SALON

Wednesday, Oct 3, 2012 4:45 PM UTC

AP PHOTOS: Bond girls show women’s progress

By

Topics: From the Wires,

AP PHOTOS: Bond girls show women's progressFILE - In this Dec. 22, 1965 file photo, Claudine Auger, the latest James Bond girl, stars with Sean Connery in the James Bond 1965 film, “Thunderball.” Whatever their role, Bond girls must always be inarguably beautiful. (AP Photo)(Credit: AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Ursula Andress emerged from the sea, curves glistening, with a dagger strapped to her bikini in 1962′s “Dr. No,” she made the Bond girl an instant icon.

Always glamorous and sophisticated, yet uniquely susceptible to James Bond’s flirtations, the Bond girl over the years has become as compelling as Agent 007 himself — and not just for the way she fills out a swimsuit.

“Initially, Bond girls were part of the aesthetic of the series. They had more transient roles,” said Karen Tongson, a professor of English and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. “Especially in the last 15 to 20 years, there’s been a marked shift in their greater involvement in the action of the story line and also the motivation for Bond, especially Daniel Craig’s Bond.”

The greatest change in women’s position in the Bond saga, Tongson notes, is that the agent’s boss, M, is a woman.

“The sense that the higher power that Bond responds to is this dignified woman played by Dame Judi Dench suggests that the relationships he has with these other (female) figures are not just fleeting casual sexual trysts, but far more complex,” she said.

Who qualifies as a Bond girl has also changed over the years, as the blue-eyed, buxom blonde has given way to more diverse leading ladies, including Michelle Yeoh (“Tomorrow Never Dies”) and Halle Berry (“Die Another Day”). Modern Bond girls also present a more formidable challenge to the suave secret agent.

“They reflect some of the shifts in the post-feminist perspective: Women who use their presentation and their wiles to outsmart Bond,” Tongson said.

One thing that hasn’t changed? Whatever their role, Bond girls still must be inarguably beautiful. Check out this photo gallery.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

More Sandy Cohen.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 4 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations