Evolution of Bond Girls
By: Nhan Phan
Celebrating No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s final movie as the dapper British agent that we all know as 007, it is important to examine the evolution of one of the most important components of James Bond movies: Bond girls.
Historically, Bond girls were either Bond’s accomplice or the enemy, attracted by Bond himself. Approaching the Daniel Craig era, there were a few that existed out of these categories, but they eventually died or ended the movie as Bond’s lover. Over the years, the ‘Bond girl’ image has been attributed with the worst aspects of the 007 franchise, being considered sexist, racist, classist, and ultimately utilizing stereotypical body beauty tendencies (despite a changing attitude towards body pride and body positivity). In fact, many label the term ‘Bond girl’ as being dismissive and possessive. No Time To Die, however, redefined the image of a Bond girl.
In the 007 series’ first movie, Dr. No, Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress, became 007’s love interest and, thus, was dubbed the ‘Original Bond Girl.’ She was blonde, tanned, dressed in a white bikini, and singing a sweet song about love when we first see her in the movie. Throughout the movie, Honey was portrayed as simply a damsel in distress, being used as Dr. No’s leverage point against Bond. She frequently insisted that she did not need a man to save her, however, after being held captive by Dr. No and tied to a rock, Bond was ultimately the one to rescue Honey from being drowned. The pair then escaped by boat until they ran out of gas in the middle of the sea and started kissing. Dr. No has been thought to set the standard for Bond girls for proceeding movies.
The Bond girls of the 70s and 80s followed the precedent set by Dr. No in all being portrayed as damsels in distress: Solitaire (played by Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die) gets trapped inside a foldout bed and needed saving from a murky sacrificial ritual, Mary Goodnight (played by Britt Ekland in The Man With The Golden Gun) got bundled up in the boot of the antagonist’s car and driven off to an evil lair, the list goes on.
Forwarding towards the 90s and 00s, the image of Bond girls changed massively. Rather than damsels in distress, Bond girls are portrayed as partners in crime with Bond on the battlefield. In GoldenEye, Natalya Simonova (played by Izabella Scorupco) destroyed the antagonist’s satellite, commandeered an enemy helicopter and actually rescued Bond himself.
Also during this time was a wave of changing attitudes regarding gender equality and beauty standards amongst women. The biggest change of the 21st century was about women’s beauty standards. In the early 2000s, the idealized beauty standard for women required their body to appear firm, chesty or, frankly, slender. The University of Regensburg conducted online experiments to determine the four most popular ideals of women’s bodies: 1. The average woman's body figure, slim and slender. 2. An hourglass-looking body figure that is largely attributed to Beyonce. 3. The sporty body figure: masculine, enlarged breasts and a tight pelvis. 4. The “Barbie” type: slender body with big breasts, tight pelvis, and long legs. It is during this period that society has amplified the foundation for the body ideal we are trying to refute today. The line between equalization and objectification was more blurred than ever before, showing how damaging an unrealistic body image can be. Furthermore, according to a study by the University of Buffalo, the portrayal of women in the media has become increasingly sexualized. In the 1960s, they found that 83% percent of women were sexualized in the media. In the 2000s, there were 10 times more hypersexualized images of women than men. An increase in the sexualization of women, combined with the increased adoption of “idealized” body standards inevitably led to increased body dissatisfaction amongst women whose body does not fit any of the criterias outlined.
In Daniel Craig’s 2006 first outing as Bond, Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd was cast as the spy’s love interest. However, Lynd ultimately betrayed Bond in the end and, conforming historically to most other Bond movies, died of drowning in the final combat scene in Venice. However, Lynd was thought to be one of the most empowered Bond girls of all time because she has fought for the character to keep her clothes on at all times. There is not a moment in Casino Royale that Lynd is seen in a bikini or revealing outfit of any kind; almost all previous Bond films always contain scenes where the presumed ‘Bond girl’ for that movie appears in an attractive outfit to seduce Bond himself into being his love interest. In Skyfall, Eve Moneypenny (played by Naomie Harris) delivered a modern, capable, and deadly touch to the typical Bond girl who also happens to be an agent that fights alongside Bond. The image of Bond girls in today’s era has completely shifted from Dr. No’s precedent of the character being a damsel in distress. As attitudes regarding women’s bodies change, the 007 franchise either had to adapt to this new image or risk losing relevance among its audience.
Today, Bond girls are being treated as equals to Bond in an age of gender and racial reckoning and changing attitudes towards women, gender equality, and body positivity. In No Time To Die, Paloma (played by Ana de Armas), Nomi (played by Lashana Lynch), and Madeleine Swann (a returning character from Spectre played by Lea Seydoux) redefined what it means to be a Bond girl.”I think this movie is ‘Bond women,’ not so much ‘Bond girls,’” Ana de Armas told CNN during an interview about the movie. “They’re highly skilled, they’re powerful and they all show it in their own way. They’re equals to Bond,” de Armas added. It is also worth noting that Lashana Lynch plays the first ever Black woman 007 (In No Time To Die, Bond has disappeared for a prolonged amount of time after Spectre and Nomi has taken over his position as 007.) Talking to Harper’s Bazaar UK, Lynch commented, “I feel very grateful that I get to challenge those narratives...We’re moving away from toxic masculinity, and that’s happening because women are being open, demanding and vocal, and calling out misbehavior as soon as we see it.” Seydoux also added about her view of her character in both Spectre and No Time To Die, “I don’t consider myself a Bond girl. I think I’m not really the stereotyped Bond girl...she’s not a fighter, she’s a doctor. She fights in another way.”
No Time To Die has set the 007 franchise on a new course, changing the conventions that have formulated our perspective of the agent 007 for the past several decades. As Daniel Craig is stepping down from the role, there has been speculation of a female 007 agent. However, it has been met with controversy. Many who are against the idea of a female Bond claim that the character’s masculinity is a central part of the role, that a female Bond simply could not be Bond. Others claim that since Bond was originally envisioned by Ian Flemming as a man, those qualities should not be altered. However, why should gender matter? Is gender actually as critical to the character as some would suggest? If a Bond fan considers the main characteristics of Bond as a sex symbol, an erratic but cocky persona, a love for danger, or a familiarity to violence, there’s no reason why these qualities could not be portrayed by a woman. The character of James Bond, or 007, has evolved with time out of necessity, relevance, and adaptation to changing norms and attitudes. The portrayal of Bond has also changed. Perhaps, No Time To Die is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the franchise to charter a new, exciting course into the unknown; I’m excited to see it happen.