Representation of women in James Bond films

[Hayley_H]

Hi for my media I'm studying females in the James Bond films. If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be a big help.Thanks

1. Do any of the women’s in the JB films have significant entrances or exits?

2. What do the women in the JBond films have in common?

3. How are females portrayed within the JB films, including female villians?

4. Do the portrayl of female characters match women off their time?

5. What are the females relationships like with Bond?

6. Also any opinions on the female characters in Doctor No, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Golden Eye and Die Another Day.

Or any other general opinions on women in the James Bond films would be very useful.

Thanks
Haylee

[DB7]

(Hayle_H @ Oct 5 2005, 05:57 PM) Hi for my media I'm studying females in the James Bond films. If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be a big help.Thanks 1. Do any of the women's in the JB films have significant entrances or exits?

Surely you know the answer to this one? Hubba hubba

[Steve Crook]

(Hayle_H @ Oct 5 2005, 04:57 PM 2. What do the women in the JBond films have in common?

They are all women!
Can I have my media studies degree now please?

Steve

[smudge]

(Steve Crook @ Oct 5 2005, 06:51 PM) They are all women! Can I have my media studies degree now please? Steve

No - because you answered in a single, clear and concise sentence. Now take 500 lines, "I must learn to be more abstract..."

SMUDGE

[samkydd]

(Hayle_H @ Oct 5 2005, 05:57 PM) Hi for my media I'm studying females in the James Bond films. If anyone could answer any of these questions it would be a big help.Thanks Thanks Haylee

1. Do any of the women’s in the JB films have significant entrances or exits?

Ursula Andress originally was going to appear in the altogether on the beach but she had such a significant entrance that even with long range fuzzy arty shots with a tele-photo lens it was still visible and so she had to cover it up with white bikini bottoms and a very broad belt.

2. What do the women in the JBond films have in common?

Most leading Bond women are subservient to a master, like in the real world back then before society upset the status quo. Bond’s gay character makes them feel safe and they get a little of their self-esteem back, not much but a little, and try and reward him in the only way they know how, but he is in denial about his sexuality, and like a customs officer searching a suspected drugs mule, he is expected to go through the motions.

For baddies see 3.

3. How are females portrayed within the JB films, including female villians?


For goodies see 2.

The female villains are portrayed as butch lesbian types, not very nice looking and with all the feminine charm of a homophobic all-in wrestler in a prison communal shower with no soap dishes attached to the walls! One exception was the Italian beauty Luciana Paluzzi who played Fiona Volpe in Thunderball, who was much better looking and sexier than the main Bond girl. However, she was a very nasty murdering bitch and got her just deserts by being shot accidently by one of her henchmen, not long after Bond got inside her character.

The Grace Jones May Day character in A View To A Kill was also a butch lesbian type, but her feminine side eventually shone through when she saved Bond in a mine rigged with a bomb, and straddled the nuclear warhead in symbolic surrender to Bond's pseudo masculinity.

Rosa Klebb was the epitome of a Bond bad girl; ugly, butch, psychopathic and no redeeming qualities whatsoever, like a Dalek with a migraine!

4. Do the portrayal of female characters match women of their time?

Yes, back in the Swinging 60s when the Bond saga began, women were either airheaded bimbos, or, with the advent of social welfare and many new careers open to woman in social work and teaching, they were often butch lesbian types who adopted a masculine persona and dressed like Canadian gold prospectors, listened to Joan Baez records and threw away the little pink razor!

5. What are the females relationships like with Bond?

Most leading Bond girls are pitiful pathetic women under the spell of a geriatric control freak and are too idle to do anything off their own bat, so they have to wait for someone like Bond to come along and free them from their bondage. The millionaire lifestyle apparently sapping all their strength and will so they can’t escape from the bad guy, who they wanted to be with in the first place let’s not forget, for the lazy glamorous aforementioned millionaire lifestyle!

It’s similar to married women on housing estates in Basingstoke, and the novelty of white goods, laminated flooring, package holiday to Spain, and the husband's company Vauxhall Vectra with alloy wheels soon wears off and they either turn to Mills & Boon as a way of escaping the drudgery of being a kept woman to a lardy rep with a goatee, or go part time at Tesco, hoping to meet a cash rich electrical contractor with a 4X4 double cab pick up truck renovating his own detached cottage in rural Hampshire!

6. Also any opinions on the female characters in Doctor No, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Golden Eye and Die Another Day.

See below

Or any other general opinions on women in the James Bond films would be very useful.

All Bond women are depicted as useless bimbos if they’re the leading lady, and butch types trying to be nastier than the men if they work for the baddies. Miss Moneypenny has been waiting for so long for Bond to sweep her off her feet that she must be very frustrated and somewhat deluded. M changed to a woman but the character is not deep enough for the gender to make any difference, M is just a civil servant. Pussy Galore was probably the only one with any self respect, albeit with a name like that, but even she fell for the Bond spiel!

In reality Bond hankered after the henchmen, Oddjob, Tee Hee and Jaws, and was often helpless in their arm(s) only fighting them off so as not to reveal his true sexuality to the femme fatale who sat watching, too lazy to even get up off the bed and smash a table lamp over the baddie's head to assist her rescuer!

[sanndevil]

(Steve Crook @ Oct 5 2005, 06:51 PM) They are all women! Can I have my media studies degree now please? Steve

Bleedin' 'ell, he's at it again!

I think we need a new section on this bulletin board - called "Homework".

[Fran]

If she cuts and pastes these answers into her homework she'll get an E minus for factual content and an A plus for originality

[catslikefelix]

(Fran @ Oct 6 2005, 12:57 PM) If she cuts and pastes these answers into her homework she'll get an E minus for factual content and an A plus for originality. :clapping:

1. Do any of the women’s in the JB films have significant entrances or exits?

I think it's fair to say given that the women were booked more for their looks than acting prowess that they all undoubtedly have superb entrances & exits but you never get to see them as it's a family show........

[Timmers009]

Im currently taken my A levels, and in media we have a critical research project. My question is: "Has the portrayal of Bond Girls changed with time" any comments and thoughts will be much appriciated.

Many Thanks

Tim

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by Timmers009 Im currently taken my A levels, and in media we have a critical research project. My question is: "Has the portrayal of Bond Girls changed with time" any comments and thoughts will be much appriciated. Many Thanks Tim

If you say what you think then people might comment on that.
They're often reluctant to do all the work for you

Steve

[orpheum]

on the one hand yes but on the other hand no

[Moor Larkin]

Originally Posted by Timmers009 "Has the portrayal of Bond Girls changed with time" any comments and thoughts will be much appriciated.

Yes! Now they're in charge......

[batman]

casino royale 2006
dr no 1962


not on the surface .....

[Wolfgang]

I think 60s Bond embraced femininity rather than today's feminism and it makes them more memorable. Even Rosa Klebb is actually more feminine than say Halle Berry or Eva Greene in her own way because she is vicious bitch (even more so to her own henchman than to Bond when she pulls out her knuckle duster to try him out). There are actually two 'faces' to femininity, your Snow Whites and your vixens which encompass woman's most positive and negative virtues so Bond girls were either stuff of dreams or nightmares. I think today's girls fall into neither category and consequently are completely unmemorable.

[julian_craster]

A timely reminder that the best ever 'Bond girl' was born into the male gender...Christine Cossey