James Bond

So this week we are preparing to hear from the group presenting Casino Royale and the infamous spy James Bond. We watched various clips of the movie Goldfinger and there were many references that I have heard in pop culture that I was able to see in context, but I also noticed how drastic the dynamic between male and female was in the film. James Bond is obviously represented as the epitome of manly men; a dangerous spy and unquenchable ladies' man. I had no idea how far it went in the actual film, however. The movie begins with Bond successfully completing a mission by destroying a drug lab, then immediately proceeding to seduce a beautiful woman. He makes it look so easy because it is supposed to be for such a suave guy. However, it becomes apparent that the woman means absolutely nothing to him when upon seeing a potential assassin in the reflection of the woman's pupil, he does not hesitate to put her in harms way and use her as a shield to get the upper hand on the hitman. She falls to the ground unconscious, Bond ultimately wins the fight with the guy. As she comes to, he simply grabs his jacket and exits the room with a corny one-liner. 


The blatant sexism continues as Bond uncovers more about the elusive Goldfinger and his gold bullion smuggling ring and ultimate plan to make his own gold even more valuable. Every woman seen in the movie is slim, beautiful, young, and incredibly easy to seduce. All of the women are turned into sex objects no matter what they do. They are also apparently simple to dispose of, as evidenced by Bond's female human shield in the first scene and the suffocation and gold paint-covered Goldfinger accomplice Jill Masterson. It is as if to perpetuate that the only thing women are good for is to look good in a bathing suit and maybe be intimidating with a gun, but not too intimidating. At the swimming pool before Bond spies on Goldfinger cheating at gin rummy, he is getting a massage by a beautiful blond woman. Before she can even want to know what is going on, she is shooed away by Bond because of "man talk" and she even gets a slap on the behind. God forbid a woman would just be curious about the events happening, it is obvious that she would not understand and be wasting their time with her small, infantile woman brain. It was just so interesting to see the representation of gender differences in the genre. It made it look so normal that almost every single encounter with a woman led to sex one way or another, at least normal for a spy. It made all the boys want to become secret agent spies so that they could treat women like crap and still get to sleep with them again and again, especially numerous women without any consequences or silly responsibility at all.