James Bond vs. Dr. No: Orientalism and Competing Masculinities

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By Andreas Chenvainu

Dinner confrontation between the British Bond and the Chinese-German Dr. No.

Source: Eon Productions via Fandom.com

In Kimberly K. Hoang’s study, she examines the way sex clubs in Vietnam act as theatrical spaces where men act out fantasies of masculinity. However, adding to previous studies of the topic, Hoang highlights that the racial, gendered and class-based performances of a virile and monied White masculinity are not just performed against supposedly submissive Asian women, but explicitly in competition with other groups of men. Her study found that men of different economic and racial groups often defined themselves by their opposition to other men. Vietnamese expatriates claimed they were more economically generous and polite than the cheaper and more crass western tourists in the sex market, who in turn claimed they were more sexually able and richer than supposedly backwards and emasculated Asian men. Hoang's main innovation, by way of studying the Vietnamese clients specifically, is that these positions are not measured against a universally imposed hegemonic masculinity, but exist as mental narratives that contrast each other depending on one’s position. The White clients bought into a specific racially and class-based masculinity reflecting Orientalist fantasies, a familiar cultural trope.

Movies offer a similar theatrical space to express fantasy, so the relative masculinity model Hoang proposes can be applied to movies that deal with similar themes of masculinity and race. The very first James Bond film, Dr. No, is a great example of relative masculinity in action. Critics of the Bond movies have pointed out that Bond acts as a symbol of a normative White and classed version of masculinity masculinity in contrast to foreign, decadent and “deviant” kinds. While Bond is held up as an aspirational model, however, his version of masculinity needs a masculine foil to give it definition, and is not independent. In the scene above, Bond confronts Dr. No, the villain of the movie, and a combination of the oriental despot and mad scientist tropes. The Asian Dr. No as depicted in this scene is decadent, an intellectual, and sexually inert, used to favorably highlight the competing version the British Bond offers, defined partially by conspicuous but “tasteful” consumption of masculine-coded luxury goods, cunning, fighting skill, and sexual prowess. Far from being a free-floating vision of masculinity, Bond’s masculinity only exists in contrast with Dr. No's version.




Masculine-coded status goods such as expensive watches, suits, and cars are considered essential to Bond’s character.

Source: Getty Images via Gentleman’s Quarterly.



Sources

Hiramoto, M., & Pua, P. (2019). Racializing heterosexuality: Non-normativity and East Asian characters in James Bond films. Language in Society, 48(4), 541-563.


Hoang, K. K. (2014). Flirting with Capital: Negotiating Perceptions of Pan-Asian Ascendency and Western Decline in Global Sex Work. Social Problems, 61(4), 507–529. 


Wolf, Cam. 2020. "This Watch Helped Sean Connery Become James Bond." Gentleman's Quarterly. https://www.gq.com/story/watches-of-the-week-4-18-20


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