James Bond, this heartbroker, is in fact deeply sexist and racist. Especially when it comes to the old shutters, although Daniel Craig’s version could still make a tiny bit of effort. A look back at the frankly problematic vintage version of 007.
To die can wait the new part of the James Bond franchise, is finally released in theaters on Wednesday, October 6, 2021. We have seen it and, as we told you, this latest film with Daniel Craig finally shows a deeper and somewhat shaken James Bond in its sexist habits by genuinely inspiring, badass and, for once, not sexualized women. It took a long time for the famous franchise to give pride of place to women.
Agent 007 has long been this ultra-misogynistic male character and womanizer. It is therefore difficult for some spectators to identify themselves. Before Daniel Craig, there were notably Pierce Brosman and Sean Connery. Both are talented, attractive and up to James Bond, but this character has often crossed the line. Unfortunately, not surprisingly, his sexist and racist behavior was no problem at the time the films were released. Yet James Bond is indeed the worst guy on earth and we explain why with four shocking examples to say the least.
Read also : “Die can wait”: finally a feminist James Bond?
James Bond (Sean Connery) who “makes fun” in Japanese, it’s no
In We only live twice, directed by Gilbert Lewis and released in 1967, Sean Connery went on a mission to Japan. Do you see the racist clichés coming? You just hit the nail on the head. It’s inevitable, Agent 007 commits the worst in the fifth installment of the James Bond franchise. During the film, we even see him “make up” in Japanese in order to pass himself off as a fisherman and go incognito. The discomfort is at its maximum!
James Bond is a forcer who doesn’t give a damn about consent
In Operation Tonerre, released in 1965, James Bond has no respect for women and does not take their consent into account. We think in particular of the scene where he kisses by force a nurse who tries, somehow to struggle. This scene, in hindsight, has nothing to do with seduction and the character of Sean Connery terrifies the women he meets in his path. But what do you want? Rape culture in the 1960s was rife.
Read also : We explain everything about the culture of rape, a real scourge in cinema
James Bond slamming his buttocks: a sexual abuser
Unfortunately, on the rape culture side, we have often been served more than once with James Bond. Sexually assaulting his sisters, the British agent has done it many times. Like this sequence, in Goldfinger released in 1964, where he said goodbye to his masseuse Dink by slapping him on the buttocks. “Dink says ‘goodbye’ to Felix. Men have to talk “, he exclaims in passing. Class … And we don’t even tell you about another chilling scene from the movie that shows Agent 007 going after a lesbian woman in a barn. And if she struggles, they’ll end up having sex. James Bond, in this film, is a rapist, nothing more and nothing less.
James Bond: the king of the fetishization of racialized women
Worse yet, James Bond has also, a few times, displayed racism and sexism at the same time. To believe that it is an Olympic sport for Agent 007. In We only live twice, directed by Gilbert Lewis, the male character swings the worst phrase an Asian woman can hear after sex. In bed with a Japanese woman, Sean Connery wonders. “Why don’t Japanese women have the same taste as Western women?” Not to mention that he ends up comparing his partner to caviar … For us, it’s zero points in seduction!
Mélanie deciphers pop culture from a societal angle and questions the female gaze in films or even series, because everything is a question of gaze, she …