The Trouble with Bond, Pt. 2
Newsletter 9: Essay 4 of 6
There’s something about the adrenaline rush that increases Bond’s libido. After a near fatal run-in with one of his many nemeses, he is usually ready for a lay. It might be similar to the way testosterone levels increase after workouts. Also, we know that people can form intense emotional, psychological, and sexual connections from shared trauma. While eye-roll inducing, it has well-established psychological basis.
Bond can’t help but ogle at any and every woman in his path, especially in the Connery and Moore years, which probably speaks to reflections of pervasive culture than anything. Dalton is perhaps the most focused of them all, having more intensity and grit that his predecessors. The womanizing is definitely toned done in the Brosnan years, though it is still evident even up until Craig’s Quantum of Solace.
It cannot be easy, however, because many women he’s slept with end up dead for associating with him or during the course of the mission.
One can imagine that Bond is in fact desperately lonely. We do not get an inkling about his origins until GoldenEye, which is expounded upon in Skyfall. His parents died when he was barely a teen. Bond may search not only for the physical connection but an emotional, nurturing one. Is his relationship with women an unconscious search for intimacy without the capacity to retain it? Does he guard his heart since so many relationships seem doomed?
Not forming meaningful emotional connections as a child would affect someone into adulthood, something cleverly masked with Bond’s mischievous grins and flippantly laughed off. We cannot be mistaken: Bond has experienced incredible trauma and if Skyfall is any indication, his PTSD is self-medicated and has not been addressed with any meaningful talk therapy or psychiatric medication.
A sore spot for Bond is undoubtedly, the death of his wife, Teresa Bond. She was a strong-willed and independent woman who did not bend to his charms like others did, rather, she had the agency to choose Bond for herself. We saw her inner struggle with defying her father’s wishes and standing firm as her own person. He admired her above all others and, like any bad boy, found the woman who would not easily be swayed. She saw him. She also let him know he was chosen, not the other way around. For her own charm, wit, and intelligence, for being the one, she was murdered on her wedding day. She would have served a savvy and clever equal, building a small empire of her own creation, which was the real tragedy in her loss.
It’s not hard to imagine that the trauma of a murdered spouse could keep Bond emotionally stunted and willing to eschew honest relationships and vulnerability.
Put simply, Bond has a problem with women. The canon uses two types of women in the series: sustainable and disposable. Neither are all positive.
Toying with a Strong Female Figure
Pussy Galore, of Goldfinger fame, is unique as a skilled pilot, powerful organization member in Auric Goldfinger’s clan, and a queer coded entrepreneur. I found her very impressive and began to root for her success and escape from these dueling men. Perhaps the writers thought that too. At a critical junction, where Bond needed her help to carry out his plan, Bond assaults Pussy, uncomfortably forcing himself onto her until she seems to submit. But don’t be mistaken, it’s rape. Only then was she willing to assist, but by then, I was a bit disgusted. Bond’s peen was so persuasive that someone as focused and strong as Pussy could be swayed. No woman was immune.
Major Anya Amasova or Agent XXX is a highly intelligent, resourceful, professional, and determined KGB operative who has never failed a mission. She spars with Bond in every way throughout The Spy Who Loved Me, besting him in stealth, deception, and knowledge. Despite her dogged mission to kill the man who murdered her longtime lover, finding out it’s Bond derails her. It wasn’t personal, but a casualty of the work they did. While a pig, he’d proven himself loyal and perhaps that was enough. I’d argue she was the best femme character of the early years.
While women on Bond canon are presented as seemingly well-rounded, they often serve as buttresses to Bond’s character, relying on petty bickering to heighten sexual tension, thereby reinforcing his prowess. Their characters quickly deflate during the course of the mission, as Bond takes the lead and they are left needing to be saved. It is only much later in GoldenEye that Natalya Siminova, a missile guidance systems programmer, provides unique and indispensable skills that help complete the mission. Her character does not get much screen time, however, and it takes mere seconds to go from aversion to longing.
Disposable women
To count the number of women Bond has bedded would take a whole other rewatch of all 25 movies. I think about those women as devices used to prop up Bond’s image as a superior lover, charmer, and manipulator. We see that at any juncture, a perfectly reasonable woman can be swept up and taken in by his eyes. Pathetic? Slutty? I posit neither.
Imagine you’re on holiday in Geneva or Nassau and meet a devastatingly handsome and smooth man who is intelligent, well off, and very interested in you. He buys your drinks and actively listens to every corny thing you say. He wipes tzatziki sauce off the corner of your mouth and assures you it’s a taste of things to come. You’re drawn in and have exciting, rapturous sex with a stranger in the penthouse suite. Afterward, he gets an urgent call and leaves you naked among billowing silk sheets.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t pity those women. They probably had seared scallops at the bar before sweating it out in a gilded bedroom. Not bad for a solo vacation. Think of the stories that woman could tell about the time she was fairly certain she slept with a spy. She was lucky and didn’t end up in the middle of a shootout. She got orgasms, room service, and a hot shower.
Far be it for me to imagine having to uphold such a legacy, but I do recognize as a writer the importance of making femme characters dynamic. I learn from the Bond canon’s example that while there is a place for a character to advance the action or the motivation of the protagonist, that I must take care not to have too many femmes end up patting the hero on the back on his road to victory.
All too often, these disposable women are squeezed for information, pressed to reveal a criminal’s habits or secrets, or simply discarded after whispered promises. She is a lock picked like any other and when Bond is done, he is on to the next. We see his disregard and cruelty, but I’d like to think better of the women who know they’ve been used. Bond is an escapist fantasy and he plays it well. But even in the ranks of those who’ve graced his bed, perhaps some already knew his game and decided to play anyway.
~~~
As we bid adieu to Daniel Craig, some question whether or not the next Bond should be a woman. In a recent interview, Craig said there should be better roles for women. I agree. The lure of the series is rooting for the man of mystery. There are plenty of places for a Bond ally to go toe to toe with the agent and become an endearing character. Perhaps there’s room for a female spy to have a series of her own. We need not imagine a world where there is a femme Bond, but a woman all her own who walks off into her own sunset, finally the hero.
Catch up on the previous essays:
The Birth of a Spy
Building a Secret Agent
The Trouble with Bond, Pt. 1