But from the Spy who loved me to the latest film, Die another day, there is significant development in both these themes. In the Spy who loved me Bond chooses to risk his own life and rescue the Bond girl, Anya from a submarine. In the Timothy Dalton era (The living daylights and License to kill) Bond forms a more romantic relationship with the Bond girls and treats them lovingly and caringly.
Female characters have also had more importance in the films. This has been very clear in the Pierce Brosnan era (Goldeneye to Die another day). Characters such as Wai Lin in Tomorrow never dies and Jinx in Die another day become a main part of the story and are presented as Bond’s partner. Wai Lin even exhibits fighting skills that are better than those of Bonds. Diversity of female characters has also been exhibited as they have evolved from being the sidekick of powerful male villain in many of the earlier Connery and Roger Moore films such as Fiona Volpe in Thunderball to being the powerful villainess behind the whole scheme – Electra King in The world is not enough. Role reversals in Bond have also become common in some of the latest Bonds with pierce Brosnan. We catch up with one of Bonds past lovers, Rosie Carver, in Tomorrow never dies, and for once it is the woman who slaps Bond. Carver is one of the women who Bond has bedded and then left and the fact that the movie finally gives us an answer as to what has happened to many of the past lovers Bond has had shows that the series is developing.
One of the most noticeable developments has been the appointment of a female M. This is further proof of the development of female roles in Bond as a female character is now Bond boss. She is also a character that does not get pushed around and exhibits skill in difficult situations, such as her imprisonment in The world is not enough. She calls Bond a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur” (Goldeneye) which is interesting as a female voice is finally condemning Bond for his actions.
The social depictions of the lives of the female characters have been quite varied throughout the series. They all seem to be living luxurious lives, but overall their roles in the society of the film seems to have developed from Honey Rider being a shell collector in Dr No. and Dr. Xmas Jones being a nuclear physicist in The world is not enough. Female secret agents also have developed from Goodnight making an annoying incompetent assistant in Goldfinger to Anya, Wai Lin and Jinx (The spy who loved me, Tomorrow never dies and Die another day) making secret agents as equal as Bond and respected by him – shown by him calling Wai Lin his “partner”.
I did notice however that in terms of sexuality Bond girls have remained the same. During the Timothy Dalton era, sex was toed down a lot and the films do not make it clear Bond has sex but the implications are still there. The Bond girls seem to follow a trend of having to be young, beautiful and sexy. This has not changed. Those girls who are not as aesthetically pleasing, such as Rosa Klebb (From Russia with love) and Moneypenny are given roles as being evil and a lesbian or the secretary. Sex seems to be portrayed as importantly in the more modern Bond films as they were in the earlier Bond films. In the latest film Die another day the manner in which the audience are introduced to the leading Bond girl exemplifies that sex is still key in the representation of Bond Girls as Jinx rises out of the sea in a dripping wet bikini, very similar to Honey Rider in the first Bond film, Dr No. It takes one minute of talk before Bond beds Jinx, which compares with Bond taking one minute to bed Sylvia Trench, who is the first Bond girl. Throughout the series Bond seems to bed one girl in the beginning of the film and ends in bed with another. This has not changed with the exclusion of the two films with Timothy Dalton. Double entendres still flow from Bonds mouth as readily as they did before “you said something about going down together?” The world is not enough. The quite sexual imagery used in the title sequence of almost every Bond film has still not changed in its nature, as it still contains images of silhouettes of naked/half-naked women dancing. This shows that women are still being reflected as objects of desire in every film. So through my research I have decided that sex is a very key element in the representations of the Bond girls.
A character I noticed when performing textual analysis was Moneypenny, who has been an ever-present female character. I thought by following her development it would give me a good idea into how the roles of the women in Bond have evolved. But this was more difficult than I thought. I discovered that the first Moneypenny played by Lois Maxwell from Dr No. to A view to a kill was extremely witty and seemed to genuinely be interested in Bond even hinting at a wedding ring in Diamond are forever. Caroline Bliss’ Moneypenny in The living daylights and License to kill seemed more reserved and had a little crush on Bond. The latest Moneypenny, played by Samantha Bond is very professional and seems to just have sexual fantasies about Bond (as seen in Die another day). Based on the depiction of Moneypenny I believe that Maxwell’s Moneypenny shows a woman who is more romantic, while Bliss’ Moneypenny does not show a great deal of character and is quite reserved she jus seems to have a passing fancy for Bond, while Samantha Bond’s Moneypenny seems to be more sexually assertive. I think this is a sign that women in Bond have developed to be more confident in what they want.
