Consider the representation of women in James Bond films

Since 1962, when the first film was produced, a total of 22 James Bond films have been made. The James Bond franchise has become extremely popular and well-known all over the world. Although each film is unique in its own way and the storyline differs from film to film, there are certain generic features that have become things the audience recognises and expects to find in all Bond films. These features include gun fights, car chases (usually featuring an Aston Martin), exotic locations, gadgets, villains and last, but certainly not least, girls. All of these things make up a kind of ‘Bond cocktail' that the audience of these films has come to love and that has made these films as successful as they are. Umberto Eco described the Bond narrative as, ‘a series of moves on a chess board, with characters playing out their usual functions. ‘ This refers to how the Bond films all have similar pieces or ingredients and they each have a part to play to make up this ‘Bond cocktail' like how chess pieces all have different moves they can make. One of the most important of those generic features is the Bond girls. Bond girls also have certain criteria that the audience expects them to fulfill in the films and they have become famous for. The connotations of the term Bond girls are normally attractive, desirable and sexually available, especially to Bond. However, Bond is often seen to use the women as playthings for his pleasure that he often sleeps with and then discards. They are regularly portrayed as needing Bond's protection and acting in a very passive and submissive manner towards Bond. However, it is debatable as to whether this is not the case with all women in Bond films and some people believe that some Bond women are liberated and they use Bond themselves rather than it being the other way round. The definition of liberated is ‘not bound by traditional or sexual roles' and for this to apply to the female characters in Bond films they would have to avoid fulfilling their traditional roles in the films. The traditional role of women would be as housewives that stay at home and do domestic tasks while the men go out to work. In sexual terms women would traditionally get married and settle down and only have sexual relations with one man. A big traditional role of women is that they are second to men and men are more dominant and have power over women. Two Bond films where women play very large parts and are showcased in a number of different ways are, ‘Goldfinger' and ‘The World Is Not Enough'. Goldfinger was first screened in 1964 and was one of the first Bond films produced; at a time when audiences were just being introduced to the ‘Bond cocktail' and more specifically, Bond girls. The story follows Bond as he tries to spoil the plans of the villain Goldfinger who aims to contaminate all the gold in Fort Knox so that his own gold increases dramatically in value. This would severely damage the world economy and Bond has to stop Goldfinger from detonating a nuclear bomb in order to save the gold. One of the main women in this film is Pussy Galore; she is a pilot employed by Goldfinger that is repeatedly given the job of escorting and taking care of Bond, before switching sides, with Bond's influence, and helping to stop Goldfinger. The other two women that play important parts in the film are sisters, Jill and Tilly Masterson. Jill initially works for Goldfinger, before meeting with Bond and then being killed by Goldfinger as punishment. Following this, Tilly attempts to murder Goldfinger for revenge; however she becomes involved with Bond in the process before also being killed by Goldfinger's henchman, Oddjob. ‘The World Is Not Enough' was released almost 40 years later in 1999, meaning it was aimed at a more modern audience and this is visible throughout the film. The storyline is similar to that of ‘Goldfinger', as a villain (this time a man called Renard) is attempting to blow up a stretch of oil pipe line with a nuclear bomb, meaning the only supply of oil can come through one pipeline. This pipeline is owned by Elektra King who is initially meant to be innocent and under Bond's protection until it is revealed she is working with Renard. Bond then faces the task of stopping the bomb with the help of a nuclear physicist called Dr. Christmas Jones. Apart from Christmas and Elektra there is one other woman that has a big role in the film and that is M (head of MI6); which contrasts with ‘Goldfinger' in which M was a man. In the 1960's the roles of women were changing a lot. During the Second World War women had been given the opportunity to go and do â€Å"men's† jobs in factories as the men were abroad fighting the war. After this women began to move closer to equality with men and they started to have their own freedom. They were no longer just housewives that were inferior to men and this attitude continued into the 1960's. In Goldfinger this is visible because the women in Pussy Galore's flying circus are pilots, which is quite a difficult and complicated job. However, there are also parts of this film that show that women may not have reached complete equality with men yet, as some of the female characters appear weak both physically and mentally and are left out of important events. Feminism is all about recognizing the need for women to have equality with men and