Smooth Operator: Space, Mobility, and Social Rituals

Abstract

This chapter explores the gender and geopolitics of mobility, and the messages conveyed about power, access, and management through Bond’s movement (or lack thereof) in a range of physical and social spaces. On the physical level, Bond operates in a variety of physical environments from the villain’s lair to national monuments to construction sites, and the destruction/preservation of individual sites and spaces has particular narrative and geopolitical significance; although Bond has a ‘license to destroy’, he uses it strategically. In addition, Bond is a mobile hero who uses various modes of transport—trains, planes, automobiles—which are often coded as feminine and his mastery over them has patriarchal significance as it confirms his libido-based heroism. On the social level, Bond operates in a variety of social environments from tourist traps like the carnival and circus to highbrow spaces like the members-only (and often high-limit) casino and opera. While Bond successfully navigates his way through both, he is more comfortable in the latter as they are defined through physical means and cultural codes. Although Bond possesses the same social and cultural capital as the villains required to access these spaces, he is not one of them as he acts, more often than not, on behalf of Britain rather than for himself.