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Stirred, not shaken
The other day My daughter told us that she has never seen a “Bond” film and I immediately felt that I have been negligent in her education if she has not seen any of the archetypical secret agent films based upon the novels of Ian Fleming. This is something that I must try to address over the Christmas holidays. This little anecdote leads me to Janet Albrechtsen’s critique of the dour feminists who whine about the nature of James Bond.
In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that those grouchy women who deride Bond would secretly love to be a sultry Bond girl for just a while at least. Before settling down to a life of academic introspection, who wouldn’t like to strap a Beretta 70 to the inside of their thigh, dress up in hopelessly tight-fitting gowns and, yes, have a naked Bond slip unannounced into their steamy shower? Come on, girls. ‘Fess up. Your fantasies can’t all be about being the first female chief justice of the High Court or the first female driver of a large piece of mining machinery in the Pilbara.
In any case, don’t underrate the Bond girls. Full of humour, they radiate a delightfully modern mix of confidence, arrogance and sexual liberation. Who can forget Pussy Galore, the lesbian pilot, or Plenty O’Toole and Holly Goodhead? Pick any Bond girl and I’ll find something more legitimately feminist about her than the Moaning Myrtles who cry sexism each time the latest Bond movie hits our screens. And then there’s that Bond woman M, head of MI6, who routinely puts 007 in his place. As other women my age have remarked, when you grew up in the late 1970s watching repeats of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, the Bond girls were a refreshing break from Samantha and Jeannie.
Instead of whining that the latest Bond movie is sexist, spare a thought for the poor blokes who could air a bigger grievance. They can never hope to be Bond. Not in the 21st century, where revealing even the smallest hint of the alpha male is pounced on by puritanical feminists as a sign of uncontrolled machismo and sexism. Maybe women like me love 007 because he is the antithesis of the metrosexual men who surround us.
In fact, if Bond is sexist and millions of modern, liberated women are still being seduced by the sexy spy, maybe the sisterhood should ask whether it is somehow to blame for making him so damn alluring.
The sad fact is that so many feminist warriors are far to serious about cultural Icons like James Bond and if they would just lighten up a bit then maybe the few truths that they are enunciating would not be ignored along with the hyperbole that is their stock in trade.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- MC@Play: The Bond Girl Glass Ceiling (marieclaire.com)
- Get to Know the New Bond Girl: Bérénice Marlohe (fabsugar.com)
- Product placement in pictures: Skyfall (brandsandfilms.com)
- Beauty Looks to Steal From 9 Sexy James Bond Girls (bellasugar.com)
- 50 Years of Bond Girl Fashion (fashionista.com)
Jokes that backfire
Strewth its getting so that no one can make or take a joke these days with all of the dour seriousness that has been advocated by our friends in the ALP you would have thought that they could at least practice what they preach but no they have been caught out being offensive about Tony Abbott’s female head of staff at a party function. The joke is though that having tried to claim the high moral ground over the Jones affair and Gillard’s posturing in the Parliament about sexism and misogyny they have demonstrated precisely those vices at this function.
click on first search for source
I am also reminded of the “swings and roundabouts” effect of playing these issues with the public as my quote suggests Labor may be winning with the feministas on this issue but far more ordinary blokes are being turned off their shenanigans and at the end of the day it is the votes in the box that counts and Labor have once again shown that their rank opportunism is fooling no one but themselves.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Ladylike: Julia Gillard’s Misogyny Speech (newyorker.com)
- PM Gillard blasts Abbott on sexism (bigpondnews.com)
- Julia Gillard accused of letting down women (telegraph.co.uk)
Herald Sun intern slips under editor’s fingernails
A well argued piece that I think worthy of wider currency. The young woman was both naive and running with her own political agenda. I disagree with your suggestion that the Herald Sun should have just copped in on the chin and ignored the so called expose.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Herald Sun intern debacle is a hard lesson in newsroom culture (mumbrella.com.au)
- Herald Sun intern debacle is a hard lesson in newsroom culture (theconversation.edu.au)
- Damon Johnson named Herald Sun editor (bigpondnews.com)
- Patient: Plastic surgery gave me a new life (mya.co.uk)
- Herald Sun and Advertiser fall foul of press watchdog most often so far in 2012 (mumbrella.com.au)
Gillard’s political deathbed delusions
I have just listened to the interview between Julia Gillard and Mike Willesee. In it she cites the following reasons for why she is not liked:
1) the fact that she is a woman (she doesn’t say it, but implies it). This theory of course fails to explain why she was popular in her first couple of months of being PM. It also fails to sufficiently take into account all the factors listed below.
