Content area
Full text
Britain's Last Line Of Defence: Miss Moneypenny and the Desperations Of Filmic Feminism
I'm a bitch
I'm a lover
I'm a child
I'm a mother
I'm a sinner
I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell
I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way.(1)
Meredith Brooks, Bitch
Good old Moneypenny. Britain's last line of defence.(2)
James Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The fracturing of femininity is a strength of, as well as a problem for contemporary feminism. No political label can encompass the plurality of women. Since suffragettes chained themselves to the gate of Number 10 Downing Street, the representational politics of subjectivity have been a central topic of gender theorists.(3) Without a metaphoric Boadicea to embody strength, the political objectives of contemporary feminism can seem tenuous and ambivalent. In response to these larger concerns, this paper explores a minor character from a long-running film series and demonstrates that even in the midst of saturating sexism, a voice of social justice and responsibility can speak. With the latest Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, released during the Christmas season of 1997/8, it is timely to evaluate a superspy's supersecretary.
Miss Moneypenny has been featured in more James Bond films than any figure except the title role.(4) She is the assistant to M, head of the British Secret Service. All agents, administrators, technicians and scientists must pass through the Moneypenny office and antechamber to reach the Imperial core. She is, as the Lazenby-Bond described her, `Britain's last line of defence.' Moneypenny has been played by three different actors: Lois Maxwell,(5) Caroline Bliss (in The Living Daylights and License to Kill) and Samantha Bond (in Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies). Moneypenny's scenes with James Bond have become a generic characteristic of the series.(6) The gender politics enacted through these semiotic snippets of text provide an insight into the desperations of filmic feminism. This paper introduces the character of Moneypenny, following the changes to her ideological configuration from 1962 to 1995, and concludes with an exploration of textual harassment and seduction.
Filmic feminism may seem a clumsy or awkward phrase, yet it acknowledges a political framework that stands for and against specific discourses, world-views and values. Recognition...