James Bond: Agent, Hero or Misogynist? : A Feminist Reading of the Film Dr. No

In the film Dr. No each of the female characters struggles to gain power over the main character James Bond. Each time Mr. Bond is confronted with a new female character who presents a threat to him, he immediately engages in sexual intercourse with her in order to strip her of her agency.

This process of disempowering women culminates in the end of the film when Bond has sex with Honey Ryder, but only after acting as her "hero" for a majority of the second half of the film. Throughout the film James Bond successfully defeats each woman that he comes in contact with, revealing himself as an anti-feminist character who is concerned with placing women back into a role of submission. While the 'Bond Girls' are often looked to as feminist heroes, I feel that it is more accurate to view them as fallen heroes who are ultimately punished by the logic of the film.

Peter Barry states in his book Beginning Theory that "The 'women's movement' of the 1960s was not, of course, the start of feminism. Rather, it was a renewal of an old tradition of thought and action already possessing its classic books which had diagnosed the problem of women's inequality in society and (in some cases) proposed solutions." (Barry 121).

While the women's movement began to take shape Dr. No was being filmed and released in theaters. It is no coincidence that this film, which uses women as objects throughout the plot, is released during a time when women are fighting for equality in society. This film serves as a slap in the face to women, giving them a glimpse into the lives of the women with agency in the film and exactly what becomes of them due to their attempt to take power from Bond.

The first woman that Bond encounters is Miss Sylvia Trench at Le Cercle, which is a gaming club for the wealthy in France. They begin their brief courtship over a game of cards in which the stakes are constantly being raised by Miss Trench. After each hand she bets another thousand dollars, eyeing Bond as she puts down more money. She is challenging him, trying to see if she can out-bet him and therefore show herself to be more powerful than him due to her financial freedom.

Bond states, "I admire your courage…Looks like you're out to get me" which displays how he notices her blatant attack on him and acknowledges that he will not be defeated. However, the game ends abruptly when Bond is called off to meet with his superior M and he makes plans with Trench to meet the next day for a round of golf.

While Bond is at his meeting with M at the British Secret Service, he stops to flirt with the secretary Miss Moneypenny. Miss Moneypenny is dressed in conservative clothing and continuously asks Bond for a date without success. She expresses concern over his whereabouts and acts as a wife would when expressing concern over her husband.

She is not exciting, sexual, or desired by Bond, and this is due to the fact that she represents domesticity. Moneypenny embodies all of the characteristics that a housewife would have, and this is a threat to Bond because she represents settling down, having a family, and most importantly, giving up a life of promiscuity and self fulfillment.

While Miss Moneypenny remains to be the only consistent Bond girl, appearing in almost every film, she is the only girl who is never targeted as a means to an end or used for sexual gratification. Tara Brabazon states, "Moneypenny's office is encased not only by the proverbial glass ceiling, but also glass walls. She can view power, but wields little. Moneypenny remains the woman behind the man (M) behind the legend (Bond)." (Brabazon 2). This quote displays to the reader how Moneypenny is trapped within a role of submission and presents no threat to Bond or any other character. This is why she is not desired and is never pursued by Bond; she does not need to be put back in her place (submission) because she never left it.

When Bond returns from his meeting he goes to his hotel room and finds that there is someone there waiting for him. He immediately turns off the light, thinking that he is about to encounter an assignation attempt. Bond's only instinct in this situation is to pull out his gun, making him feel as if he is powerful in a situation of stress and danger. He slyly goes in to the next room to discover that the person who was causing him to fear for his life was not a spy, but was Miss Trench.

Miss Trench, wearing only one of Bond's dress shirts, acts innocent, playing the stereotypical role of the clueless female. It is during this scene that her attitude, which in the beginning of the film displayed a great deal of agency as she tried to beat him in the card game, has now become that of the archetypal damsel who wishes for a strong man to "take her."

After the viewer sees Bond kissing Miss Trench the scene fades out and the audience knows that he will have sex with her before he leaves to fulfill his obligation of going to search for Dr. No. The scene does not show Bond saying goodbye to Trench, it simply cuts to Bond's travels. Tara Brabazon comments on the process that is undergone as a woman is seduced by Bond and states: "The James Bond films…depict women enjoying rape, especially since Bond is the 'good guy' and the supposed fantasy of every woman. Once raped they are then ignored by the male star." (Brabazon 2).

This quote is significant because it shows how there seems to be no objection to the fact that Bond leaves Miss Trench as quickly as he met her. She is last seen by the viewer as a woman who wants a quick sexual encounter with a man who she knows will be leaving and that she will most likely never see again. This type of situation is parallel to a rape situation in which a woman is used and quickly discarded for the purpose of sexual pleasure, but it is disguised due to the fact that Mr. Bond is a highly desirable man.