2) the “relentless negativity” of those who oppose her broken promise on the carbon tax. Perhaps instead of blaming people for criticising her over the broken promise she should look at the broken promise itself.
There are many reasons why she is unpopular. Most of those have to do with her integrity, of lack thereof. Perhaps the PM should gloss over the following list:
1) Broken carbon tax promise
2) Betrayal of Andrew Wilkie on pokies
3) Standing by Craig Thompson
4) Her office inciting what was arguably a mino race riot on Australia Day.
5) School hall ripoffs
6) Backflips and debacles on boat people
7) Rolling Kevin Rudd (note: I don’t hold anything against her for this one)
8) Denying that she broke her carbon tax promise or her deal with Andrew Wilkie
9) Sleazy deal with Peter Slipper
If any male politician was responsible for this list of sleazyness and incompetence, he too would be looking at similar levels of unpopularity. If Gillard really believes her own tripe, she is very seriously deluded.
Rudd and Gillard have together led the ALP to ruin and made Australia a weaker nation. How ironic that Rudd may yet get his old job back.
Halloween burka
Pat demonstrates the fine art of sarcasm
Cheers Comrades
Imagine all three at once? We can
One of my interests is the way that advertising works , which has a certain irony because I also resent the intrusion of advertising into our lives as well. In fact I detest the practice of commercial TV to break into the narrative of their programs with batches of ads. However my real fascination lays with the way that advertising can in flame the passions of the political activists. Especially those of the feminist persuasion. Up here in Brisbane they have succeeded in having a billboard removed from public view:
- click for source
You see I can’t help but think that there is very little wrong with this ad, sure its cheeky and the caption does have a certain amount of the old double entendre but I find it rather hard to believe that in doing so that it demeans women, especially as we live in the age of “raunch culture” when popular music tells young women that they are “hoes” or “bitches” and that they are validated by imitation of “singers” who are famous for going commando in public. Frankly as the father of a daughter I find the images of women in this ad far more positive than any number of images of Brittany Spears or Paris Hilton.
Sure the women in this ad look very attractive but they also look strong and self assured and they might well feature in the imagination of the tradies who are the target audience however I can’t for the life of me see that this “demeans” women.
Some how I expect that the PC brigade will be more than happy to explain why they think other wise.
Cheers Comrades
“Next up: Go back to suburbia you stinking racist bogan”
A well written piece at the Punch raised a wry smile here at Chez Hall this morning. It was by David Penberthy and it well hits its mark, in the form of SBS’s much acclaimed (by the Latte sippers) program “Go back to where you came from”
click for source
Our frothy lipped friends are just so keen to attribute concerns about irregular immigration arrivals to the most base motives and to suggest that the”great unwashed” (bogans) are just innately racist bigots that they can’t see that those who live in the suburbs are living with and doing fine with people from all sorts of different backgrounds.
Anyway read the piece and if you don’t think it worthy of the same sort of wry smile that it gave me then you too must have that terrible addiction to coffee make with hot milk…
Cheers Comrades
cue a piece at Pure Play-school on this one by our learned friend!
Name the poison
Sadly Pat is right on the money here.
Cheers Comrades
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 