaterina.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Obanai Iguro has a small snake named Kaburamaru that rests on his neck.
• Aettir from the third season of Future Card Buddyfight coils around her human partner's shoulders while in her mini form.
• Koyomi from Girls Bravo was forced to wear nothing but a python after losing a game of Mahjong in the anime. At first she despaired over it, but she soon befriended it.
• In Heterogenia Linguistico, about a dozen lamia (wearing small fur coats) coil around Hakaba's torso and arms, and some do the same to Susuki. They seem to use this method to move around in the winter.
• Emily from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is introduced with her snake familiar wrapped around her neck as if it was a scarf. Given the fact that they were in England (and the implication that the chapter took place around mid-December), it's entirely possible that she was doing it to keep the poor thing from freezing to death.
• In My Monster Secret, Anna the Poisonous Snake is a pervert who wanders around the zoo with a python wrapped around her.
• Margaret from One Piece. In fact, the entirety of Amazon Lily does this, as their snakes actually double as longbows (LongBoas?). Subverted with their leader, Boa Hancock, whose snake is so big that it acts as her chair instead.
• Echidna of Queen's Blade takes this a step further. The snake is the only thing covering her lower half. She frequently has it move to her shoulders when her lower half is off-camera, and more than once when her lower half is on-camera (though always with her back turned because even Queen's Blade can't get away with some things).
• In the Tiger Mask manga, King of the Jungle wears a cobra as a scarf. One still poisonous, that will bite his opponents if given the chance. Tiger Mask set it on fire and threw it at the public, at which point the bouncers had the rather sensible reaction of gunning it down.

Arts

• Lilith◊ by John Collier. A painting representing the first woman ever (according to certain legends written in medieval times), the woman so powerfully sinful that Yahweh had to replace her with Eve.
• The Snake Charmer,◊ by Henri Rousseau.

Comic Books

• Kitty Pryde has been known to wear Lockheed (a small alien dragon) around her neck.
• Marvel Universe villainess Princess Python usually has a snake draped around her shoulders...when it's not strangling people.

Films — Animation

• G.I. Joe: The Movie: Serpentor wears a cobra on each shoulder. He can grab them, straighten them out, and hurl them like javelins. Duke gets hit by one while protecting Lieutenant Falcon and winds up in a coma for the rest of the film as a result.
• Juju from The Princess and the Frog is worn by Mama Odie, a good voodoo priestess, when not being used as a walking stick for the 197-year-young visually challenged lady.

Films — Live-Action

• The Abominable Dr. Phibes: The Bedlah Babe in the blue movie Dr. Longstreet is watching has a snake around her neck. She appears to be intending to do something...interesting with it, but Dr. Longstreet is interrupted before he can see exactly what.
• Poison Ivy does this in Batman & Robin when she "returns to life" at the start of the movie.
• Zhora from Blade Runner. In this case, the presence of the snake wasn't merely decoration or atmosphere, but contributed to the plot itself. Fun fact: it was the actress' pet snake.
• Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian (1982) is all about snakes and wears them when not using them as ranged weapons. Also, James Earl Jones took a liking to them and insisted on wearing them on and off the set.
• In Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Dora puts a snake around her neck for the sake of a pun.
  Elena: Why are you wearing a snake?
  Dora: It's a boa boa.
• In Frankenstein Island, the priestess of the Amazons wears a live snake twined round her arm during her ceremonies.
• Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn does her dance number as Santanico Pandemonium with a Boa on her shoulders.
• In The Mummy Returns, Meela (the reincarnated Anck-Su-Namun) comes into the O'Connells' house wearing an Egyptian asp.
• Angelica puts one on briefly in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. She's holding it behind the head so that it can't bite her, and she throws it a good distance after using it to freak Jack out.
• Uncle Monty in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) has an albino Burmese python curled around his neck in his opening scene.
• How Madam Yiu is depicted with her pet boa in her bedroom scene in Shanghai Grand
• A scantily-clad woman with a boa constrictor wrapped around her neck is one of the performers at the carnival where Moriarty has his hideout in Sherlock Holmes (1932).
• In The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case, Tonga wears several snakes round his neck as part of his 'Snake Man' act at the funfair. He seems fond it and even wears a snake when he is not on stage.
• In Striptease one of the girls performs with a python (named "Monty", of course). Then the snake dies and is replaced without her knowledge, with predictable results.
• In the first Wayne's World, Cassandra was shooting a music video, while wearing a snake and complaining about how heavy and awkward it is. She later accused it of trying to feel her up.

