Working Girls

This chart, by Molly Fitzpatrick for Fusion, has been doing the rounds.

It's "what job did Oscar winning actresses portray?", and the article it's taken from can be found here.  It obviously raises questions about how Hollywood portrays women, given that the best job a woman can play onscreen is apparently "wife".  

As usual, this caused a chain reaction that lead me to James Bond, and specifically Bond Girls, and so I decided to do a bit of number crunching of my own.  I fed the numbers into the new Kutsov computer in an attempt to discover what professions have been held by the women in Bond films.  Here's the result:

  

I've used the same categories as the Oscar chart, for simplicity's sake.  Unsurprisingly, "military" - which I've used to include "spy" - comes out top, with 15, or 26%.  Equally unsurprisingly, "criminal" - all those Bad Girls - comes second with 9, or 16%.  Third place, however, goes to "scientist".  "Girlfriend" is fourth with five: you could include the two wives and the one widow to make a single category of eight.  (Interesting point: of all those women, only one, Lisl, is actually portrayed as being happy).

There are some overlaps between categories: Elektra and Octopussy are both entrepreneurs and criminals, but I've put them in the former category as they are businesswomen first, lawbreakers second.  Similarly, the overqualified Holly Goodhead - an astrophysicist, astronaut and CIA agent - had to go somewhere, so I went with her doctorate and put her in Scientist.  "Other" goes to three women - Sylvia, Tilly and Nancy - whose professions are never actually mentioned (it's implied Sylvia is some kind of socialite, but I couldn't be sure).

Given Bond women's reputation as somewhat "loose", it's interesting to note there's only actually been one prostitute in the series, Plenty O'Toole, and let's face it, she's a very high-class hooker.  

Please note: I am shit at charts.

What does it all mean?  Nothing, of course; a Bond Girl's profession is often irrelevent, especially in the early years of the films, and her ultimate purpose is to look pretty then have sex with 007.  I just found it interesting that the categories at the very top of the Oscar chart (wife, entertainer, blue collar worker) are scrabbling around the bottom of the chart in Bond movies.  

My classifications for Bond Girl jobs can be seen below.

The Blown Roses

"In my day, spying was an alternative to war, and the spy was a member of a select and immaculate priesthood; vocationally devoted, sublimely disinterested - hardly a description of that sexual acrobat who leaves a trail of beautiful dead women like blown roses behind him."

One of Spectre's biggest surprises was Monica Bellucci's part, Lucia Sciarra.  Firstly, it was so small, which was unfathomable - if you've got one of the world's most beautiful women on staff, for God's sake, use her.  Secondly, she lived.  As everyone knows, secondary Bond Girls - particularly secondary Bond Girls in Daniel Craig films - exist to be bumped off once they cease to be interesting.

Do they though?  The films have a reputation for slaughtering women with abandon, but is it true?  Below is a list of every woman who dies in the James Bond films.  It's not as many as you'd think.

Note on methodology: the women must be seen to be killed onscreen to count, so Irma Bunt, for example, is not included.  Furthermore, I'm not including the 1967 Casino Royale - despite quoting it above - because (a) too many girls suffer unpleasantness in that film for me to properly catalogue if they're dead or not and (b) everyone is blown up at the end, and by that point there are too many women in Pierre Cardin minidresses for me to keep count of.

* indicates that the girl was romanced by Bond before she died.

Dr No

Mary Trueblood (shot)

• first woman killed in the series
• second onscreen death
• not actually named onscreen - this is her name in the book

From Russia With Love

Rosa Klebb (shot)

• first named female character to be killed
• first female villain to be killed
• first woman to be killed by another woman (Tatiana Romanova)
• first female character to die in the film even though she survives in the book (she is dead by the time Dr No rolls round, but she's effectively lead away in handcuffs at the end of the novel)

Goldfinger

Jill Masterson* (death by skin suffocation)

• first of Bond's love interests to die

Tilly Masterson (broken neck)

Thunderball

Paula (cyanide poisoning)

• first suicide in the series

Fiona Volpe* (shot)

• first time Bond is actually responsible for the death of a woman - though it should be noted, it's not 007's finger on the trigger

You Only Live Twice

Helga Brandt* (fed to piranhas)

• first female villain killed by her own side

Aki* (poisoned)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Tracy di Vicenzo* (shot)

• first main Bond Girl to die
• first death in the series to wrench your still beating heart out of your chest

Diamonds Are Forever

Plenty O'Toole* (drowned)

Live and Let Die

Rosie Carver* (shot)

The Man With The Golden Gun

Andrea Anders* (shot)

The Spy Who Loved Me

Feliccia (shot)

Naomi (blown up)

• the first time Bond actually targets and murders a woman in the series, and yet, he didn't have to do it; they'd already escaped Naomi and could have driven away happily.  It's a strangely cold-blooded moment for Roger Moore's 007.

Moonraker

Corinne Dufour* (torn apart by dogs)

SIDENOTE: throughout the film, we've been shown that Hugo Drax is an equal opportunities despot, with women occupying key positions throughout his operations.  It's also implied that Jaws and Dolly are the only survivors of the space station.  Following that logic, several dozen women died at the end of the film, but weirdly, the minute the battle breaks out, the only people fighting seem to be burly men in yellow jumpsuits: the girls in the short skirts have all vanished, and we don't see any of them die.

For Your Eyes Only

Iona Havelock (shot)

Contessa Lisl von Schlaf* (run over)

Octopussy

Oddly, given that it is a film about a large organisation made up of female criminals, not a single woman dies during Octopussy.  It's possible that some were killed during the attack on Kamal's palace, but if they did die, we didn't see it.  Even Magda, who effectively ceases to exist about half an hour into the film, lives to the end.

Never Say Never Again

Nicole (drowned)

Fatima Blush* (blown up)

A View To A Kill

May Day* (blown up)

The Living Daylights

In line with its reputation for a more respectful presentation of female characters, not a single woman dies in this film.  One is held at gunpoint then gets her top ripped off to distract a bodyguard, so we're not exactly talking about a feminist tract either.

Licence To Kill

Della Churchill-Leiter (cause of death unknown)

• in the novelisation Della has been shot.

Loti (shot)

GoldenEye

Anna (shot)

SIDENOTE: there is at least one other female programmer murdered at Severnaya, but Anna is the only one named.

Xenia Onatopp* (crushed)

Tomorrow Never Dies

Paris Carver* (shot)

The World Is Not Enough

Elektra King* (shot)

Die Another Day

Miranda Frost* (stabbed)

Casino Royale

Solange* (cause of death unknown)

Vesper Lynd* (drowned)

Quantum of Solace

Strawberry Fields* (drowned)

Skyfall

Severine* (shot)

M (shot)

Bond 25

Madeline Swann* (cause of death unknown)

• ok, it hasn't been made yet, but let's be honest: she's doomed, isn't she?