The Bond Girls

The Bond Girls

Whenever there is a Bond film, there is always a Bond girl. She is as indispensable as the gadgets, the car, the chase and the villain set on overtaking the earth.

They have always been in the centre of controversy; they have always been branded as beautiful women (often with sexually overt names) who need Bond and ironically, Bond cannot complete his mission without them. They always seem to have perfection in everything they do. However, this portrayal of women can be somewhat unrealistic. Some may want the representation of the ‘Bond Girl’ to stay as it is but others may want the portrayal of the ‘Bond Girl’ to depict the modern idea of ‘girl power.’

I for one think that this representation of women is harmless, partly because it is only a fictional character. It is a representation to be regarded only in entertainment.

In this essay, I am going to look at and analyse the Bond saga looking especially at how the ‘Bond Girls’ in particular are shown and how their characteristics and qualities have changed over the decades.

The James Bond series was created to boost up Britain’s prospects of being noticed as a powerful country with their own hero armed with fast cars, girls, gadgets and gimmicks. Over the years the audience grew to love this hero who they called ‘Bond, James Bond’ with his callous persona, dead-pan humour armed with good looks and a sexy voice to go with his trademark saying. In reality, Britain was falling rapidly from the world stage.

The first ‘Bond’ film, released in 1962 was ‘Dr. No’. It was created with a meagre £90.000 budget and featured Sean Connery (then a virtually unknown actor) who was to play Bond’s character for the remainder of the decade with the exception of 1969’s release of ‘In His Majesty’s Secret Service’ featuring George Lazenby.

Throughout the years of Bond, every film has been popular despite the changes in actors, directors and producers. The films gave the audience a visit back to the propaganda-filled forties. It also gave the audience a sense of diversion through all the action and the sense of satisfaction at being able to predict the finish. Every Bond film has followed the ‘Bond formula,’ which helps the audience become aware of the chain of events that occurs in the Bond movies.

His character, although quite old, is still popular with younger generation. I t...

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...suggests that she has been through some sort of rough activity. The font used in the postcard is big, gold, in use of capitals, which alludes to luxury and wealth, and the symbol of the gold gun suggests wealth and action. The gold colour connotes glamour and sexiness.

The writing and name of the title; ‘the world is not enough’ suggests that the characters are not happy with what they have and therefore they want more. The world cannot give them what they yearn for.

Whatever’s changed about the Bond Girls, they still have to be racy, active, sexy and uncomplicated. I think perhaps that this is what has made them more accessible and acceptable to women.

I think these changes have occurred because women’s’ role in the society have changed over the years. Until recently, women were the weaker sexes compared to the dominating males. Women were passive and were just happy being portrayed as such. However, over the years, more and more women fought for their rights and nowadays want equality with men. More women have taken up occupations, which before were considered to be men’s jobs.

The depictions of women in films have changed in time with society to ensure the films popularity.