Literature

• Male example from Harry Potter: Lord Voldemort often carries Nagini, his Right-Hand Snake, wrapped around his shoulders, especially in Deathly Hallows.
• In The Lie Tree, Faith wears the trinket snake in order to unnerve Paul Clay.
• Madame Minuit, a Creole witch from New Orleans, appears as this on the cover art of Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow. She has snakes on her arms that seem to come out of nowhere.
• Patricia Paiwonski in Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

Live-Action TV

• Black Mirror: One patron at the Quagmire wears a snake around her neck in "San Junipero".
• A demon in the Charmed (1998) season two finale "Be Careful What You Witch For" has one.
• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Nagaina, a Gorgeous Gorgon serving as Pan's lover and right-hand woman, wears one as part of her carnival act.
• Hiragana Oshi: In episode 41, Kyoko Saito presents a segment idea based around the reptile lover Nao Kosaka playing with snakes and other reptiles. In the first episode of Hinabingo!, Nao actually wears a jungle carpet python for the first time.^* Incidentally, Nogizaka46 former ace and fellow reptile lover Nanase Nishino did the same years earlier in the first episode of Nogizaka Kōjichū?, with two smaller pythons.
• Peep Show: Super Hans wears a snake to parties.
• Scrubs: Snoop Dogg Resident got one from a patient who ran a pet store.
  "My hos are gonna love this."
• Supernatural: In Season 4, Sam and Dean interview a witness who is wearing one of these. Since Dean is suffering from ghost sickness which makes him fearful of everything, he is quite nervous. Then, another, larger boa crawls over Dean's shoulder.

Music

• The anthem by Bo Diddley Who Do You Love?, since covered by many others including The Doors, describes a sinister person, possibly a voudou practitioner, with a cobra snake for a neck-tie.

Music Videos

• "We Need a Resolution" by Aaliyah, both song and video, have a snake theme. They were her favorite animal.
• Alice Cooper wore snakes around his neck for music videos and live shows. Word has it, that he used a rental snake for one show (animal importation laws prevented him from bringing his own) and since it wasn't used to the lights and excitement in a typical rock concert, it tried to strangle Alice and had to be cut off.
• Notorious snake enthusiast Slash has one of his pets on him during the video for Guns N' Roses' "Patience".
• Used by one of the exotic dancers in the music video for "Danger!" by Mistikal.
• Zaher of Myrath sports quite an epic one of these near the end of the video for "No Holding Back".
• Nogizaka46: Reptile lover Nanase Nishino enthusiastically wears two ball pythons in the first episode of Nogizaka Kōjichū. Nanami Hashimoto, Yumi Wakatsuki, and Mai Shiraishi also wear one each, the latter with much reluctance. Nanase does it again in several other shows.
• Similarly, one of the strippers in the music video for "How Do U Want It?" by Tupac Shakur is briefly seen with a python on her shoulders.
• Britney Spears donned a Burmese python during her performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, one of her most famous performances.

Myths & Religion

• African Mythology: Mami Wata is usually depicted with a snake.
• Hindu Mythology: Lord Shiva combines one of these with snake bracelets.

Pro Wrestling

• The Sheik would occasionally carry some sort of constrictor on his shoulders to the ring, and occasionally it would act as his Attack Animal, though sometimes the reptile refused to bite.
• Many a fine promo by professional wrestler Jake "the Snake" Roberts features him with Damian or Lucifer draped around his neck.
• Kevin Sullivan, during his "Satanic" heel run in Florida during the 1980s, would sometimes walk to the ring draped in snakes. Roberts had been a hired gun for Sullivan and was a key part of Sullivan's heel turn.
• When working in the Southern US, Tasha Simone came to the ring with a snake on her shoulders in direct homage to Roberts and Sullivan.
• "La Mas Violenta de Mexico" Sadika has had snakes as part of her wardrobe when not draping a chain over her neck.
• Brooke Adams donned a Fur Bikini for the sake of a Halloween costume contest, and completed the effect by draping a snake around her shoulders.

Tabletop Games

• In Blood Bowl, the 4th Edition model for the Vampire Cheerleader wears snakes around her neck as part of her outfit, giving her an evil burlesque dancer look.
• A possibility in Dungeons & Dragons, given that snakes are a choice for a wizard or sorcerer's Familiar.
• Chana Witches from the Talislanta RPG have a variant fashion statement, wearing small trained serpents called "wrist vipers" as living (and highly venomous) bracelets.

Theme Parks

• Honey I Shrunk The Audience: Nick brings his Python Gigabyte to the award ceremony this way because he "didn't want to leave him in the van."

