For someone with such a fondness for women, I wonder if you’ve ever considered what it might be like to be one
I don't know if Sam Mendes' Skyfall will be a thinking man's James Bond film; I do, however, know of another project which most certainly is a thinking man's, and woman's, James Bond film: a two minute short commissioned by EQUALS for International Women's Day in 2011. Daniel Craig and Judi Dench reprise their roles as 007 and M respectively; the latter's voice addresses the harsh realities of gender inequality, and most notably the issue of violence against women, while the former remains silent, as he goes through a transformation which speaks louder than words.
Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of gender as performative "establishes as political the very terms through which identity is articulated" (Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, 1990/1999, p. 189). And in this sense, the discursive context combining Judi Dench's critique of inequality, and Daniel Craig's performative subversion of identity, underlines the political character of gender and its representation, including the stereotypes associated with the James Bond franchise.
The film was directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and written by Jane Goldman; the former reflected upon the work in SFGate's City Brights blog as follows:
Bond is challenged by M to think about gender inequality [...] and I hope that the film encourages viewers to do the same. Despite great advances in women’s rights, statistics show that when it comes to the balance of power between the sexes, equality is far from being a global reality. As M reminds Bond, facing up to gender issues and the sometimes covert nature of sexism in the 21st century is something that we all have to recognise, confront and challenge.
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