Siren

Two refusals define the role and both are refusals of a reflector's job. A saviour reflects an idealized image of those they save and replenishes their anima, and a siren does neither while remaining powerful, which is what makes them a negative image rather than an endo-ideal. Power without reflection is the anomaly the term names. Sirens are recipients of power through the fear, awe and desire they inspire in others, so the power arrives from the same source as an idol's and is not converted into an obligation. Marsh's contrast is direct. Unlike the pale, young and virginal saviour martyrs, the sirens are dark, mature and fully embracing what they are, which is the iconography of the two roles rather than an incidental description, since the saviour must be empty of will to reflect and the siren is defined by having one. The consequence is punishment rather than admiration. Her examples are channelers of primary anima who refused or were refused the saviour position, and she names Sinead O'Connor, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin as tremendous channelers who became vulnerable and filled with anima from public adulation, at which point a frenzy of predators demanded they give it all away and more. The saviour, martyr and siren entries together describe one situation with three outcomes, depending on whether the powerful person reflects, is consumed, or refuses.

The siren of Greek myth lures sailors to destruction and the femme fatale is her literary descendant, both figures where female attractiveness is coded as danger. Feminist criticism has analysed the Madonna and whore division at length, and Marsh uses that pairing directly in describing the saviour and her necessary opposite. Celebrity studies documents the build and destroy cycle applied to women performers. Marsh's contribution is to make the distinction structural rather than iconographic, since what separates the siren from the saviour is a refusal to perform a function rather than any quality attributed to her, which predicts that the punishment follows the refusal rather than the persona.