Last weekend I saw the latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. I have never been a huge James Bond fan but I had heard alot about the movie and when my friends wanted decided they wanted to see the movie on Saturday night I figured why not.
I won't give away any main plot points during the rest of this blog but the true integrity of James Bond will be debated. Ok, here we go.
Lately in Sociology I have been learning about Gender Stereotypes and Sex Discrimination. These two socially created, media fueled things are enforced to a near absurd level in the Quantum of Solace. In class, I learned about "controlling images" which are basically expectations or stereotypes which are placed on a certain race, class, or gender, and there are many obvious controlling images shown throughout "Solace."
As is in every Bond movie, the men are consistently superior both in strength and intellect to females. Women seduce men with their bodies, telling girls that their only way of finding success is through whoring themselves out or depending on a man. White men are expected to be superior throughout the world, as there are nearly no black men or any other race for that matter prevalent throughout the movie.
Also, there is maybe one scene in which Bond is not drinking some kind of hard alcohol. Now, this movie somehow had a pg-13 rating, so presumably children as young as 8 or 9 are seeing it. What kind of message do those kids receive when the suave, super-hero that is James Bond cannot go anywhere without having a drink or killing somebody.
I know that this is a fantasy movie in a series that has been alive for years, but the norms it perpetuates are terrible for the development of children. The impact of media cannot be understated and I think by continuing to create and reinforce these stereotypes about gender and also race, the media as a whole, in this case the makers of "Quantum of Solace" are doing the world a huge disservice.
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