Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender, by Monica Germanà (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019, Pp.264)

Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender, by Monica Germanà (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019, pp.264 NICHOLAS LEVESQUE Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender by Monica Germanà reveals, through the history and language of clothing, new ways of understanding the women of James Bond. As fashion and the body are both literally and theoretically connected, Germanà’s analysis draws in such embodied elements as race, class, nationality, beliefs around recu erative therapies, and even automobile use. !hough aca- demic wor" on Bond o#en treats $an %leming’s novels and the &'( )roductions *lm series as discrete obeects of study, Bond Girls develops a holistic reading of Bond across time and media. Li"ewise, rather than sequester each framewor" within its own section, each of the four chapters of Bond Girls is rich in complexi- ties and considerations that drive home the intersectional natures of identity and representation. !he result is a vivid understanding of Bond which makes room for the variety of spectatorshi that the franchise has en+oyed for over half a century. !his is Germanà’s second book and *rst on Bond, following e.tensive ubli- cation on clothing, body, and gender in literature and o ular culture. Such a background has roduced a erspective on Bond that is not beholden to canoni- cal Bond studies texts, such as 0mberto Eco’s 1(arrative /tructures in %leming” Nic"olas #e$esque is / gr/du/*e s*uden* in Cinem/ /n+ 0edi/ S*udies /* *he Uni2ersi*3 o4 Sou*hern C/li4orni/% 5heir rese/r61 explores in4luen6es o4 ps36hedeli/ /n+ pos*modernism in in*ern/*ion/l 4ilm% Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Spring 2020 ISSN 2514 21!" DOI$ 10%24"!!&'bs%5) Dis*ribu*ed under CC ,- 4%0 U. 345678 and Bennett and 9oollacott’s Bond and Beyond 345:;8, though both are cited. !his troubles our own assumptions as Bond scholars; for example, Ger- manà’s wor" is in shar contrast to &co’s opular understanding of Bond as made u of formulaic binary o ositions. $n response to James =hapman’s understanding of women in Bond *lms as commodities, Germanà argues that 1a close reading of fashion > and the structures of its consum tion > encourages a more nuanced > and subversive > view of the Bond Girl continuum2 34?8. $n Ger- manà’s ap raisal, it is ambiguity and uncertainty that mar" the Bond franchise. !he *rst cha ter, 1@Bond. James Bond’A Masculinity and its Biscontents2, in- troduces Germanà’s novel ap roaches. !hough its subeect, James Bond’s masculinity, is well-trod territory, Germanà guides the reader through the cracks that fashion reveals in Bond’s stoic English facade. !he importance of fashion in Bond studies is asserted through the cultural crossroads of $an %leming’s own in- terest in dress and the historical signi*cance of the &nglish suit during the ostwar years. By traveling as far back in time as medieval "nights, Germanà laces Bond within a sartorial battleground for English male identity. Ce is revealed to be a Scottish-Swiss su erhero with a deeply scarred, traumatised body, and whose 1uneasiness about his erformance of u er-class Englishness DEF refects a deeper anxiety about national identity and class2 3H;8. !hough the English suit, in Germanà’s words, 1 rovided the fantasy of a coherent, unchanged and un- changeable identity2 36I8, the research and extensive -uotations in Bond Girls en- sures recognition of the messy cultural histories behind that fantasy. $ndeed, the tense relationshi between imperialism and Bond 3both series and hero8 can be more clearly understood through the semiotics of fashion. Afer establishing the nuances of Bond as a 1cross-gender lifestyle model2 34J8, Germanà and Bond Girls continue the e.cellent wave of scholarshi revisit- ing the women of James Bond. Alongside Lisa %unnell’s essential anthology For His Eyes Only: The Women of James Bond 3?I478 and the considerations of !iKany =ase in The Many Facets of Biamonds Are %orever 3?I458, edited by 'liver Buc"- ton, women in academia have been breaking ground and ushing our scholarly understanding of Bond far beyond simple mid-century misogyny. $n fact, Ger- manà o ens her second chapter, 1@Bar" =ontinents’A %ashion, %oreignness and %emininity2, by declaring that 1James Bond is sexist. James Bond is racist DEF !here is, however, another way to look at the challenges that foreign women ose to Bond and the conservative values he represents2 36J8 > that being fashion. !hrough the backgrounds, bodies, and style of Bond women, Germanà de- codes a visual language