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{{trope}}
[[File:mata-hari1.jpg|link=Mata Hari|frame|
{{quote|
''And if he won't tell them?''
''Well, at least I'll get laid.''
|'''Folklore'''}}
Espionage has long been depicted as [[Tuxedo and Martini|a glamorous and exciting profession]]. The same depiction goes for its practitioners. Only relatively recently however did the concept of a beautiful young woman charming male officers into revealing military secrets with her feminine wiles appear.
To qualify as this trope, the character must be a young attractive female who uses her "charms" (sexual, emotional manipulation, or both) to work in a capacity for espionage specifically under a guise of innocence. She can be a member of [[La Résistance]] or [[The Empire]], be idealistic, motivated by revenge, or simply in it for the money and personal gain, as long as it's an attractive female spy, it fits this trope. This trope however does not apply to females who are merely secret agents. There must clearly be incidences of fraternizing with the enemy as [[The Mole]].
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Finally, one doesn't need to actually get the target to reveal secrets directly; photographs or other embarrassing evidence of the encounter can be used to [[Blackmail]] the target into giving you what you want (the classic [[Honey Trap]]).
Although this kind of spy has existed as long as there have been two different sides that wanted information about each other, the modern form of the trope evolved out of fictionalized accounts of the life and career of the former [[Trope Namer]], [[Mata Hari]] (Margaretha Zelle), an exotic dancer who served as a French spy for several months during [[World War I]]. Although her actual skill and success as an espionage agent were vastly exaggerated, [[Person as Verb|her name has become synonymous with "Seductive Spy"]].
See also [[Gentleman Thief]], [[Classy Cat Burglar]], [[Honey Trap]], [[Femme Fatale]], [[The Vamp]] and [[Spy Catsuit]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Nancy Makuhari in ''[[Read or Die]]'' {{spoiler|is both [[The Mole]] and a literal clone of [[Mata Hari]].}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The Grey Spy in Antonio Prohias' ''Spy Vs. Spy'' strips is a glamorous young woman who always plays on the Black and White Spies' sense of chivalry in order to defeat them both. Prohias eventually phased her out of the strips because he couldn't bring himself to have the Spies hurt a woman, but the comics were too predictable if she never lost.
* The [[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]] was this in her early appearances as an [[Iron Man]] villain: a Russian spy sent by the KGB to romance him while stealing his secrets.
* ''[[X-Men]]'' villain Mystique isn't above playing this role from time to time. Being a [[Shape Shifter]] helps.
* In ''[[Spy Boy]]'', Bombshell uses "Marta Hari" as her school-going alias.
* [[Jet Dream (Comic Book)|Jet Dream]] and her Stunt-Girl Counterspies all fit this trope.
== [[Film]] ==
* Marta Bond, the illegitimate daughter of Mata Hari and [[James Bond]] in the spoofy
* Eve in ''[[North by Northwest]]''. Doubly so once it's revealed she's the [[Reverse Mole]] [[It Was His Sled|working for the United States government]].
* Bridget von Hammersmark from ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' may qualify. She relies more on her fame from being a movie star than her sexual charm, though. In fact, Tarantino may have been hinting that he did intend for her to be ''seen'' as this kind of character; in the same scene, a group of German soldiers (whom she had been sitting with earlier) are playing a kind of celebrity guessing game, and [[Mata Hari]] herself is one of the answers.
* In ''[[Mars Attacks!]]'', the Martians send out a Martian in an [[Uncanny Valley]] woman suit to infiltrate the White House and try to assassinate the President. It almost works because of the [[Idiot Plot]].
* Claire Romely (Saffron Burrows) in ''[[Enigma]]'' is suspected of being this but you only find out at the end of the film if she is.
* Jude in ''[[The Crying Game]]''.
*
* In ''[[Munich]]'' a character says "beware the local honeytrap".
* Monica Fuentes in ''[[
* Rachel Stein alias Ellis de Vries in ''[[Black Books]]''
* Mati Herring, from ''[[You Nazty Spy]]'', a classic ''[[Three Stooges]]'' film.
* The "deaf" girl from the [[Matt Damon]] film ''[[The Good Shepherd]]''.
* Alicia Huberman in ''[[Notorious]]'' is asked by the US government to seduce (and eventually marry) a Nazi agent in order to have someone with inside access to his house who can look out for the illegal activities the US government suspects are going on in there. When told the nature of her assignment, Alicia even mentions [[Mata Hari]], saying, "Mata Hari, she makes love for the papers."
* Barbie ends up playing this role in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story
== [[Literature]] ==
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** {{spoiler|Lauren Reed}} pulls the same exact act, but on Vaughn.
* Ziva David, ''[[NCIS]]'', but only occasionally. She is better known for more "direct" methods then seduction.
* The North Korean spy Joyce Kim in ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' tried to obtain military secrets from Leonard, who was working under a DARPA contract at the time. She couldn't put up with Sheldon though, and abandoned her attempt.
* Mandy in ''[[24]]''.
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* Belleza from ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]''. She's a General, but she poses as a belly dancer to gather information on the party for [[The Empire]]. Rare, in that she's both a villainous version of this trope and motivated by idealism.
* The design of ''[[A Dance With Rogues]]'' lends itself to this sort of player character. An [[Ax Crazy]] runthrough is much more difficult.
* Rouge the Bat fits as a
* In ''[[Dragon Age]],'' Orlesian<ref>A [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of France</ref> Bards fill this
** Zevran is a male version. In the 'verse, the genders are equal and homo/bisexuality is seen as a mere fetish rather than a taboo, thus making male
▲* In ''[[Dragon Age]],'' Orlesian<ref>A [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of France</ref> Bards fill this roll. Party member Leiliana also doubles as a [[Naughty Nun]] 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 ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', by becoming a spy for the Church}}.
▲** Zevran is a male version. In the 'verse, the genders are equal and homo/bisexuality is seen as a mere fetish rather than a taboo, thus making male Mata Haris almost as effective as the ladies.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The T-Girls of the ''[[Jet Dream (webcomic)|Jet Dream]]'' [[Remix Comic]] are all
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Spoonerism|Hatta Mari]] from the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' [[Wartime Cartoon]] "Plane Daffy."
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Mata Hari]], the former [[Trope Namer]].
* Katrina Leung worked as a double agent for China and the FBI. She seduced several FBI employees including her FBI handler which got her information of use to China
* 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.
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* British MP Ian Clement admitted he was seduced by a woman in Beijing he suspects of working for Chinese intelligence.
* Russian model Ekaterina Gerasimova was allegedly employed by the Kremlin to seduce at least half a dozen of their high profile critics to destroy their reputations and for blackmail purposes.
* [[
* A Taiwanese Army Major General Lo Hsien-che was drawn into a honey trap set by a "tall, beautiful and chic" Chinese agent and supplied her with top secret information in exchange for sex and money in what has been described as the worst
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Always Female]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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