James Bond is needed now more than ever

So this is my early rough draft for my English paper I hope you enjoy and I welcome any feedback. Of course it is incomplete in its current state so bear that in mind.

Today we live in a world that has unique definitions of gender roles in society. Recently there has been much discussion on topics such as gay marriage, the breakup of the family system, and the overall definition of what a man is in the 21^st century. Many of these issues can be traced back to the social movements and changes that happened during the 1960’s and onward. Because of the women’s rights movement many women today have equal opportunities in the workplace and have surpassed men in graduating college. These changes have brought a lot of benefits to our society because now the female voice has a say in many of the decisions that go on at home, at the workplace, and in the world. While women have risen to new prominence in their roles today, men have diminished in theirs. Men today are more self-centered, less masculine, and have lost their sense of responsibility. Men of our grandparent’s generation were dependable, took action, and they defined what it is to be masculine. Popular characters of their generation like James Bond personified this idea of the alpha male and masculine traits. He is the man that men want to be, and the man that women want to be with. While James Bond is a flawed and overtly sexist character, he does represent a kind of masculinity that men in our society desperately need right now.

The first James Bond book was printed in 1953 in a time where the entire world seemed to be searching for and settling into their new identities. The United States and the Soviet Union became the new world powers after World War II and countries like Britain had taken a smaller role in the governance of the world.  The James Bond novels were Ian Fleming’s answer to the decline of British superiority and they hearkened back to the glory days of Britain. He was their ultimate hero, a man on Her Majesty’s Secret Service who could solve the world’s problems without the help of Britain’s larger cousin the United States. In fact Bond was often the solution to problems that the U.S. or Soviet Union couldn’t solve on their own and because of this he was extremely popular in Britain and he soon gained popularity across the globe. Bond provided escape and excitement to readers in a time of peace. Long gone were the times when Allied soldiers were fighting against evil and oppression in all areas of the world. Tales of duty and the fight against infamy were now found in the James Bond novels. James was a one-man army who saved the day because of his intellect and physical prowess. He was a man’s man and of course he always got the girl. Bond wasn’t popular just because he was every British man’s hero, but because he was every man’s hero. He has timeless qualities that can be admired in any generation and they are why he has remained popular to this day.

As mentioned in the above paragraph the James Bond novels are a form of escapism and can be categorized under Escape Literature. According to Harmon and Holman’s A Handbook to Literature Escape Literature is defined as “Writing whose clear intention is to amuse and beguile by offering readers a strong world, exciting adventures, or puzzling mysteries. It aims at no higher purpose than amusement. Adventure stories, detective stories, tales of fantasy, and many humorous stories are frankly escape literature, and they exist for no other purpose than to translate readers for a time from the care ridden actual world to an entrancing world of the imagination (Harmon and Holman).” The Bond novels are an escape for men because while we read them we can be in the exciting world of Bond for a few hours. We can get the beautiful exotic girl, we can travel round the globe, and we can save the day. All of the fantasies of the male mind are written into the novels and he represents the epitome of those fantasies. He is just as relevant in the world today as he was in the 1950’s and we need him now more than ever as men in our generation further lose sight of the definition of manliness and sink deeper into states of irresponsibility.

Men today live often live with their parents longer, wander about aimlessly and without through college, and they have lost their sense of what is to be a man. This is reflected in media portrayals of the dumb dad on sitcoms like Married With Children and Family Guy. Our society has even created a term in the last generation called metrosexual which describes a man who isn’t homosexual, but adopts the clothing and style of a gay man. What?! Why are straight men in our society looking to gay fashion trends to define them? As gender roles in society have changed we have changed. Kids in recent generations and today have grown up with new definitions of man and woman and that is obviously reflected. According to a 2010 survey, 19% of men today ages 25 to 29 still live with their parents! The percentage had risen 8% just from the 1980’s. This was unheard in the time of the Bond novels. Men back then were the providers of the family. They established themselves, married, and strived to support their family. It was expected of them to do so. Although not a family man James Bond certainly had this sense of duty and responsibility about him. He could have spent his time in idle pursuits; instead he devoted his entire life to a higher cause which was the protection and safety of the Western world. Sure he pursued his own interests, but they were always secondary to his greater mission. Today we find the opposite as men waste their lives away in video games, the internet, and failing to launch from their parents’ nests.

Men today also have a problem with the way they treat women. Often we hear the sayings that “chivalry is dead”.  Now James Bond has been called a sexist womanizer in the past, but he certainly knew how treat women. There is a reason why so many women are attracted to him and most of them aren’t fictional. Throughout the novels he compliments women with phrases like “your one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen” in From Russia With Love and the countless accolades he pours on Moneypenny and his personal secretary Loelia Ponsonby. All compliments were appreciated. He was confident and assuring, he pursued his women without looking desperate or needy. And often times throughout his adventures he even treated his female counterparts as important assets to his success. This Bond quote from the short story Quantum of Solace offers some insight into Bond’s character: “I think it's the same with all the relationships between a man and a woman. They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic humanity exists between the two people. When all kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn't care if the other is alive or dead, then it's just no good.” That may come as a shock to some who think of Bond as sexist, misogynist dinosaur.Men in the dating world today could learn a lot of lessons from 007.

Work Cited

Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.