Sexism and homophobia in Skyfall

With Comrade Sharky damning Skyfall as the most sexist Bond film in a long time and even the once reliable Grauniad disappointing all right-thinking people with a good review, it has fallen to The Oirish Times to deliver the most damning indictment of Skyfall's appalling reactionary tendencies:

Quote :

Can Mendes really believe that, having gone through the full circle, it is now acceptable to portray predatory homosexuality as a symptom of criminal megalomania? When, having tied Bond to a chair, Javier begins fondling the agent’s nipples, one can’t help but think of the extravagantly dressed gays that used to molest Robin Askwith in 1970s Confessions films.So, Skyfall abounds with bum notes and unfortunate compromises.

What 'bum notes and unfortunate compromises' have you found? There are so many to choose from that I lost count. As a woman, I was most shocked that Bond did not get Severine's consent in writing before giving her a good rogering in the shower. That is rape, pure and simple. Crimes of such severity must not go unpunished.

I just hope John Logan abandons these neanderthal touches in Bond 24.



http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2012/1026/1224325716169.html

Very good.

Looking forward to Hollywood folks crying the same tune that a gay character isn't portrayed as a saint.

Python wrote:

Looking forward to Hollywood folks crying the same tune that a gay character isn't portrayed as a saint.

More SILENCE OF THE LAMBS tie-ins.

Maybe they should have had M. compromised in a sex scandal ... if they used the bit from the Pearson bio of 007, where M goes in for natural cures, and gets photographed on a nude beach and blackmailed ... save that for the 3D bond maybe ...

Erica Ambler wrote:

As a woman, I was most shocked that Bond did not get Severine's consent in writing before giving her a good rogering in the shower. That is rape, pure and simple.

And as a black man, I'm appalled and sickened at the way Moneypenny Eve is potrayed in the film: subservient. How dare M send her out to do dirty jobs that M herself is not willing to do? Is this 2012 or 1812?

trevanian wrote:

Maybe they should have had M. compromised in a sex scandal ... if they used the bit from the Pearson bio of 007, where M goes in for natural cures, and gets photographed on a nude beach and blackmailed ... save that for the 3D bond maybe ...

Call the RSPCA.

What the HELL is that from?

My second thought: now we know why this guy could be so stupid or wrongheaded as to dump Francesca Annis.

I don't think I'd want him taking over from Duchovny on all those caring-for-canines spots.

In relation to Nambler's opening post, I was convinced by a Guardian commenter (SirEnigmatic) in reply to this article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/oct/30/skyfall-less-sexist-bond-film?newsfeed=true

I cannot take anyone seriously who would use the word misogyny in relation to Ian Fleming.
But then much of modern feminism is hopelessly misguided.

Perhaps it might be better to reserve such words for the kind of behavior thousands of women have to endure every day in the European capital?

Largo's Shark wrote:

In relation to Nambler's opening post, I was convinced by a Guardian commenter (SirEnigmatic) in reply to this article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/oct/30/skyfall-less-sexist-bond-film?newsfeed=true

When a radical feminist such as this person loves the film, even though she has openly detested all the films that came before it, it's quite clear that Barbara Broccoli's agenda-driven reign at EON has been, er, uh, "successful" in the eyes of leading feminazis. The only way this film could make any of these feminists happier was if Bond got Pussy Galore pregnant and drove her to a Planned Parenthood clinic and paid for her abortion. Other than that, Babs Broccoli's transformation to the dark side is now complete.

My God! Whatever happened to Michael Wilson? How did he let the series get to this point? Does she have some dirt on him? Is Babs blackmailing him?

As both a woman and a gay assassin (tiffany-wint) I take offense to both the victimization of Severine and homophobic portrayal of Silva. harrumph.

Speaking of, in my current Flemingathon, now reading FRWL, one of Fleming's funniest books (I swear he goes on for two pages describing how hideous Rosa Klebb is.) He was probably beside himself writing the scene where Klebb slips on the semi-transparent nightgown in orange crepe de chine, in a bid to either seduce or terrify Tania. Not sure which. "One dimpled knee, like a yellowish coconut, appeared thrust forward between the half open folds of the nightgown in the classic stance of the modeller.....She looked like the oldest and ugliest whore in the world. Tania stammered, "It's very pretty."
That Flamming!

Anyway, Chapter 11, The Soft Life, Bond is being a brat, due to boredom. Tiffany Case has left him. He hasn't had an assignment worthy of his skills in almost a year. He's been saddled with doing committee work with one Paymaster Captain Troop, Head of Admin.

In the wake of the Burgess and Maclean affair, 007 wrestles with the question of homosexuals as security risks.

"Oh really," Troop had said (to Bond) with icy calm. "So you suggest we should staff the organiaztion with long-haired perverts. That's quite an original notion. I thought we all argeed that homosexuals were about the worst security risk there is. I can't see the Americans handing over many atom secrets to a lot of pansies soaked in scent."

"All intellectuals aren't homosexual. And many of them are bald. I'm just saying that...," and so the argument had gone on intermittently through the hearings of the past three days, and the other committee members had ranged themselves more or less with Troop. Now, today, they had to draw up their recommendations and Bond was wondering whether to take the unpopular step of entering a minority report.

