Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Bond's Changing Masculinity

Similarly to the Doctor Who franchise, the Bond films are known for the different actors. With each new Doctor, the series would take a new turn, and revolve around the new characteristics that actor brought to the show. Just like in Bond, the transition from Sean Connery to Roger Moore dramatically changed in the portrayal of Bond's masculinity. 
Connery's masculinity focused more on the kill where it seems that Moore focuses more on the amount of women he seduces. In the movies, Connery's Bond was set on the mission at hand, and carried it out with spy vigor. He hunted down both Dr. No and Scaramanga by using his keen wit and handiness with his gun. The movies made it appear that he actually knew what he was doing, where in the Moore films, he happened to defeat the villains by judo chopping his way to them. In the train scene in Octopussy, Moore spends a majority of the train scene running away and hiding from the baddies. How did they not notice him in the gorilla suit? And how did he even manage to get out of it that smoothly?
In contrast to Connery, Moore spends more of the movie smoozing the women of the film. In The Man with the Golden Gun, he had two women fighting for his attention and he successfully slept with both of them. In the Connery era, he sleeps with women to gain an edge over the villain. By sleeping with Andrea, Bond learned important information about the gold plated assassin. The possibility of sex with Bond is what determined Miss Goodnight to prove herself to him. She attempted to stow away in Scaramanga’s trunk, only to need Bond to save her.  It appears as Bond’s masculinity is measured by the numbers of women he has had sex with. The more women, the manlier Bond seems.

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