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For this discussion on the gaze and the objectification of women in mass media I will be looking at the idea of the 'Bond girl', which in itself I feel is a commentary on the topic. The idea of being a 'bond girl' almost implies the actor and character are not important enough to have their own name and identity, and are kind of there to be objectified and admired. Oscar winning actresses who earned critical acclaim for their acting ability such as Halle Berry have gone out of their way to be a "Bond girl", to be admired as an object of desire by a predominantly male audience. If you tried to remember her name or role in Die Another Day, you probably won't remember.
You can see in the clips above, a Bond girl very often has a scene where James Bond admires from a distance, often with or without the girls knowledge, often the Bond girl kind of acknowledges Bonds gaze but doesn't give the same connection back, Coward explains this in her text, "Women in the flesh, often feel embarrassed, irritated or downright angered by men's persistent gaze. But not wanting to risk male attention turning to male aggression women avert their eyes and hurry on their way."[Coward, 2000]
James Bond looks from a distance and in turn objectifies and makes a judgement on the girls personality without having the same objectification back, "Voyeurism is a way of taking sexual pleasure by looking at rather than being close to a particular object of desire, like a Peeping Tom. And Peeping Toms can always stay in control." [Coward, 2000] I think this is definitely the case in Bond movies, if you watch a Bond movie, the Bond girl often feels embarrassed and intimidated by James Bond who never hides his attraction and dominance over the girl. Often after a few meetings, the girl opens up and Bond and the girl usually have a sexual relation and Bond moves on.
Bond girls very often have very little effect on the films plot you could argue they are usually there for some eye-candy for men. I think again, especially in movies this is a reflection on the male driven industry and use of women in film, Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien released in 1979 is regarded as one of the first times a woman has a substantial and physically dominant role in a movie often associated with men and if you look at when film was invented, 1979 is a pretty late progression. "In this culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry." [Coward, 2000]
Let's apply this same notion to Bond's latest outing, Skyfall, without trying to ruin the films plot; Daniel Craig wakes up with an unnamed and uncredited woman after falling hundreds of feet into a river. She has no purpose and no introduction in the plot or movie, no dialogue, nothing at all. Did she save him? She's simply there to further back-up Bond's character of being a cold-hearted killing tool who uses and discards women, a plot device surely targeted at men as something maybe they aspire to achieve. In todays culture, if a man has a string of women it's often praised by his male peers, whereas if a woman has a string of relationships it's seen as negative and almost dirty by her peers. I think there's definite connotations of women in todays world wanting to be accepted and admired and the objectification in society is definitely different between males and females. It's almost a case of you've had a string of relationships, you have a reputation now, you're no longer desirable to a male. "However unconsciously, with most members of this society get the message that there's a lot at stake in visual impact. Most women know to their cost that appearance is perhaps the crucial way by which men form opinions of women. For that reason, feelings about self-image get mixed up with feelings about security and comfort." [Coward, 2000]
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