Hidden Anxieties: The Masculine Myth In Bond Films

This thesis has endeavored to explore the anxiety men are actuallyexperiencing in the modern world through the textual analysis of three of Bond films: Goldfinger (1964), GoldenEye (1995), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). The film production team originally attempt to set a worldwide exemplary figure of hegemonic masculinity through the incarnation of the modern mythical hero, James Bond. Nevertheless, based on the theories on psychoanalysis, sex roles, and feminism, this paper reaches a conclusion that Bond's hegemonic masculinity, paradoxically, is a boastfulness and exaggeration of men's sex roles and a hypermasculinity, which is deconstructed in the films themselves. The critical transformation of traditional masculinity is obvious not only in Bond films but also in real life. With the development of social ideologies, men and women nowadays can not offer serious compliance with the prescribed sex roles which have been historically and culturally constructed. A new type of masculinity issignificant and obligatory for both sexes if modern society aims to abolish sexism and patriarchy thus to achieve a genuine equality between men and women.This paper, which is consisted of five chapters, begins with a general introduction of James Bond's masculine image to infer the thesis of the whole paper. The second chapter briefs the literature review on masculinity through three perspectives: psychoanalysis, sex roles theory and feminism. Chapter Three analyzes five elements which constitute the myth of Bond's masculinity within three 007 films. In the following chapter, the author of this paper explores the hidden anxieties implied in the filmic texts. The final chapter concludes that positive ideological reforms on masculinity are indispensable in accord with the social progress.