Image via WikipediaI'm having some trouble narrowing down my research question for the proposal (luckily, Dr. Toffee changed the due date to Wednesday). I had a draft ready last Wednesday, but I'm not happy with it. Also, I've been reading some of the material I've found on men's studies, and that's given me a lot to think about, too. The question I put in the title of this post is actually pretty close to what I'm looking for: I want to know what men -- and boys, for that matter -- get out of James Bond films. I mean, there are plenty of movies with similar characters and plots, but the Bond films seem to touch something in men that the others don't. I'll keep working on this today; I've got to come up with something soon.
Image via WikipediaOkay, so my brilliant idea was that over time, Bond (the character) has become less sexist (which would mean that I would have to take a feminist approach rather than a masculinist one). However, after giving this a lot of thought, I'm still not sure, and I know I don't have time to analyze the entire series. So, I'm back to my original thinking.
Image via WikipediaLast time, I mentioned that my brothers don't try to emulate (how's that for vocabulary?!) James Bond, and a girl in my class asked me how they could do that, anyway. Well, hell, I didn't mean that they should try to be like him in terms of his job! What I meant was more about him as a man than it was about him as a spy. I was thinking of things like his personal style -- in clothing, social behavior, and so on -- plus his confidence. It's as if the guys think that you either have these things or you don't: you can't develop them for yourself. And of course, I don't think that's true.
I even think that about his irresistibility to women-- after all, how many actors have played this role? And some of them aren't even good looking, imo (I can't stand Roger Moore, and while I like Daniel Craig's performances, I don't think he's all that in the looks department). But . . . they all manage to convey -- believably -- the quality (for lack of a better word) that makes the women they meet lose all their inhibitions. I'm going to stop here because I just had what might be a brilliant idea for my paper. I'll let you know if it pans out.
Image via WikipediaAt first I was against having to choose a film for my research project, but after trying to pick one, I have totally changed my thinking. I've had some real trouble making up my mind about a film; I can only imagine how much worse it would be for me if I were taking this course in a full-length semester where I would have to come up with a topic without any limitations on the choice! I finally settled on Casino Royale, and I'm going to take a masculinist approach. Yeah, I know I'm not a man, but apparently you don't have to be male to do this. My brothers are really into James Bond, and what made me decide on this is that I always wonder why, if they think he is so cool, they don't try to be like him. Does that make sense? My next task is to come up with a research question.
Image by ruminatrix via FlickrClasses started on Monday, but this is the first chance I've had to write anything. I'm taking English 102- Writing the Research Paper, and I am sort of worried about it: the semester is only 8 weeks long, and that means that I'm going to have to put the rest of my life on hold if I'm going to do research, much less write a long paper (plus a bunch of other assignments!). In fact, we're already going so fast that I'm supposed to have my topic submitted by midnight tonight.
Luckily, picking a topic is not too hard, for once. My instructor, Dr. Toffee, gave us a list of movies and a list of "critical models" to pick from (we need one of each). I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but there are a couple of films I really like. I'm not too sure about those critical models.
Image via WikipediaI'm having some trouble narrowing down my research question for the proposal (luckily, Dr. Toffee changed the due date to Wednesday). I had a draft ready last Wednesday, but I'm not happy with it. Also, I've been reading some of the material I've found on men's studies, and that's given me a lot to think about, too. The question I put in the title of this post is actually pretty close to what I'm looking for: I want to know what men -- and boys, for that matter -- get out of James Bond films. I mean, there are plenty of movies with similar characters and plots, but the Bond films seem to touch something in men that the others don't. I'll keep working on this today; I've got to come up with something soon.
