sharkchunks:The most offensively misogynistic lines of James...

sharkchunks:

The most offensively misogynistic lines of James Bond (in chronological order):

“Just do as I say, will you?” in From Russia With Love

“I may just retire here,” in You Only Live Twice

“I approve of your frock. Tight in all the right places, not too many buttons,” in The Man With The Golden Gun

“A woman?” in Moonraker

“Sexual discrimination? I’ll definitely have to pay it a visit,” in Octopussy

“The bitch is dead,” in Casino Royale

“It’s a waste of good scotch,” in Skyfall

Note that despite the negation of some sexist elements as time went on, the more recent lines are the most cruel, with the Craig films having a far more angry and demeaning nature than the others, which were often humorous and even self deprecating (that is not to say that a humorous sexist remark is a great deal more forgivable than a mean one). Brosnan’s films were easily the most progressive, often ridiculing the previous sexism of the series and introducing the first female characters of strength who are not punished or demeaned for having it. 

The modern Bond films seem to do for the character’s misogyny what the Abrams Star Treks did for the cliches of the series- Amplifying what the general public knew about the show as jokes (red shirts die, Bones and Spock argue a lot, Kirk sleeps with many aliens) at the cost of what actually made the show good. The new Bonds seem to be made by people who heard the series was sexist, so they made it sexist without any apology, thinking they were taking the series back to its roots.

Perhaps they did and did it well, but of all the things to bring back from the dead, was Bond as a negative portrayal of women really the one to focus on?

And here we have the origin of about 30% of the Valhalla series.

Valhalla was always meant to be a modern James Bond, among other things. The problem is that the Bond series, while generally supplying the best action film of any year one comes out, is sexist as hell. I recognized this (thanks to my parents) from the very beginning and never fully accepted the series as a result. So when I wrote my own action stories, I resolved to fix a few things that I felt Bond did wrong.

First, this was probably the reason my series had a female lead from the very beginning. The fastest way, to my teenage mind, to erase the concept of subservient women and superior men in action was to feature a female lead who was never demeaned by the writer for her femininity. One who was strong, strongly developed as a character, who would outdo anything Bond did in his films (half the action scenes from the first book are my attempts to outdo Bond film action sequences, Varg’s intro chase is actually a unified spoof of five different Bond chases) and who would not swoon for any attractive male spy. The offensive concept of Pussy Galore (because Fleming seriously named a character that) being lesbian but ‘changing’ for Bond because he’s just such a stud that women will change their orientation to be with him, is also likely a contributing reason that Violet is gay, and is never not gay.

Varg is the other half of the response. Where Violet takes all the negatives and inverts them, Varg takes all the positives and rescues them. He is hyper-masculine, he has sex with every woman he can, he’s big and buff and macho and all that, but he’s all that without ever having to demean women to be it. Bond was the masculine ideal for 50 years. He probably still is for most guys. I wanted to make it clear that there can still be a male ideal in a feminist world, in opposition to those who claim feminism demeans men. It doesn’t demean men, it frees them. So he’s the most light spirited character, and likely the most moral character, in contrast to what many readers expect. 

I’ve had many letters expecting Varg to be the villain or at least a jerk because he’s so macho, some later in disappointment that the macho guy turned out to be good. For toxic masculinity, one need only look to Wulfgar. Varg is simply what James Bond could’ve been were Fleming not a sexist dipshit. It’s in response to more recent developments that he never upstages Violet or Vibeke, specifically the Matrix syndrome of badass women who train dull men who become the main character. Other tropes and binaries to negate inspired later bits of the series as I became aware of them.

TL;DR a good deal of Valhalla started as my childhood attempt to undo the sexism of the Bond series.