of colonial resistance. )articular attention is given to the many responses to 'rientalism and stereoty ing through Miss !aro from the 2 In*ern/*ion/l 8ourn/l o4 8/mes ,on+ Studies · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Spring 2020 novel Dr. No 3457:8, /Lvérine and 9ai Lin from the *lms !yfall 3?I4?8 and Tomor" ro# Ne$er Dies 3455;8, and Missy SuNu"i from the novel %o& Only 'i$e T#ice 3456H8. !he latter involves a considered history of the ofen-overlooked Ama commu- nity of Japan and the bold assertion that 1DfFar from embodying the Lotus Blos- som Dstereoty eF, the literary Missy is a recursor of the em owered Asian woman, e.empli*ed four decades later by the cinematic 9ai Lin2 34IH8. !his is not to suggest that Germanà is disregarding the Bond franchise’s of- ten roblematic racial and sexual olitics. $nstead, she elucidates the dar" cor- ners of Bond that are ofen shut down due to the sensitivity of their subeect mat- ter. As a articularly stri"ing example, Germanà addresses the controversial assage of %leming’s novel (asino )oyale 3457J8, in which Bond, convalescing afer his torture at the hands 3or rather, car et beater8 of Le =hiKre, fantasises that 1the con-uest of DOesper ,ynd’sF body, because of the central rivacy in her, would each time have the sweet tang of rape2 3768. !his assage becomes the starting oint for a thoroughly researched history of virility in ostwar rehabili- tation ractices and the relationshi s Bond and Oesper have to their bodies. Ger- manà e. lains that, in a challenge to usual assumptions of the male gaze, 1DwFhat the scene emphasiNes DEF is that the com le. dynamics of human > rather than domesticated > sexual desire involve shi#ing atterns of mental and hysical en- gagement, rather than binary malePfemale, activeP assive atterns of mechanical behavior2 37;8. !he third chapter, 1@=ross-Bressing’A %rom the %ield to the Boardroom2, con- tinues to challenge assum tions about Bond Girls by rebu"ing the opular image of them as wearing nothing by skimpy lingerie and evening gowns. Li"e Bond’s scarred body, the women of Bond bear the mar"s of ostwar modernity and ef- ciency through clothing that challenges gendered boundaries. &ven the driving corset worn by !illy Masterson in the novel Gold*nner 345758 is framed as athletic, rather than constraining: by citing a Oictorian cyclist’s guide, Germanà e. lains that 1the corset is regarded as a necessary undergarment to ensure safety and, consequently, enable, rather than hinder, female mobility2 34??8. !he all-female communities led by )ussy Galore and 'cto ussy, as well as the 1 ower dressing” of !iKany =ase and Judi Bench’s M, are shown to transgress male erotic fantasy and to reveal ambiguities in contemporary gender erformance. $ndeed, the *- nal chapter, 1Bressed to MillA )ower, Mnowledge, Besire2, directly confronts the ways in which eroticism is ofen constructed in Bond alongside violence and death. !he innacle of a book that is already rovocative throughout, this cha - ter asserts that 1Bond Girls and female villains twist the "nown aradigms of the N. Le2esque · Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender, (3 0oni6/ ;erman< 3 male gaze, restoring ower to its fetishiNed obeect. Bead or alive, desired and de- siring, rather than an assuaging strategy in su ort of the masculine ego, the un- veiled hallicism of Bond female characters e. oses the deep scars of Bond’s wounded masculinity2 3?I48. Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender is at once everything its title romises and far more. $t is an elaborate yet clear and compellingly argued cultural history of identity, e. ressed through nearly every installment of one of the most im- ortant franchises in recent times. Scholars wor"ing in the *eld of Bond studies will *nd, here, a rovocative and rewarding reconsideration of the series’ lace in the o ular imagination. As Germanà writes, 1a sartorial analysis of Bond Girls e. oses their erformance of femininity as an active challenge to se.ist and racist ideologies2, 3;8 a oint which crucially ma"es space for Bond fans who are women, -ueer, and of colour. %eminists and cultural historians wor"ing beyond Bond will *nd in Bond Girls a owerful argument in favour of the com lexities of culture as e. ressed through a single franchise. Each chapter contains worlds that could be s un of into their own book-length studies, ensuring that Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender will remain an essential resource in the ever-grow- ing *eld of Bond studies. 4 In*ern/*ion/l 8ourn/l o4 8/mes ,on+ Studies · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Spring 2020.

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