In an elegantly crafted guest appearance in Barry Gifford’s Wild at Heart, Perdita Durango is rumored to have killed her own child. As a getaway driver, Perdita observes the slapstick death of her boyfriend as he manages to shoot himself in the head while escaping. One would anticipate her career in her own eponymous thriller to be an old fashioned roller coaster ride between Amarillo and the Gulf of Mexico, with bonus fracases as far west as LA. It doesn’t disappoint. The name of the attractive young woman Perdita and her partner Romeo kidnap is Estelle Satisfy. They kidnap her and her boyfriend because are sexually attracted to them: not for ransom, but for their bodies. . Perdita tells Estelle that “Girls like you got a kind of sickness, and the only way to cure it is to kill it. Always talkin’ about what’s good, love and that shit, when you’re same as me, just no particular piece of trash.”
Perdita is not a femme fatale. She does not deceive, does not seduce, and does not operate within a gender role that requires her to gain respect by being glamorously dressed, able to be au courant regarding fads, social amenities, or the kinds of cultural capital reserved for the elite. That Estelle is comfortable with these conventions explains Perdita’s desire to show her she is like Perdita, under the adorable skin.
The name of the attractive young woman Perdita and her partner Romeo kidnap is Estelle Satisfy. They kidnap her and her boyfriend because are sexually attracted to them: not for ransom, but for their bodies. . Perdita tells Estelle that “Girls like you got a kind of sickness, and the only way to cure it is to kill it. Always talkin’ about what’s good, love and that shit, when you’re same as me, just no particular piece of trash.”
Perdita is not a femme fatale. She does not deceive, does not seduce, and does not operate within a gender role that requires her to gain respect by being glamorously dressed, able to be au courant regarding fads, social amenities, or the kinds of cultural capital reserved for the elite. That Estelle is comfortable with these conventions explains Perdita’s desire to show her she is like Perdita, under the adorable skin.