feminists work to create that equality. In history there have been three major waves of feminism and one of those took place just after the Second World War, continuing up until the start of the 60's. This surge in women campaigning for equality worked alongside the fact that women had proven themselves in men's jobs during the war and, although some men disliked it, women did make a very large step towards full equality with men. In the 1990's, attitudes towards women had changed even more and were very similar to today. Women had equality with men and could pretty much do any job that would have before been seen as a job purely for men. This is shown in ‘The World Is Not Enough' where Dr. Christmas Jones is a nuclear physicist which is an extremely hard job and she must be very intelligent to do it. However, some of the Bond girls in the film still seem to just be used as sexual objects by Bond and this would suggest they are not fully liberated despite reaching equality with men. Two key parts of both the films are the opening credits. In ‘Goldfinger' images from the film are projected onto the body of a woman, who is painted in gold, using multi-layering. The connotations of gold are things like precious and artistically-pleasing and this could be a metaphorical symbol for women, as the girl is motionless and very passive so she does appear to be something to be looked at and appreciated visually. Gold is also a high value commodity that can be bought and sold and this could also symbolise women being almost like possessions that men can own and that they can be bought and traded. However, the women is also wearing a bikini, which was a fashionable item of clothing in the 60's and could be worn just to emphasise that the woman is to be looked at because it is a very revealing piece of clothing. But, this could also show the liberation of women because it shows the more liberal attitude of the 60's that allowed women to be more open and free sexually. The opening credits in ‘The World Is Not Enough' differ slightly from those in ‘Goldfinger' as there is now more than one girl and they are covered in oil rather than gold. This shows that the film is more modern, as oil is probably now as, if not more, valuable than gold and this means that it has the same kind of connotations as gold; it is very expensive and precious. However, these titles contrast to those in ‘Goldfinger' because the women are a lot more active and are dancing, but they are dancing in quite a provocative way which could mean the audience is being invited to look at them and admire them, which is similar to ‘Goldfinger'. The girls are also completely naked which represents how women have become even more sexually liberated since ‘Goldfinger' and nudity had become more acceptable with the audience. An important part of the titles in ‘The World Is Not Enough' is the song and more specifically the lyrics. Firstly, the song is sung by a woman and the notable lyric is, ‘We know when to kiss, we know when to kill. ‘ This suggests that women are very smart and devious and can be killers just as easily as they can be lovers, which goes against the traditional idea that they are very affectionate and maternal and not violent at all. This could also be directly linked to the character of Elektra King who uses her body throughout the film to seduce men to get her own way and is also involved with her father's murder at the start. In ‘Goldfinger', the first female character we meet is a dancer. She is quite attractive and very scantily-clad, which shows she is dressed to be looked at and to entertain the men she is dancing for. This is shown by a high angle camera shot that initially picks her out among the men and they are all looking at her body. When Bond is speaking to his friend he looks over at the dancer and says, ‘I have some unfinished business to attend to. ‘ This is quite derogatory because he isn't referring to her as a person, which also suggests she doesn't mean very much to him. The word ‘business' is especially important here because he is kind of saying she is like a job that he has to complete and nothing more. When he then goes to see her she is initially naked in the bath and there is a camera shot of her bare back, this shows that she is vulnerable and Bond has the power in the situation because he is fully-clothed and standing over her. Then when she goes to kiss Bond he accidentally pokes her with his gun and she jumps back. That incident has a bit of sexual innuendo and when she asks him why he carries it around he jokes that he has an ‘inferiority complex'. This is sarcasm because he is actually a confident and dominant man. However, the dancer has actually double-crossed Bond and this is shown when a man walks into attack him when the dancer distracts him with a kiss; this is revealed with an extreme close-up of the girl's eye, where Bond sees the reflection of the attacker. He then uses her as a shield against the man, which suggests that she didn't mean anything to him and he puts himself before women, although it could just be because he realizes what she has done to him. This shows that Bond was tricked by the girl and she used her body to get to him, but then she was also being used by someone else to get to Bond, so she still isn't in control. Bond seems surprised that she double-crossed him, when he looks at her and says, ‘very shocking. ‘ This