Who Are Some Bond Grrls?

Often, it’s the women that introduce something “new” to the Bond film (other than a Q “gadget”). For example, in Thunderball, Patricia Fearing is smart, strong, and a trained professional in a then-innovative field of alternative medicine, osteopathy (she wasn’t “just a nurse”). Also from Thunderball, when, at the end of a fight scene, the villain levels a gun at Bond, before he can fire, Domino (Claudine Auger) shoots him in the back with a spear gun, a then-novel movie concept. “I’m glad I killed him,” she says. “You’re glad?!” Bond says. Once again, it is the Bond girl that saves Bond’s life and kills the villain. (As an aside, one of my other favorite lines is from Thunderball, where Bond is sucking cactus spines out of Domino’s foot: “That’s the first time I’ve tasted women. They’re rather good.”)

It has been described that there are 4 “types” of Bond girls: (1) naïve beauties with no connection to espionage (Sylvia Trench); (2) femme fatales (Fiona Volpe); (3) “angel with a broken wing” (Honey Rider, Domino, Tatiana Romanova, Jill Masterson); (4) Comrades in Arms (Aki or Kissy in You Only Live Twice; Jinx, “Triple X”/Anya in “Spy Who Loved Me”; Melina in “For Your Eyes Only”). The “coolest” of the four is the last – she doesn’t cling to Bond when they face gunfire or threats of violence. She can abseil down a cord from the top of a volcano or shoot to kill. But interestingly and perhaps not surprisingly, given the tenor of who a Bond grrl “is, few Bond women have had to fire guns like a pro (maybe only Carey Lowell, Wai Lin, Rosamund Pike and Halle Berry, who all were agents in their own right).

Although in some of the films the Bond grrl might be “trapped” (by circumstances, a villain, etc.), she is never ‘weak” – and usually Bond doesn’t “rescue” her so much as “helps her see her way out.” She is engaged and intelligent – she just might be a victim of circumstance, but a Bond grrl is never, ever a “victim” nor does she have a “victim” mentality. Note, unlike so many women (and what seems to be an epidemic in America now, in my opinion) that no Bond grrl “blame” anyone for her circumstance. Again, no victims here, even when they are in pretty bad circumstances. They take responsibility for their own lives and then seize a chance when they see one. I personally wish that more people I know would be like this instead of seeming to relish playing the “blame game.”

Bond Girls from the 70s are less serious and less complex. (In fact, I don’t care for many of these women). Examples include Mary Goodnight, who is basically a loyal, lovesick, somewhat incompetent assistant for Bond who doesn’t really fit. Or Stacey Sutton, Tanya Roberts’ character in A View To A Kill, who can’t cook, and winds up being emotionally fragile and physically incapable – she ultimately needs Bond’s “protection” more than helping him, though she does give him information on fault lines, etc. Give me a break – she’s my least favorite – I guess it was a time though when Bond was supposed to be “domestic” enough to whip up a meal with courses not only for Stacey, but for her cat! Bond just doesn’t strike me as the ‘Alan Alda’ type. But then again, Grace Jones as “May Day” in the same film is exotic, fun to watch and over the top as a villianess. So there were at least some redeeming characteristics! There is also nuclear weapons/nuclear physicist Dr Christmas Jones (Denise Richards).

The movie Octopussy showed a lot of strong women – each a circus performer, oarsman, smuggler, or trained commando under Octopussy’s rule. Octopussy runs in international smuggling organization as well as a circus, and she herself showed feminine empowerment that was attractive to men and women alike. In “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” Tracy rescues Bond in Switzerland, with skillful driving and skiing.

Pam Bouvier (License to Kill, 1989) paved the way for the very strong-willed Bond women to follow. She is a pilot (like Pussy Galore in Goldfinger), has tremendous fighting skills, and is unimpressed by Bond’s Walther PPK (she herself carries a short-barreled shotgun). As the 90s progressed, women became more and more comfortable with expressing their sexuality without any of the 90s defensiveness found in other movies. The Bond girls of the 90s (Xenia Onatopp, Wai Lin and Elektra King), are strong, independent, and their sex appeal was only part of their power. Interestingly, it had become “politically incorrect” to call the women “Bond girls,” and so they became known as “Bond Women.” But Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day) states: “I don’t want to be called a Bond Woman. I think Bond Girl is sexier.” The newer generation of actresses have readily adopted the “Bond Girl” image, not because it excites men, but because it represents confidence, beauty and clout. Power comes from respect, and “Bond Girls” have that respect.

“GoldenEye” has an over the top “bad” woman (Xenia Onatopp) who orgasms gunning down workers or squeezing men to death with her thighs. Natalya, the “good” Bond grrl of the same film, starts out as a low-level computer worker put down by her fellow (male) worker, and in the end is an equal to Bond, with skills and knowledge that are vital to the success of the mission. (In fact, the fact that her compatriot computer guy underestimates her works very much to her and Bond’s benefit.) Her relationship with Bond doesn’t wind up putting her at greater risk (like some of the other Bond women who, by associating with Bond, wind up dead) – she is a strong, forceful character, and even hijacks an enemy helicopter to help save Bond in the end. Her courage and confidence in the action scenes come from an inner core, and not out of her interactions with Bond (e.g., he doesn’t “make” her strong, she IS strong). But she is much more like Jamie Lee Curtis' character in one of my favorite films, "True Lies" -- she is "any woman" (not so much an "entrepreneur running a business" as Pussy Galore or Octopussy), and the audience finds that she can rise from her "desk job" to be an awesome compatriot to the hero.

In the next movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, Wai Lin is every bit Bond’s equal in the “art of the spy,” maybe even better than he is in some areas. She can use many weapons (including martial arts), scuba dive, fight, while always being calm and graceful. Her sex appeal comes from her abilities and her confidence, not just her physical beauty. She carries herself with just as much self-confidence and self-assurance as Bond himself.

The latest Bond film has the strongest Bond grrls yet – Jinx sleeps with Bond on her own terms, and leaves him before he’s awake. Both the women in Die Another Day are accomplished secret agents (Rosamund Pike and Jinx).