Introduction
The world of art and cinematography has always been highly correlated with the issues that tackle society and make its members feel either brought together or isolated. One of such major social concerns that exist beyond any timeframe is the aspect of depicting human sexuality and women in the context of cinematography aimed at engaging with a mostly male audience. A prime example of such an issue is the process of women’s objectivization and sexualization in the cinematographic franchise telling the audience about a notorious secret agent James Bond. Hence, the following paper is aimed at looking into the aspects of feminism, misogyny, and sexual freedom in the context of one of the latest franchise motion pictures called Skyfall, placing a major emphasis on the depiction of these aspects from a diachronic perspective.
The Definition of Human Sexuality and Its Aspects
The overall socio-linguistic context of the notion of human sexuality has now generally been vastly misinterpreted by many people regardless of their racial, social, or ethnic affiliation. The roots of the following issue perhaps stem from the fact the topic of sexuality had been frowned upon for a long time both within educational and social paradigms, limiting young minds from accessing the information on the matter. As a result, most people considered sexuality to be a theme related exclusively to the process of “coetus,” employed either for the sake of pleasure or reproduction. However, over the past years, the researchers have demystified the following notion, explaining sexualization from a purely psychological perspective while giving people some food for thought concerning the issue (Lehmiller). Hence, the perception of this concept has been modified drastically over the past years, with the outcomes of this modification reflected in art and cinematography.
Thus, when talking about the subject of human sexualization from a psychological perspective, it should be outlined that the very notion primarily concerns the aspects of human feelings rather than plain physiological desire. Furthermore, according to the researchers, the definition of sexuality, in fact, encompasses, any kind of romantic attitude of a human or any type of romantic relationship, which does not necessarily imply having sexual intercourse in the process of this relationship (Hargons and Danelle). Hence, over the years, it has become rather evident that all the misconceptions on the matter do not stem from ignorance but from the overall tendency of poor problem awareness among society. When pondering the possible reasons for such an issue, one of the major precedents may be represented through the common sexuality image in popular culture and mass media.
Since the very emergence of popular culture that was mostly represented in the form of music and cinematography, the common perception of sexualization was extremely superficial, as the lexeme “sex” was considered a taboo in society, making the ones who use it rebels and nonconformists. Naturally, the trend of sexualization was integrated deeper in society, especially when speaking of the end of the 20th century, and the concept itself began to be significantly misinterpreted. Thus, it may be concluded that the definition of sexualization that had been distorted before became more hazardous for society in the past few years when the topic started gaining recognition among fellow humans. However, considering the fact the whole process of sexualization being biased by major stereotypes was devastating for the psychological development of individuals, the women were always the ones who struggled the most in terms of the tendency.
Sexualization, Feminism, and Popular Culture
World history is replete with facts concerning women’s discrimination, objectivization, and deprivation of fundamental rights. Thus, in the course of social development, some major social freedoms were given to women as the result of a continuous and tense battle over equal opportunities. The major issue that appeared after concerned the fact that the vast majority of people perceived the issues of women representation as purely functional without paying attention to the devastating social image females had in the community due to the development of sexualization and objectivization in the media and culture (Banet-Weiser). Hence, the average image of a female represented in popular culture was not centered around one’s cognitive abilities and human sexuality, which primarily concerns the aspects of one’s representation and gender perception in society.
Instead, the major emphasis was placed on the aspect of a women’s body and her qualities of being an attribute to a man. As a result, the overall tendency has resulted in the immediate demand for standing up for one’s rights and abilities from the perspective of a human being rather than a female (Thiroux and Krasemann). The movement for equal rights resulted in treating women more objectively both in life and in media, but the changes introduced still remained rather superficial due to the lack of deeper ethical concerns of the issue.
For example, whereas women are now commonly represented in media and popular culture as empowered and self-made members of society, they are still sexualized in the contexts, which are not applicable for this, as people tend to misinterpret the lune drawn between sexuality and sexualization. For example, when women are represented as powerful entrepreneurs who are focused solely on their achievements, it is questionable whether the emphasis should be shifted on their looks unless it is their voluntary intention. Once this desire becomes an intention, the issue should be treated as the expression of one’s sexuality that should not be neglected. However, when such attention is rather unwanted, it should become a social concern.
James Bond and Skyfall as an Example of Diachronic Response to Feminism and Misogyny
The series of movies about James Bond has now become an integral part of the popular culture heritage. Despite being of the most notorious franchises in the history of cinematography, Bondiana movies tend to obtain many questionable aspects in terms of the ethical concerns tackled in the process. Thus, since the very emergence of the series, attention was drawn to the issue of women representation in the movies, with visuals paying too much attention to female objectivization. Moreover, the central figure of the movie, James Bond himself, was famous for his misogyny and inappropriate sexual relations throughout the movies (Harriss). In the early films, the issue might have been justified by the fact that society at the time was not so aware of the fact of female discrimination, and such issues as objectivization were not considered as real hazards.
However, over time, the attitudes towards women’s perception were gradually changing, whereas James Bond movies remained just as sexist. After receiving a considerable amount of criticism, the motion pictures presented over the past decade have been relatively modernized by introducing such empowering female characters as M16 in Skyfall, performed by Judi Dench. Still, the issue of sexism was not eradicated, as the movies were still criticized due to the presence of some disturbing scenes. For example, the shower scene where James Bond has sex with Sévérine not long after her fragile personal story was revealed to the broad audience was regarded as inappropriate by most female viewers (Harriss). By including this scene in the final picture, the directors made the audience question the purity of their intentions to make the movies popular and demanded without sexualizing female characters.
Having taken the following into consideration, it would be safe to assume the overall development of James Bond movies in terms of ethical concerns has become evident in the modern context. However, as far as such issues as feminism and sexualization are concerned, the slight change in attitude is not enough regarding the development of social perception of the issue. Thus, the overall diachronic perspective of the movies as compared to the relatively recent introduction of Skyfall may be considered inappropriate in the present decade.
Conclusion
The following paper was aimed at addressing the issues of female representations and perception in popular culture through the prism of such ethical concerns as misogyny, sexualization, objectivization, and feminism as a whole. For the sake of empirical evidence, the James Bond movie series was regarded from a diachronic perspective, placing major emphasis on the scenes represented in 2012 Skyfall. In terms of the research, it was estimated that despite evident development in healthy women representation, the overall story still contains many issues related to the objectivization of women, making them look like an attribute rather than a character with well-developed background history.
Works Cited
Banet-Weiser, Sarah. Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Duke University Press, 2018.
Hargons, Candice, Della V. Mosley, and Danelle Stevens-Watkins. “Studying sex: A content analysis of sexuality research in counseling psychology.” The Counseling Psychologist, vol. 45, no. 4, 2017, pp. 528-546.
Harriss, Harriet. “Goodbye Mister Bond: 007’s Critical Advocacy for Feminism & Modernism.” Research-Based Education 2016, vol.2, 2016, pp. 348-357.
Lehmiller, Justin J. The Psychology of Human Sexuality. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Thiroux, Jacques P., and Keith W. Krasemann. Ethics: Theory and Practice. Updated Edition. Pearson Education, 2016.