could suggest that he didn't expect a woman to do that to him and perhaps he underestimated her and didn't expect a woman to be that cunning. The next time we see Bond he is again with a woman and this time it is a character called Dink, who is massaging Bond whilst he relaxes on a sun lounger. This suggests that he uses women for pleasure and it is also shown that he has control over her when his friend Felix comes over. He introduces her and then says, ‘Dink say goodbye. ‘ This is an imperative, so he is not asking her to do something he is ordering her around. He then says it is ‘man-talk,' which shows that women are kept out of matters of business and they are kind of a liability. The way he talks to her with short words in short sentences also suggests that she is not very bright and gives the impression men are seen to be more intelligent than women. Finally, he slaps her bottom to dismiss her and that is very disrespectful, but she doesn't argue and just does what he says, so it appears Bond has power over women and can get them to do what he wants. A slightly similar character to Dink in ‘The World Is Not Enough' is Doctor Molly Warmflash. She is seduced by Bond when she is giving him a check up and she gives in straight away, saying, ‘you'll have to promise to call me this time. This tells us that this has happened before and it appears she can't resist Bond so again he has this kind of power over women and they find him very attractive. However, he is just doing it to get a clean bill of health, so although he may get a bit of enjoyment out of it he is still just using her to get what he wants. The difference is that she is a doctor so she is obviously quite intelligent, but even so she doesn't act professionally and is quite happy to be used by Bond. She is on top of Bond though which is a position of power, but it is still clear that Bond is in control. A complete contrast to the characters of Dink and Doctor Warmflash is the character of Money Penny. She appears in both films as she works for MI6, which is quite an important job, and is always dressed very respectably. She is also very conservative and holds traditional views and this is shown in ‘Goldfinger' when she says, ‘The only gold I know about is that on your third finger. ‘ This shows that she obviously thinks marriage is important and she is showing that she is attracted to Bond, but she wants something more than just sex, she wants a proper relationship. This is shown in ‘The World Is Not Enough' when Bond offers her a cigar and says, ‘You know what you can do with that. ‘ This could well be linked to the Bill Clinton sex scandal that had just taken place at the time, in which President Bill Clinton had been accused of having sexual relations, involving a cigar, with a woman in the White House. Money Penny then chucks the cigar in the bin to show that she isn't interested in that kind of a relationship with Bond. So Money Penny is an example of a Bond girl that doesn't get seduced by Bond and is more interested in marriage than just a sexual relationship. However, Bond then doesn't seem very attracted to her which might suggest he isn't interested in settling down and just wants to stick to sleeping with women and then moving on. The next woman that Bond meets in ‘Goldfinger' is Jill Masterson. When he first sees her she is helping Goldfinger cheat at cards and she is dressed in a very revealing bikini and is lying in quite an alluring pose. Bond then finds out that she is being paid to be seen with Goldfinger as well when he says, ‘What else does he pay you for? ‘ Here he seems to be suggesting that Goldfinger might be paying her for sex which links back to the idea that women could be seen as a possession that can be bought. However, she denies doing anything else and is clearly holds no allegiance to Goldfinger because she is then very fickle and changes sides. There are a lot of camera shots on her body during this scene that expose the fact she is only wearing a bikini, so it is again inviting the audience to look at her. She is also very passive and at no point does she try to stop Bond and it is clear he is in complete control over her which is also shown by the fact she is lying down and he is looking down at her. Then Bond quite clearly looks down her top at her breasts when she leans upwards and she doesn't seem to care, she is quite happy for him to look at her. However, she is then left out of Bond's conversation with Goldfinger, which shows that women are kept out of important affairs. This happens again when Bond receives a phone call in his hotel room and he pushes Jill's face out of the way. This is quite disrespectful, but Jill just lies back and doesn't seem to care – she is happy to do what Bond wants her to. This gives the impression that women are just seen as something to give Bond pleasure and when it comes to matters of business he sees Jill as a bit of an annoyance. They are then fully-clothed in bed which is testament to the fact that full nudity was not acceptable in films at the time. Bond is then knocked out and he finds Jill lying naked on the bed covered in gold paint. She has been murdered and yet she is glamourised in her death as she is covered in gold. Bond is extremely business like about her death and shows very little emotion despite the fact that it was partially his fault. After this he just moves on and appears to