An insight into the various roles of women in the James Bond franchise, and why a female Bond is not necessarily the right way to combat the typical misogyny and lack of diversity seen in them.
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD
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ith the latest iteration in the James Bond saga, No Time to Die, at last hitting cinemas in late September, the inevitable question of Daniel Craig’s successor resurfaced. Various names have been thrown around, from Henry Cavill to Idris Elba. Amongst these, there has also been talk of a female bond replacement as a way to buck the trend – much like the newest Dr Who, played by Jodie Whittaker, in BBC One’s latest season. This comes following the increasing emergence of roles for women in the Bond franchise, whereby they do not merely exist as sex objects, conforming with one of the three archetypes seen throughout the books and films; Roald Dahl, who wrote the screenplay for You Only Live Twice, stated that “you use three different girls and Bond has them all. No more and no less”. Thus, the three Bond girls encountered are the sacrificial lamb, the femme fatale, and the heroine. The former, best exemplified by Shirley Easton’s Jill Masterson in Goldfinger (1964), is a woman who falls for Bond, before dying, used in terms of narrative as a way of motivating him to complete his mission: “Girl number one is violently pro-Bond. She stays around roughly the first reel of the picture. Then, she is bumped off by the enemy, preferably in Bond’s arms. In bed or not in bed? Wherever [the writer] likes, so long as it’s in good taste.” “Girl number two is anti-Bond. She works for the enemy and stays around for the middle third of the picture. She must capture Bond, and Bond must save himself by bowling her over with sheer sexual magnetism. This girl should also be bumped off, preferably in an original fashion.” This figure is easily recognisable from other media, having originated around the 1940s and 50s, where, following a period of war, men feared that women had gained too much
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THE WOMAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN By Isabel Clarke