Toys

• The original Yoda figure released by Kenner for The Empire Strikes Back had one, which is certainly not played for fanservice, as A: It's a kids' toy, and B: Yoda is an elderly goblin-like creature.
• The Funko Pop! figure of Antonio Madrigal from Encanto wears a snake that's long enough to curl around his feet. He never does this in the movie.

Video Games

• In Battlefield Heroes, national heroes can purchase a king cobra that rides, coiled, on their shoulder. The pet doesn't do anything, it's just pure Rule of Cool.
• In Battle Monsters, Naga holds a snake like this, and in fact uses one as a weapon.
• Elidibs from Final Fantasy Tactics.
• Genshin Impact: The healer Baizhu regularly carries the sentient white snake Changsheng around his neck, who acts as a familiar.
• Kingdom of Loathing features the Feather Boa Constrictor as a familiar.
• Golden Treasure: The Great Green: In the Time of Creation DLC, Bloom sports a very fashionable constrictor snake around its neck, just par for the course along with the several other animals it "wears".
• Royce from Lunar: The Silver Star has one in her battle sprite.
• The female version of the unlockable ultimate metal outfit in Rock Band 2 is a snake and a pair of leggings.
• Taking a cue from John Collier's painting, Lilith in Shin Megami Tensei games always has a snake around her shoulders. Other than that, she looks more like Gozer.

Webcomics

• In Eerie Cuties, Brooke Lynn almost always wears her pet snake, Seth, around her neck. Given that she is a Melusine and can transform into a half-snake shape, it doesn't seem too unusual.
• Ménage à 3: Lyn Brooks (a.k.a. "Annie Conda") has a snake, "Mojo", which she wears as a prop in publicity shots shows and public appearances, matching her ring name. (She also seems to regard it as a pet, talking to it when she's thinking aloud.)
• In this Skin Horse strip, the trope is invoked by name — slightly misleadingly in that these "feather boa constrictors" are actual feather boas which have been converted into snake-like robotic weapons.

Web Original

• A few items on Gaia Online are snakes that you can wear in this way, including a white one called David Boa.
• Philosophy Tube: Used by The Devil in the "Jordan Peterson & The Meaning of Life". Crosses over with Snakes Are Sexy.
• A "Poker Face" challenge of React had someone picking to get either a boa or this kind of boa. And once the snakes appear, there is both Comedic Sociopathy and people remembering Britney Spears (see the Music Video folder).

Western Animation

• One episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters has an episode revolving around the monstrous trio's attempts to get back Krumm's eyeballs after it was devoured by a boa constrictor. During the chase, the constrictor is captured and kept in a pet store where a singer buys it to wear for his rock concert. With a few scares along the way, the boa is finally caught along with the eyeball.
• Big Hero 6: The Series villainess Cobra often holds her mechanical snakes around her neck like a boa.
• The Serpent from Detentionaire has a pet snake named Priscilla that is occasionally wrapped around his neck and shoulders.
• The New Batman Adventures: Miranda is doing this when Dick and Tim encounter her at the circus in "Animal Act".
• Rick and Morty: The perception of Jerry briefly takes on this role in "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez".
• Sour Grapes from Strawberry Shortcake wears her pet snake Dregs in this manner.
• The classic "Microbots" episode of The Transformers has Starscream get attacked by a giant snake that drapes itself around him in this manner; Rumble zings "I think it looks stunning on ya!" and the other Decepticons share a laugh over Starscream's predicament.
• In "The Boy Wander" episode of Wander over Yonder, Emperor Awesome replaces his feather boas with these. At one point he even tries to flirt with one!

Real Life

• According to Plutarch, Alexander the Great's mother Olympias did this, being a devout member of a snake cult.
• Quite common in pictorials. Sexy ones in particular. (NSFW example◊)
  • Barbara Carrera◊ (who previously interacted with snakes in Never Say Never Again)
  • Nastassja Kinski,◊ by famous photographer Richard Avedon.
  • Anthea Turner.
  • Rachel Weisz, for the cover◊ of Esquire.
  • Both Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Lawrence for Vanity Fair (22 years apart). Here's Cindy (NSFW)◊, and here's Jennifer.
• Every single snake demonstrator at any zoo/carnival everywhere, ever.
• Brazilian exotic dancer Luz del Fuego,◊ who being a naturism enthusiast liked to wear nothing but the snake. This is why the country has a tradition of pictorials with◊ them.◊
• The royal python (Python regius, also known as the ball python), a notably small species of python, is so named because there are reports that some rulers in Africa wore them as jewelry.

---