forget Jill completely, which supports the idea that Bond looks to girls purely for pleasure and then is happy to discard them afterwards. In the most recent Bond film, ‘The Quantum of Solace', there a girl called Agent Fields that dies in a similar fashion. However, she is covered in oil instead of gold, and although oil is valuable it isn't at all glamorous and the black colour actually symbolises fear and death. There is also a shot of Jill Masterson in ‘Goldfinger' where there is a cushion placed in the way of her bottom and this is because the audience at the time wouldn't of approved of that level of nudity. However, in ‘The Quantum of Solace' there is an almost identical shot of Agent Fields, but there is no cushion hiding her. This shows that audiences have changed over the years and nowadays nudity is much more acceptable. Later in the film Bond runs into Jill's sister, Tilly Masterson, and she appears to be very different to her sibling. Tilly is a lot more active as she is driving aggressively and tries to shoot Goldfinger twice to get revenge for him murdering her sister. She is also dressed very respectively with her hair tied back and she uses very assertive language when speaking to Bond; seemingly unaffected by Bond's charm like her sister was. Another difference between her and her sister is that she is a lot more independent and says to Bond, ‘I can take care of myself. ‘ This contrasts to the typical Bond girl that would need Bond's help and protection. She does, however, appear to be very much governed by her emotions and says, ‘I want to kill him. When she says this she sounds almost like a little girl that is really upset and angry that they can't have there way. This is when it becomes clear that she is being controlled by her emotions, which is a more womanly characteristic because traditionally women are more emotional. She also misses Goldfinger when she tries to shoot him and then later on she is making lots of noise in the forest when Bond is silent. These things show that she isn't as skilled as Bond and it suggests that women aren't supposed to be doing the kind of work Bond does and they are incapable. It is when they are in the forest that Bond takes control and Tilly starts to become more like her sister was before she died. She becomes more passive and follows Bond's orders. Her hair is also down now, which seems like a very minor change but it symbolises the fact she has turned into more of a typical Bond girl. Then Bond there is a car chase and Tilly appears to admire Bond and all the gadgets he has in the car and even smiles a bit when before she had been serious the whole time. Bond's charm also seems to start to take an affect on her now, which suggests that all women become attracted to Bond after a while and supports the idea that Bond girls can't resist Bond. However, Bond then tells her to, ‘Run when I tell you,' which results in her being killed by the henchman Odd Job. Bond at first seems quite concerned and runs over to her, but then he seems to shut out his emotions once again and puts her behind him. This is similar to how he reacted when Jill died, it just seems to annoy him a bit and apart from that he doesn't seem to care. The main female character in ‘Goldfinger' is Pussy Galore and the first thing that is noticeable is her name. The name is very suggestive and another name that is a bit suggestive is Doctor Molly Warmflash from ‘The World Is Not Enough'. Those names are another example of the sexual innuendo that is in both of the Bond films and the name of Pussy Galore could have come from the fact that in the book written by Ian Fleming that the film is based on, Pussy was a lesbian. When Bond first wakes up to see her he says, ‘Who are you? I must be dreaming. Bond says this because Pussy Galore is very attractive and she is well-dressed, but the clothes she is wearing are quite tight-fitting and show off her body. She is friendly towards Bond, but immediately tells him she isn't interested in him when she says, ‘Turn off the charm – I'm immune. ‘ This gives the impression she isn't attracted to Bond and this is different from the idea that women can't resist Bond. She is a pilot for Goldfinger, which is quite a challenging job and Bond appears surprised when she tells him. She also has her own flying circus which shows she is a successful women and independent as she has her own business. All the pilots in this flying circus are also female which again goes against the traditional idea that women can't do jobs like piloting aircraft. She has to transport Bond on the plane and he seems to think he is in control because he swings on the chair, acts very relaxed and when she threatens him with a gun he explains it would shoot through the fuselage to try to make her look stupid. However, she doesn't appear phased by Bond and stands over him in a position of power and ignores his witty remarks towards her so she is actually the one in control. The camera shots also show this because they are mainly from Bond's perspective looking up at Pussy or from her perspective looking down at Bond; this emphasises her position over him. On board the plain there is a servant called Mai Lee who balances Pussy Galore out because she is more of a typical Bond girl. Her job is to serve Bond and she is very considerate and apologetic towards him. She also needs his help to put the plane steps down