The Eon-produced James Bond film franchise is over fifty years old at this point, and features 24 films. Famed for its 1960s-style, male-centric espionage narrative, one of the most legendary aspects of each franchise instalment is the use of the ‘Bond Girl’. I use the phrasing “use of the ‘Bond Girl’” very deliberately, because these particular characters are, in many ways, the modern template for the ‘woman as plot device’.

With such a lengthy series of blockbuster films, we surely all know exactly what to expect from a Bond film. They all feature a white man in the lead role of James Bond – 007 – who is a highly trained MI6 agent, with an ever-changing selection of gadgets at his disposal. He travels the world, engaging in heroic espionage i...

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