9 Comments

Disappointed in the energy expended in debating a female Bond.

Talk is often either mental masturbation or virtue signaling.

Came from the business world which was a male bastion.

Slowly things got fairer because society changed.

Not because CEO's gave interviews, but because the rank and file bought into fairness.

I once overpromoted a woman.

A few men got angry and left (I didn't prepare the ground well enough).

But the woman flailed in the job - she just wasn't ready or prepared for the requirements.

Consequences: I let down the shareholders by not getting the right person; I was embarrassed; the woman was embarrassed; and the chauvinists were empowered.

Conclusion for me.

Pick the right person everytime, but never forget the long term objective: fairness.

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Yeah that's an unfortunate story. But I think you took the right conclusions from it.

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Idris Elba's too old? You do realize he's three years *younger* than Daniel Craig?

For the record I think he'd make a fine Bond, especially if the want to contine in the vein of Skyfall (Not seen the newer ones) where Bond's getting on in years, and needs to step up to the plate.

But I understand what you mean. Bond is consistently described as "in his late-30s" throughout the source material, so you really need to put out a casting call based on that when refreshing the series.

But that source material is kind of the problem. Ian Fleming wrote the Bond books, with a nod to his (as of yet still classified) experiences as an intelligence officer during WW2. Not that would be insurmountable for a woman to take on the role. And there were plenty of female intelligence officers who served both then and now. Still, the more you move from the source material... why not just use different source material?

Besides, weren't they at one point, intending to spin off Hallie Berry's character in "Die Another Day" into hew own series of films? Whatever happened to that?

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He's much older than Craig was when he started as Bond and that's the real issue. You're expected to do the role for a few movies over the span of years. Elba would be pretty up there by the end of his run.

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I don't remember the Halle Berry spinoff but that would have been cool.

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The issue have two sides. One is about a job, playing James Bond. The other is about the story and the character. James Bond is a hero, but only to some extent, he is a killer, a disfunctional person and often a womanizer who lost the only woman he relly loved. It is in part a picture of some of the worst male traits, and a tool for a goverment. There are some themes you can loose from having a woman, you could win others. It depends on what you want to talk about, but it is not the same thing.

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Yeah we saw some of this with the Tomb Raider game reboot. People offended by the violence that Croft suffered. But it really was just fair play. You can't really treat female heroes differently but when you treat them the same as men people get upset with violence toward women. Can't win.

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When you write about a lesbian James Bond, I get images of the Prodigy’s “Smack My B*tch Up” music video flashing into my mind for some silly reason…

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Haha I can see that.

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