when they arrive, which suggests women are weaker and they need Bond's help, however Pussy Galore goes against this as she does everything without Bond's help and is very independent. Bond also looks at her bottom when she walks away from him which again shows women as something to look at. Later in the film Goldfinger hints that Pussy Galore should dress up to seduce Bond and distract him and this suggests that women are maybe a weakness of Bond's and he can't help himself. This links back to earlier in the film when Bond first meets Tilly Masterson and says to himself, ‘Discipline 007. ‘ This is because he was already told off by M for getting involved with women during his missions. Pussy agrees to it, but she also explains that she won't get any pleasure out of it when she says, ‘Business before pleasure. This suggests that she sees it purely as business and again is not attracted to Bond at all. It makes sex seem almost like a kind of business when it would normally be for pleasure. Pussy then dresses more in a more revealing way and puts on a friendlier front to seduce Bond, saying, ‘I'm completely defenseless. ‘ Here she is actually using Bond which contrasts to the way that Bond usually uses women and shows that women can control Bond as well as he can control them. Pussy Galore and Bond then end up having a kind of play fight in a barn and Pussy defends herself well because she knows Judo. This is unusual because women aren't normally expected to fight and perform martial arts, which again shows how skilled she is. However, Bond then gets the upper hand and ends up on top of Pussy and at this point her attitude and character change very rapidly. Bond tries to kiss her and at first she resists and fights back, but then she just gives in and kisses Bond. This is a very big piece of evidence to support the idea that the women can't resist Bond because Pussy had appeared didn't seem to be attracted to him and had been in control of Bond, but then everything changed. This could also show that it isn't that the women can't resist Bond, but they don't want to resist Bond as she gave in so easily. This also signals Pussy's change of sides and she helps to stop Goldfinger. When we next see her she is wearing light colours and this is symbolic of her change to the good side. Bond says he, ‘appealed to her maternal instincts. ‘ Which would suggest that women are caring and don' want to hurt anyone; however this motherly attitude is twisted earlier on in the film. When the pilots go to drop sleeping gas on Fort Knox they call it ‘Operation Rock-A-Bye-Baby' which is a nursery rhyme a mother would sing to nurture her child but they are actually killing people. The final part of the film shows Pussy Galore trying to signal a rescue helicopter after her and Bond jumped out of a plane with a parachute, however, Bond pulls her back and says, ‘This is no time to be rescued. ‘ After this he covers them with the parachute and it is clear that he wants to make love to her. This shows that she is a completely changed character because she has succumbed to Bond's charm and is now a traditional Bond girl. She is also positioned underneath Bond so he is in a position of power over her. ‘The World Is Not Enough' shows women as being a lot more active than in ‘Goldfinger' and this is seen with the cigar girl who is the first woman to appear in the film. She is very business like and is wearing a suit so she looks completely professional. However, she is also quite attractive and you can tell Bond notices this when she says, ‘Do you want to have a look at my figures,' and he replies with, ‘I'm sure they're all perfectly rounded. Here he is obviously referring to her body rather than the mathematical figures she is referring to, but Bond's charm doesn't rub off and she looks at him angrily. However, Bond could be saying this because he doesn't because he doesn't think that a woman should be involved with business affairs and that is why he made the joke about body, because when she goes and sits to the side he becomes a lot more serious in conversation with the men in the room. However, the girl then kills the banker Bond is speaking to and runs off, which shows that women are obviously just as capable as men at killing people. Bond then meets her again in a boat chase around London. During this she is dressed in red, which symbolises danger and could be a metaphor for how dangerous the women is. She has a bigger boat than Bond which gives her a bit of power over him and she also fires a gun at him during the chase; showing she isn't afraid to kill again. Despite this whole action sequence though she still remains dry and always looks beautiful, where as Bond is soaked. This could again show that she has power over him, or it could suggest that she is still something to be looked at. During the course of this she seems very in control and dangerous she sacrifices herself at the end when Bond has caught her after saying, ‘You can't protect me; not from him. ‘ This shows that she is actually very scared and fearful despite putting up a fearless front during the boat chase. A female character with a very important role in ‘The World Is Not Enough' is the head of MI6, M. This differs from ‘Goldfinger' in which M was a man and it reflects that, in reality at the time, the head of MI6 was a woman called Stella Remington. Obviously this role gives M a lot