On the allure of Bond "girls"

Last night, I saw Bond Girls Are Forever again, just because it happened to be on. Bond Girls Are Forever is a mildly entertaining look at some of the women who have starred in the James Bond movies, with the highlight being an appearance by Honor Blackman.

Toward the end, some of the actors discuss the newer term, "Bond women," as opposed to "Bond girls." The new term came about because, as the Bond movies evolved, the females stopped being there just to look glamorous and have sex with Bond, but rather to look glamorous and perform Bond-like stunts, thus matching the star's toughness and cleverness.

I don't remember who it was--most of the Bond females are a blur to me since I stopped watching the movies years ago (and didn't much like them when I did watch them)--but one of the women, when asked "Bond girl" or "Bond woman?" said: "Bond girl! That's sexier, isn't it?"

The more I thought about that, the more disturbing it became--that an unformed female, a child, is considered more sexually interesting than an adult female. Of course, it is disturbing enough that the actor's goal was to be sexy, but I guess if you star in Bond movies, your goals are limited.