View source for Sensual Slavs

{{trope}}
[[File:redalert3 6768.jpg|link=Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3|frame|"Would you like a [[Comic Sutra|Soviet Union]]?"]]

Women from Central and Eastern Europe tend to be [[Femme Fatale|sultry Femme Fatales]], [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Pole]] dancers, or both.

The [[Femme Fatale]] version arose in the UK during the [[Cold War]]. Tales abounded of the [[Honey Trap|glamorous, alluring Russian woman who would throw herself at a visiting British businessman]], seducing him into wild, unrestrained sex acts. Later, after he'd returned home to their families, the businessman would learn that the tryst had been filmed and that pictures would go to his wife and to the government if he didn't comply with whatever demands the blackmailers made - and that the sexy vixen he'd bedded was a full colonel in the [[Moscow Centre|KGB]].

In comparison, in North America during the [[Cold War]] this trope practically did not exist (unless the woman was going to do a [[High Heel Face Turn]]). Russian women were considered to be the [[Brawn Hilda|ugliest humans]] in existence - "deformed monsters" wouldn't be putting it too strongly. [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Ryan Stiles]]'s comment ("Russia! Our women look like men!") might be understating the point. Johnny Carson wasn't the only comedian to base entire sets on the purported hideousness of all Russian women, but he was the most famous - and hundreds of comedians copied him. Even today, many older North Americans are shocked by pictures of attractive Russian women because they'd heard for ''forty years'' that all Russian women were ugly and masculine-looking. It was a nasty, cruel stereotype, but one almost universal in the [[Cold War]] era.

See also, [[The Baroness]] (a specific [[Archetype|Chararacter Archetype]]).

{{noreallife|this is a trope about how characters are depicted in media. Also note that the personality and function of the character in the story matters. A Slavic character that is good-looking does not automatically count; a Slavic character that uses her sex appeal to seduce, manipulate, distract or beguile a main character does count.}}

{{examples}}

== [[Advertising]] ==
* The advertisements that are almost certainly showing for this page (and other Russia tropes pages).

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Nico Robin from ''[[One Piece]]''; [[Word of God]] states that the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of Ohara would likely be Russia, and well, [https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Nico_Robin just look at her.]

== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Lulu Romanov in ''[[Nikolai Dante]]''.
* ''[[Black Widow (comics)|Black Widow]]'', the [[Marvel Comics]] superheroine.

== [[Film]] ==
* For many years, a staple of the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' movies:
** Tatiana Romanova in ''[[From Russia with Love]]''.
** Major Anya Amasova in ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]''.
** Pola Ivanova in ''[[A View to a Kill]]''.
** ''[[GoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'' has ''two'': Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen, who is actually Dutch) and Natalya Simonova (played by Polish actress Izabella Scorupco).
** A very blonde (in contrast to her Red Alert 3 appearance, pictured above) Ivana Milicevic played Valenka, Le Chiffre's girlfriend in ''[[Casino Royale]]''.
* Ivana Humpalot in ''[[Austin Powers]]'', parody on all the James Bond examples.
* Czechoslovakian<ref>the country had actually broken up years before the movie was made</ref> exchange student Nadia from ''[[American Pie]]''.
* ''Birthday Girl'' features [[Nicole Kidman]] as a beautiful Russian mail-order-bride who quickly wins the heart of her shy husband in spite of their language barrier. Of course it turns out that {{spoiler|she's really a conwoman who seduces the men she marries.}}
* Ludmilla, the wife of Ivan Drago in ''[[Rocky IV]]'', is a towering and intimidating [[Femme Fatale]] in contrast to the more modest wives of the other boxers.
* A male version is played for laughs in ''[[A Fish Called Wanda]]''. Wanda is turned on whenever Archie Leach [[Gratuitous Foreign Language|speaks Russian]].
* ''Lilya 4-Ever'' is a [[Euroshlock|wildly depressing]] film about a Ukranian teen who is [[Sex Slave|forced into prostitution]] in Sweden and commits suicide. Can be viewed as a deconstruction of the trope.
* Vanessa Angel's character in ''[[Spies Like Us]]''.
* Averted in ''[[Patton]]'' where right after victory in Europe, General Patton and his staff have to smile through a celebration with their Soviet allies and all the women are frumpy and unattractive. Screenwriter [[Francis Ford Coppola]] on the DVD commentary notes that this dated stereotype was based on Nikita Krushchev's wife(seen [http://wandervogeldiary.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/kennedy-and-khrushchev.jpg here] with Jackie Kennedy) and that the recent prevalence of gorgeous supermodels from Russia has proven they actually have some of the most beautiful women in the world.

== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[America (The Book)]]'''s section on Russia notes the Russian Paradox that young Russian women are beautiful while old Russian women are hideous. A picture comparison purports to show a young beauty queen before and after she crosses the threshold, becoming an old crone in the span of two weeks.

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Commander Susan Ivanova of ''[[Babylon 5]]''. She's actually extremely professional and doesn't get involved in many sexual shenanigans whatsoever; while she hates exploiting her sex appeal, she'll do it nevertheless if necessary.
* Elena, of ''[[Peep Show]]'', Series 6.
* In the ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody|Suite Life on Deck]]'' episode "Das Boots", Cody's opponent in a chess tournament is one Sasha Matryoshka, [[Distracted by the Sexy|who's so ridiculously hot that he can't concentrate on his game]]. As Sasha is a gender-neutral name in Russian, Cody assumes it's a boy until he sees her.
* Kira in the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Our Man Bashir". Naturally as Bashir is playing as a knock-off of [[James Bond]].
* Sophie in ''[[Two Broke Girls|2 Broke Girls]]''.
* [[NCIS]] ''Sister City'' had TWO Sensual Slavs, one a defecting GRU agent and one an Internal Affairs operative with a team of Spetznaz enforcers hunting down defectors. The second was something of a [[Worthy Opponent]].

== [[Play-By-Post Games]] ==
* [[Mage Killer]] Evgeniya Konstantinova from ''[[Fate Nuovo Guerra]]''.

== [[Video Games]] ==
* Major Raikov from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]''.
* A certain Not So French woman from ''[[No More Heroes]]'' comes to mind (half Ukraine, half Japanese, in case you were wondering).
* The ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' installment ''Red Alert 2'' saw Lieutenant Zofia (Soviet counterpart to Lieutenant Eva): "Vinter in Moscow iz cold... but purrrhaps zis vinter vill be... different?"
* ''Red Alert 3'' and it's ''Uprising'' expansion give us Lieutenant Dasha Fedorovich (pictured above), played by Bosnian-born Ivana Milicevic.

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Meaningful Name|Molotov Cocktease]] from ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''.
* Natasha Fatale from ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]''.
* The Baroness from ''[[G.I. Joe]]''.
* Linka from ''[[Captain Planet]],'' at least from Wheeler's point of view.
* Talia is depicted as one in ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]''.

== Real Life ==
=== Fashion Industry ===
* Eastern European features are currently highly-coveted in the fashion industry. See, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110107023944/http://hairstyles.makdi.com/karolina-kurkova.jpg Karolina Kurkova], [https://web.archive.org/web/20111107232312/http://www.hollywood-celebrity-pictures.com/Celebrities/Carmen-Kass/Carmen-Kass-6.JPG Carmen Kass], and [http://img.listal.com/image/1503569/600full-natalia-vodianova.jpg Natalia Vodianova]{{Dead link}}. This trend is not entirely new: [http://www.hollywoodcollectibles.com/catalog/images/paulina-porizkova-si-swimsuit-edition-mag.jpg Paulina Porizkova]{{Dead link}} was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue multiple times starting in 1984 when she was 19 and then was signed by Estee Lauder.

=== Porn ===
* A lot of porn videos will advertise with unusual prominence that the participants are Russian or Eastern European. It's a marketing gimmick based on an [[Urban Legend]] circulated in [[The Nineties|the 1990s]], that claimed women from former Communist countries had been [[No Sex Allowed|socially and sexually oppressed]] by the regime, and ''they were [[All Women Are Lustful|eager to recover]] the lost years''. Also, Eastern Europe and the former USSR states are possibly the world's largest producer of pornography, including, it must be said, the underage kind. The Czechs are especially infamous.
* [http://s11.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/e/a/ealewknspxqbkwsa.jpg This issue]{{dead link}} of ''[[Playboy]]''.

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[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:National Stereotyping Tropes]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]