The next woman that Bond comes in to contact with is Miss Taro, who is a Chinese woman (played by a White American) who works for Dr. No. She calls bond to invite him to her house for sex, but secretly knows that Dr. No's men will attempt to kill him on his journey to her house. When Bond survives the attempt he realizes that Taro was responsible for the attack and goes in to her house aware of this. When Taro opens the door she is visibly surprised, but has to follow through with her offer of sex to try and conceal her plot to kill him. Taro, having a great amount of agency before his arrival, is now trapped by Bond and is forced back in to a role of female submission through sex. Bond recognized her agency as a threat to his life and had to strip her of it by sleeping with her.

The article "Figures of Bond," by Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott, depicts the women in the Bond films as possessing a new sexual freedom. They state, "In sum, the 'bond girl' of the 1960s disconnected female sexuality from traditional female gender identities, preserving these latter virtually intact…" (Bennett and Woollacott 435). I disagree with this statement, and I feel that this type of thinking is what helps Bond to disguise himself as a harmless male character in literature and film.

By stating that female gender identities remain intact throughout the film is absurd. The only reason that any of the female characters in the film end up in the stereotypical female gender identities is because Bond, due to his insecurity and castration anxiety, places them back into this role to strip them of their agency and power.

Laura Mulvey, in the article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," explains to the reader that "…woman as representation signifies castration…" (Mulvey 67) which helps the viewer of Dr. No to recognize why each of these women presents a threat to Bond and to his masculine power. He, in each of them, sees the possibility of his defeat and castration, and therefore has to find a way to regain the power in the situation.

This anxiety is also described by Helene Cixous in "Subjectivity and Gender" when she states, "And if you examine literary history, it's the same story. It all refers back to man to his torment, his desire to be (at) the origin." (Rice and Waugh 231). Through sexual intercourse Bond is able to regain this power and regain the role of the dominant character in each of these relationships. He regains the position of the origin, his ego is restored, and there is no longer a threat posed by the women.

The last woman that Bond encounters in the film is Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress. When Bond first sees Honey she is frightened by him and thinks that he is going to kill her. It is from this first encounter that Bond recognizes that he does not have to fear her in the same way that he did Trench and Taro. Honey presents no threat to him, especially not the threat of castration. She relies on him to be her "hero" and "save" her whenever there is present danger. She plays the role of the weak woman and allows Bond to lead her to safety in the end of the film. Michael A. Lipton writes, "Even in these politically correct '90s, you wouldn't dare call them Bond Women.

They are once and forever Bond Girls…Honey Ryder…the bikini clad nymph who made Bond's jaw drop in Dr. No…" (Lipton 40). This quote serves to display how Honey is not considered a woman by Bond, or by the public, but rather is viewed as a girl. She is not as threatening as a mature woman who has the potential to harm Bond, but rather is seen as having the capabilities of a young girl who is unable to harm Bond in the same ways that a mature woman might be capable of such as castration.

In the end of the film Bond does successfully coax Honey in to having sex with him after their rescue from the island of Dr. No. It is through this action that Honey, the last hope for female revolution in the film, is ultimately brought back under the control of the patriarchal structure of the film. Even though she does not present a threat to Bond she is made to participate in the cycle of domination that Bond goes through with all of the women that he comes in to contact with.

Dr. No is a film that does not portray women acting in manners that are comparable to men, rather it depicts women who are trying to do so and are ultimately punished for their behavior. They participate in a "rape-like" scenario with Bond and are subsequently stripped of any and all agency that they possess. The process is carried out by Bond in order to ease his anxiety of castration by a woman who possesses power within the context of the film.

The film serves as an anti-feminist testament to patriarchy during a time when feminism was becoming a major issue throughout the world. The film tries to regress back to the need for women to be placed in submissive roles and be subservient to men, and it is through this process that the film subsequently brands itself as misogynist and transgressive.

WORKS CITED

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. Manchester, UK. Manchester University Press, 1995.
Bennett, Tony and Janet Woollacott. Popular Fiction: Technology, Ideology, Production, Reading. London and New York. Routledge, 1990.
Brabazon, Tara. "Britain's Last Line of Defense: Miss Moneypenny and the Desperations of Filmic Feminism." Hecate. Vol. 24, Issue 1. 1998.
Lipton, Michael A. "The Golden Girls: Crucial to the Bond Macho Mystique, the Object of 007's Fleeting Affection Found Their Roles Were an End, Not a Means." People Weekly. Vol. 44, Issue 23, p40. Dec. 4, 1995.
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." 1975. Http://www.jahsonic.com/VPNC.html.
Rice, Philip and Patricia Waugh. Modern Literary Theory. New York, New York. Oxford University Press, 2001.