I discovered that using my research I discovered a lot of different opinion about how Bond girls have changed over time. Most of the research supported my observation that the representation of Bond had changed a huge amount by the end of the Roger Moore era. In Winterson’s article Girls, girls, girls, she relates the change in Moneypenny to the series as a whole “Bond women have evolved… Moneypenny is no longer the sad spinster of yesterday but an attractive sexy powerbroker who fancies Bond, without needing him”. Articles such as “Oh James…” by Shawn Levy support my observations as Levy describes the Bond in the earlier films as a “sex machine” with an “impressive list as one-night stands”. Levy maintains that all his leading ladies devolved into “helpless damsels or irritating airheads”. Levy then observes that while Bond was “ on the verge of becoming the narcissistic cad [he] does an about-face starting with The Spy Who Loved Me, which completely supports my observations.
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But the book and documentary “Bond girls are forever” by Bond girl Maryam d’Abo and John Cork gave a slightly different look on the development of Bond girls. D’Abo claims that Bond girls have “always been independent, strong characters throughout the series”. She claims the sexual assertiveness of the characters exemplify their “strong will”. She uses the analysis of critics to back up her claims, such as Paglia who claims that “Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, is one of the most commanding, authoritative characters in popular culture of the time”. But I believe that d’Abo being a Bond girl herself would be quite biased and would want to defend people from attacking Bond girls as she herself is a Bond girl. Although she does make good claims as she explains that the submissive women are “rarely in leading roles – the bathing girls, the patients in the clinic, the circus performers”. She also point out there are good qualities of all the Bond girls such as the fact that in Dr No. Sylvia Trench approaches Bond showing her confidence, which is true. I decided d’Abo did hold some bias to an extent, as she did not go into the negatives of characters that have been mainly attacked by critics such as Honey Rider and merely said she was “adventurous”. Adams on the other hand in Bond Girls: gender, technology and film that Rider is “extremely submissive” and is “just there to look good”. Even the actress who plays Honey Rider – Ursula Andress has been quoted in the book The James Bond girls (by Graham Rye), as saying “"I was really lucky that they liked it so much, because I just stand there with a shell and that's it. I was just standing there, doing nothing, by the sea."
I had done research into how the roles of women in society had changed to see if this had impacted the Bond series. I found the results were very interesting as there was a clear pattern. In Bond girls are forever Cork explains that in the 1950’s the introduction of the birth pill in the USA and UK, as well as playboys success “aided the sexually assertive representations of women in the early Bond films” and “gave a cultural approval for a generation of young women to experiment with sex before making a life commitment”. He also explains that the reason for the significant change in the representations of Bond girls after Goldfinger was due to the equal pay bill.
I used the sociology book Haralambous and Holborn ‘Sociology’ to research this more and it explained that the equal pay act was passed in 1970 and the sex discrimination act passed in 1975, the year in which The spy who loved me was released. This meant a change in the roles of women in society meant that the women in Bond had to be changed so that it would be better received which could have been the reason for the change in representation of the women in The spy who loved me onwards. Simpson supports this in the Haralambous and Holborn ‘Sociology’ book as he claims that the new law would hope to “eradicate sexism and stereotypical views of women and men from the mass media”. I also researched into why the Timothy Dalton films, This is shown by the fact that for the first time Bond shows true respect for her risking his life for her and calling her his “partner” showing here to be his equal. The living daylights and license to kill were so reserved in their sexual depictions e.g. the camera moving away after Bond starts kissing a female character in the beginning of The living daylights. Haralambous and Holborn ‘Sociology’ explained there was a rise of aids at this time and this was supported by Cork in Bond girls are forever, who explained that after the rise of aids heath professional urged restraints in the media representation of sex. This could definitely explain the change in representation of women and sex in Bond during the Dalton films. Cork explains that in the nineties most “masculine assumptions disappeared” which can also explain the fact that in Brosnan films such as Goldeneye, Bond needs the help of the Bond girl, to defeat the villain.
Another reason for the change in representations of women in the nineties definitely could be due to the large increase of female production members. Barbara Broccoli even became the first female producer on Bond films in Goldeneye.
In the documentary Bond girls are forever. Producer Mike Wilson said in an interview during Die Another Day “ Half of my executives are women. My mother is chairman of the company.” He also says that his “ chief financial officer” and “chief publicity officer” are female and that there is “a lot of input from women in [the] scripts.” This shows that the representation of women in Bond have defiantly changed as the number of women behind the Bond series have changed and this would defiantly have an impact on the series.
Ultimately, I believe the role of women in James Bond in some ways has changed a lot. They have more important and diverse roles in the script, they seem to be have huge effects on Bond’s character and emotions (e.g. Bond being emotionally touched at the death of Electra in The world is not enough). They are also being represented as being more valued members in the society depicted in Bond films, from being a shell collector to being the boss of Bond. But in other ways, namely the sexual denotation of the women, things have not changed. Bond still seduces and beds women quickly, using witty one liners “I’m here for the birds” (Die another day). Women are also dressed as seductively as possible. So in conclusion I believe that the representation of women have changed a great deal over the Bond franchise as they are more independent and strong but in other ways they have remained in the same mould as they are still portrayed as sexually assertive and easy to seduce.