How seriously did he feel about the whole question, Bond wondered as,at nine o'clock, he walked out of his flat and down the steps to his car? Was he just being petty and obstinate? Had he constituted himself into a one-man opposition only to give his teeth something to bite into? Was he so bored that he could find nothing better to do than make a nuisance of himself inside his own organization?

Bond defending homosexuals and intellectuals (sort of) in the face of bureaucratic intolerance.

That Flamming, you never know what he's going to go on about.

"Sexist misogynist what?!"

http://movies.uk.msn.com/features/james-bond-sexist-misogynist-dinosaur#image=3

==

Largo's Shark wrote:

In relation to Nambler's opening post, I was convinced by a Guardian commenter (SirEnigmatic) in reply to this article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/oct/30/skyfall-less-sexist-bond-film?newsfeed=true

Bahh. Fleming's Bond only reads The Times, ".. the only paper Bond ever read" FRWL, Chapter 11.

Very interesting articles in this thread.

I'm not quite sure why everyone gets bent out of shape about James Bond, a fictional character, being a sexist, a homophobe, etc. I suppose it's due to Bond's impact on the world of cinema and perhaps these insecure "journalists" and "critics" fear that if Bond is, say, a sexist, then he'll influence all of the young viewers? I'm not sure.

Here's the BBC, national treasure and protector of the celebrity paedophile:

Quote :

"Ideologically, none of us should like the Bond films. They are sexist, heterosexist, xenophobic, everything that is not politically correct," says Prof Chapman.

Quote :

Novelist Bidisha, author of Venetian Masters, is one of the Bondophobes, having written of her hatred of the spy franchise.

"Ian Fleming hates women and I don't buy into anything to do with that," she says. "The Bond films are generally sexist. I don't like anything that descends from a sewer of misogyny."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7694801.stm

From the BBC comments below above ^

"Ah, I was so pleased to see this article. I can't stand James Bond and it seems that I cannot even mention this to some people, it is a religion for them. Thank you, BBC for a wonderful article.
Glampers, Scotland UK"

It's a religion for them? Do such people really exist?

==Another funny one!

I agree! I'm currently writing a book about Jing Bindi, an ethnic Pakistani-Chinese lesbian single mother from Belgium who joins MI6 and saves the world by tracking down disgruntled middle class British citizens, listening empathically to their issues and then persuading them with empassioned emotional appeals to just get along with everyone. Does anyone want to read it? Anyone at all?
Mark, Bath, England

Quote :

"Ian Fleming hates women and I don't buy into anything to do with that," she says.

Well Fleming does seem to hate Rosa Klebb, but otherwise he seems to be down with the women.

Jing Bindi should be a vegan, as well.

A more accurate comment on the Guardian article:

Quote :

I've always thought of Bond films as pretty progressive. Consider this: a rampantly heterosexual male working for the British Secret Service...I'm presuming he got there through an affirmative action programme.

I liked this one as well:

Quote :

People who like the previous [Bond films] remind me of people who think the Carry-On films are funny (ironically of course) as opposed to just infantile crap for morons.

On another matter:

Salomé wrote:

Perhaps it might be better to reserve such words for the kind of behavior thousands of women have to endure every day in the European capital?

I'm a bit confused, Oppers. You say 'European capital', but it doesn't look like London to me.

How can the capital of a nation that does not consider itself to be part of Europe be the European capital?

Perhaps because it's the global centre of finance and the EU's largest city.

Brussels is a pathetic attempt to placate Nazis and Frogs.

I'd do her.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Perhaps because it's the global centre of finance and the EU's largest city.

Brussels is a pathetic attempt to placate Nazis and Frogs.

You assume you speak to someone who rates Brussels as a city?

It's also rather besides the point I tried to make with my post, but I assume you did not deem that worthy of a reply. Je suis desolée.

Largo's Shark wrote:

I'd do her.

And here I foolishly believed there was an inkling of a chance to start a slightly more serious discussion.

Salomé wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

I'd do her.

And here I foolishly believed there was an inkling of a chance to start a slightly more serious discussion.

Diane Chambers in all but name and nationality.

Control wrote:

Jing Bindi should be a vegan, as well.

According to Bindi's creator, she's a vagitarian. Does that count?

Control wrote:

Very interesting articles in this thread.

I'm not quite sure why everyone gets bent out of shape about James Bond, a fictional character, being a sexist, a homophobe, etc. I suppose it's due to Bond's impact on the world of cinema and perhaps these insecure "journalists" and "critics" fear that if Bond is, say, a sexist, then he'll influence all of the young viewers? I'm not sure.

If by "all the young viewers" you mean Babs "Coltrane" Broccoli, then yes.

But the changes to the Bond series back in 1995, which I thought were slight and necessary updates, have now snowballed into an avalanche of political correctness. The changes to the Bond series are a barometer of where "Western culture" is headed, and it looks to me like it's headed straight down an environmentally-friendly, low-flush toilet.