of power and is the first woman we have seen that actually has power and control over Bond and he has to follow her orders. She also fits the role very well and remains calm when the bomb goes off in the building she is in. However, she does show her emotions at a funeral, when she hugs Elektra in a kind of motherly role. Later on in the film Bond accuses her of letting herself be ruled by her emotions when he says, ‘With all due respect, I don't think you should be here. This is after M has come to see Elektra and then, when Elektra reveals that she is actually in league with Renard, M realises that she did actually make a bad judgment based on her emotions and she loses control and slaps Elektra. This incident suggests that women may always be governed in some way by their emotions and that they can't always control them because M slaps Elektra out of anger. The idea of emotions clouding a woman's judgment suggests that men are more in control of there emotions and don't let them get in the way; this is shown by the cold heartedness Bond seems to show at the death of the women in both films. Earlier in the film however, M does show that she is perfectly capable of keeping her emotions locked up when she explains how she advised Elektra's father to not pay the ransom for Elektra when she had been kidnapped before. She says, ‘Against every instinct in my heart, every emotion as a mother. ‘ This again refers to the maternal instincts of women and how they want to be affectionate and care about people; however it also shows that they can ignore those maternal instincts as well and act more like a man – putting their emotions aside. The thing that stands out most about M though is that fact that Bond treats her with a great deal of respect, even when he thinks she is in the wrong, and this is shown again with the quote above in which Bond says, ‘with all due respect. ‘ M is possibly the only woman that Bond willingly allows to control him and that he has a completely professional relationship with. Finally, M shows that she is very clever and capable to fend for herself, when she uses a clock to send out a signal to Bond after she has been captured by Elektra and Renard. Elektra is possibly the most important woman in ‘The World Is Not Enough' because she is a villain and she manages to use and manipulate Bond during the course of the film. She tricks Bond, at first, into believing she is innocent and they end up making love with each other. This shows again that Bond's desire for women is almost a weakness for him because initially he says to Elektra, ‘This is a game I can't afford to play. ‘ Here he is referring to getting into a relationship with her, because M had told him not to. However, he then ends up sleeping with Elektra, which suggests he couldn't resist her. This is a role reversal because it is typically women that can't resist Bond, but here it is the other way around. During the bedroom scene, both Bond and Elektra are on top which could symbolise a balance of power between the two. There is also more nudity than in the scene between Bond and Jill Masterson in ‘Goldfinger' which reflects the fact that it is aimed at a more modern audience which now finds nudity more acceptable. During that scene, Elektra also reveals to Bond how she escaped her kidnappers, ‘I seduced the guards. I used my body. This shows that she is willing to use her body to get what she wants and that could very well be what she was doing at exactly that moment with Bond because it gave her power over him. This is because Elektra then turns on him later on after he accuses her of being with Renard, ‘You used me, you used me as bait. ‘ Here she is referring to him sleeping with her and it shows how manipulative and clever she is because she is making Bond feel guilty when it is actually her in the wrong. Elektra is also the only woman that actually seems to appeal to Bond's emotions in the films. When he sees a tape of her after she escaped from her kidnappers she is crying and Bond touches the screen and seems genuinely sorry for her and he appears to care for her a lot. Later in the film, Renard teases Bond with the fact that he slept with Elektra before him, ‘I broke her in for you. ‘ Bond gets really angry at this because he realises that Elektra was just using him. The language Renard uses here is very derogatory and sexist and suggests that he was in control of Elektra and took advantage of her; however she could again have been using Renard to get what she wanted. The way Elektra uses her body to manipulate men and get what she wants is quite ironic because that is what Bond normally does to other women and it proves that it can work the other way around. In the casino Elektra draws a queen of hearts and this could also be a symbol of the way Elektra uses her body to play with men's emotions of love and with their lust to get her way. Finally, Bond is put in an execution chair and Elektra is slowly tightening the screw that can break his neck when she says, ‘I've always had a power over men. This is symbolised by the fact that she is on top of Bond in a position of power and she also has the power to kill him. She is also obviously referring to how she has used her cunning to manipulate Bond and he is now completely vulnerable whilst she is in control. However, Bond counters this by saying, ‘You meant nothing to me; you were just one last screw. ‘ This is again sexual innuendo because he is referring to when he had sex with her and also to the fact that she is about to kill him with one last turn of the screw on the chair. After this Bond escapes and points a gun at Elektra. It appears, at first, that his emotions are affecting him because he doesn't seem to want to kill her, possibly because she is a woman. He does shoot her though and afterwards he doesn't seem to care very much. This shows that Bond puts his emotions aside and links back to the idea that the Bond girls don't mean anything to him and he just discards them and moves on. The final Bond girl in ‘The World Is Not Enough' is Doctor Christmas Jones. When we first see her there is quite a long camera shot that pans up her body and this again invites the audience to look at her and admire her body, like an object. She wears some very tight-fitting clothes that emphasise her body and are quite revealing as well, but she also wears some scientific clothes that show that she is obviously very intelligent because she is an IVA Nuclear Physicist. At first she doesn't appear at all attracted to Bond and says, ‘Are you just hoping for a glimmer too. ‘ Here she is putting him down and it again questions whether Bond girls actually find Bond irresistible. Christmas is also very professional and even when she is in danger she appears calm and looks like she can look after herself. At one point however, Bond grabs her to remove her from danger and this could be for either of two reasons. It could be because she is a woman and he cares for her, or it could be because he realises he is going to need her help. Later on it is clear that Doctor Jones is more intelligent than Bond, but he still seems to control her and tell her what to do and she doesn't object. Later in the film, she dresses up and uses her body to lure Zukovsky and distract him. She is very clever, but she still needs to use her beauty, which suggests that Bond girls can't just be intelligent; they have to be attractive as well. She is also left out of the business conversation between Bond and Zukovsky despite the fact she is very smart and knows what is going on. This links back to the idea that women can't be involved in business affairs and don't have a part in making decisions. At the end of the film, Bond makes two jokes about Doctor Jones that involve sexual innuendo. First he says, ‘I've always wanted to have Christmas in Turkey,' and then he says, ‘I thought Christmas only comes once a year. ‘ These witticisms both refer to him sleeping with Doctor Jones and again she has given into Bond's charm by doing so. Her behaviour is similar to that of Pussy Galore in ‘Goldfinger' in the way that she initially resisted Bond and didn't seem attracted to him, but then gave in and ended up sleeping with him like a typical Bond girl. In conclusion, I think there are examples in the Bond films of girls that are like the stereotypical Bond girls that are attractive, sleep with Bond and require his protection before he just discards them and moves on. These women, like Jill Masterson and Molly Warmflash, appear to be used by Bond partly for his pleasure and partly to get what he wants. However, there are other characters, Elektra King especially, that use Bond themselves to get what they want. The main way they seem to do that is by using their bodies; as it appears Bond is at times incapable of resisting his desire for women. Another important thing to note is that in ‘Goldfinger' the only woman that really had any power and an important role was Pussy Galore. Where as, in ‘The World Is Not Enough' nearly all of the female characters have power and a big role to play. It is also the only film where any women have power over Bond, because M is obviously his boss and at times Elektra King has power over him as well. This proves that Bond is not always on control of women. This change in attitude over time is most likely because attitudes towards women changed and they gained equality with men by the time ‘The World Is Not Enough' was made, while they were still moving towards equality at the time ‘Goldfinger' was released. These historical factors are the most likely reason for the kind of evolution of Bond girls to the point where they sometimes control and out-smart Bond where as he used to always have power over them. Overall, Bond girls do appear to be liberated to a certain extent because they are not always bound by traditional sexual roles, which is shown by the way they are sometimes on top and in control in bedroom scenes. However, there are many instances where Bond has power and control over women and nearly every woman in the films seems to find him irresistible, which suggests that Bond girls are not completely liberated because they still appear in a lot of aspects to be inferior to men. Although, in the more recent films, Bond girls seem to be liberated in nearly all aspects they still don't appear to be quite there yet. I think Bond girls never will be fully-liberated either, simply because if they were they wouldn't be fulfill the well-known criteria of Bond girls and would therefore ruin the Bond cocktail. However, I may be wrong and, referring back to the quote by Umberto Eco, perhaps Bond girls could be the queen in the game of chess and they have the ability to move in any direction making possible for them to change without ruining the formula.