His penchant for champagne drinking, tailored clothes, and refined foods may suggest that Bond is indeed ‘a bit of a girl himself’. Or we could read these as the most extreme manifestations of the queer sexuality that Bond, perhaps, has always represented. You could say that these are blatant examples of the franchise’s latent homophobia and clichéd approaches to gender and sexuality. In the most famous lesbian one-liner of the franchise, she dismisses Bond and Graves’s alpha-male fight saying she doesn’t ‘like cock fights’. Openly lesbian, and with a sharp weapon of her own, Verity is in love with double-agent Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike). Queer icon Madonna makes a cameo appearance in Die Another Day, as the leather-corseted Verity, villain Gustav Graves’s fencing instructor. And at the end of Octopussy, there are serious doubts about Bond (Roger Moore)’s ability to perform his statutory boudoir duties in full-body cast. Octopussy and Magda are the ‘femme/butch’ leaders of an all-girls criminal organisation. The same film depicts Bond’s arch-enemy Blofeld in drag, while assassins Mr Wint and Mr Kidd are openly gay. Lesbian duo Bambi and Thumper – the first black Bond girl played by Trina Parks – have great fun at Bond’s expense in the film adaptation of Diamonds Are Forever. ‘ I don ’ t like cock fights ’ Thumper and Bambi beat up Bond in Diamonds Are Forever. Pussy soon gets bored with Bond, and steals one of his female love interests.
Significantly, when Pussy Galore returns in Anthony Horowitz’s sequel to Goldfinger, Trigger Mortis (2015), it’s not to marry James Bond and have his babies. In fact, it is an endorsement of her fluidly queer sexuality.
People tend to incorrectly read this night of sex as her irreversibly disavowing her homosexuality. | Photo: MGMĪ great example is American gangster Pussy Galore who has a one night-stand with Bond at the end of Goldfinger – both novel and film. Honor Blackman and Sean Connery as Pussy and James in Goldfinger. But those characters also provide us with a smarter feminist re-reading of the Bond films. The most outrageously named characters are the ones who have most inflamed certain feminist criticism. The explicitly queer subtext of films such as Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Octopussy, and Die Another Day, displays a countercultural deep layer to Bond’s superficial gender conservativism. Pussy Galore gets bored with Bond, and steals one of his love interestsīut gay women do exist, albeit in minor roles, throughout the Bond franchise. ‘This, I would argue, gives her the very qualities necessary to be the best ever Bond.’ More to the point, however: ‘If Lezzer Bond is in her 50s and came out in her youth, she would have encountered threats and bigotry on a massive scale,’ Bindel says. A lesbian Bond would be saving the environment by replacing the old Aston Martin with a low-emission Mini. She also argues 007 could do the world a great service by promoting vegan food and human rights. Julie Bindel of The Guardian, comes from the opposite perspective. The film sent shockwaves through LGBTI fans when Silva propositioned Bond and 007 suggested this may not be his first (gay) time. This is in spite of a certain frisson between Bond and villain Silva in Skyfall. After all, when even the straight sex scenes struggle with authenticity, how could the franchise cope with a gay Bond? So could this be the time for a gay Bond?Ĭhris Mandle of The Telegraph thinks the world is not ready for it. This came after the world of British TV was shaken by the appointment of Jodie Whittaker in the role of Doctor Who. Others suggested Bond should be female, possibly played by Gillian Anderson. Idris Elba was a hot tip to play the part. Until Daniel Craig confirmed he would play James Bond again in the new film due out in November 2019, there was speculation that this was the time that Bond might be black.
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