.Raven__Smith's latest HeartoftheInternet column discusses the latest James Bond film.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a new James Bond film coming out. Though they have rolled the red carpet in and out for this premiere more times than I care to remember, the 18-month publicity campaign forFor anyone who’s been offline reading fantasy novels and opting out of popular culture for the last 60-odd years, James Bond is a spy. He’s a man running on instinct, adrenaline, and not-stirred vodka.
I understand the criticisms levied at the franchise. Bond is a caveman with an Omega, a misogynist with gadgets, a brute in a tux. His women are objects, his women are trophies, sometimes even painted gold. Bond is peak man, when we think of men as dominant and full of rage, of men as either horny or angry. I get horny, and I get angry but other stuff happens to me too. Bond has a smaller range of emotions. We spend 90 minutes experiencing the impossible fantasy of maleness.
The franchise has made pigeon steps toward modernity. This is Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond, and rumors of a new Bond swirl. Idris Elba has been referred to asfor the role, proving that racial discrimination is alive and well. Millennial catnip Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been drafted in, presumably to up the ante on the double entendres and perhaps bring about a kind of colloquial modernity that Bond has never quite nailed.
The problem is that despite all this rampant red-blooded maleness, I still enjoy a good Bond film. I’m genuinely trying to work out of this is harmful? If we’re actually normalizing misogyny with every film? I’m not sure if Bond weaponizing his erotic potential gives license to all men to do so too.
I’m simply not convinced I need my Bond modernized. I like the hammy puns. I like the Spectres and the Skyfalls. I like the Bassey ballads. I like the espionage. Do we really need every enjoyable thing woken up? People do those “starts, riddled as it is with archaic expectations of straight dating and idealized body types, and ultimately, I feel the same way about Bond.
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