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Racializing heterosexuality: Non-normativity and East Asian characters in James Bond films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2019

Mie Hiramoto  and
Phoebe Pua
Mie Hiramoto*
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
Phoebe Pua*
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore
*
Address for correspondence: Mie Hiramoto and Phoebe Pua, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore, Block AS5, 7 Arts Link, Singapore 117570[email protected][email protected]
Address for correspondence: Mie Hiramoto and Phoebe Pua, Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore, Block AS5, 7 Arts Link, Singapore 117570[email protected][email protected]
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Abstract

This article investigates how naturalized models of hegemonic masculinity affect race and sexuality in the James Bond film series. Through close analysis of film dialogue and paralinguistic cues, the article examines how the sexualities of East Asian female and male characters are constructed as oversexed and undersexed, respectively. The analysis therefore affirms Connell's (1995) conception of white heterosexual masculinity as exemplary: East Asian characters are positioned not only as racial Others, but as bodies upon which Bond's heterosexual masculinity is reflected and affirmed as normative and, by extension, ideal. In this way, race is curiously invoked to ‘explain’ sexuality, and Bond's unmarked white masculinity becomes the normative referent for expressions of heterosexual desire. By showing how the sexuality of East Asian characters is typecast as non-normative, the article gestures toward the possibility of theorizing racialized performances of heterosexuality as queer. (East Asia, James Bond, sexuality, race, masculinity, femininity, normativity, film)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 48 , Special Issue 4: Navigating Normativities: Gender and Sexuality in Text and Talk , September 2019 , pp. 541 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

*

We deeply thank Kira Hall, Tommaso Milani, Erez Levon, Jenny Cheshire, and our two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the earlier version of this article. We are also indebted to the following people for providing feedback and encouragement at various stages: Joseph Comer, Laurie Durand, Robin Loon, Momoko Nakamura, Rebecca Starr, and Andrew Wong. Portions of this project were presented at the 9th International Gender and Language Association's Biannual Meeting in 2016. Finally, we thank Charlotte Tan, Olivia Tan, and Lindsay Yap for their research assistantship via UROP at the National University of Singapore during AY2015-16, Semester 2. Hiramoto also gratefully acknowledges the support given to her project by the NUS FRC Research Grant (FY2014-FRC3-003).

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