Shaken, Not Stirred

In response to Nancy’s post on my new blog, I’ve got to be honest. I don’t like James Bond.

Don’t get me wrong. As a teen I read the whole series of Ian Fleming’s novels, and enjoyed them immensely. But the movie franchise, with only the most abstract references to the books, is rubbish.

The reason? Well, the main one… if you have a woman who tries to fuck everybody in sight, it is considered unacceptable. She’s a slut or a whore. At the very least, she has no standards.

Yet when James Bond does the same, it’s not just acceptable, it’s celebrated!

So there’s my reasoning. It’s misogynist. I’m sorry to be so grumpy about this, but it is exactly this “innocuous” nonsense which reinforces the stereotype that a woman is not as good as a man. It’s just a bit of fun. Is it? So is a wolf-whistle.

To be honest, then, I think the only way you can play such a role is tongue-in-cheek. To be so outlandishly OTT that you turn the character into a parody, so totally unbelievable he could not be taken seriously. For me, Roger Moore did that the best.

I must admit to not being a great movie buff, so I don’t really know the other actors, but the other thing that Moore had going for him was that he was a good man. Actor? Irrelevant. A good human being. He used the fame afforded by this role to do good. There’s a serious point here. It’s not just a case of my favourite actor was X, that’s too shallow. It’s a case of how they used the fame afterwards.

Here’s a tribute I posted to him in 2020. It is worth the read.

A photo of the actor, Roger Moore

28 comments

  1. I liked Moore. The first program I saw him in was The Saint. He had the capacity to play tongue in cheek very well. And I agree with you on the double standards regarding men and women.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Most people would say “it’s just entertainment” but I think we should be awre that it is propagating a myth, that Cubby Broccoli’s view of this suave secret agent whose mission was to screw everything that moved very much belongs in the past.

      I think it’d be great fun to have the role played now by an extrenely camp actor!

      Liked by 1 person

    • Yeah, that’s true. And they were big budget, too, so the movies tended to be well-made. Exotic locations etc. A couple of the very early Connery movies were set in Jamaica and the Bahamas and… audiences could only dream…
      But, they developed the character into this kinda playboy, which has been ourtdated for some time.

      Liked by 1 person

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