Featured Posts
Licence To Queer covers queer aspects of Bond books, video games and more. Search here for your favourite titles and characters or find content related to particular queer identities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, etc).
Queer re-view: For Your Eyes Only
Bond has gravitas (and gravity) again after the out of this world adventure of Moonraker. But being back down to Earth doesn’t mean we have to jettison the camp and the queer completely. And Margaret Thatcher gets chatted up by a parrot. Take that Section 28!
“The world deserves a transgender Bond girl”
Spencie d’Entremont is proud to describe herself as a trans Bond girl and nobody does it better than her when it comes to Bond girl fashion. We had a long talk about our favorite Bond girls, why she found them so inspiring when she was transitioning and what it would be like to have a trans person finally take a leading role in a Bond film.
Why queer people love James Bond
When Cameron Scheetz from The A.V. Club emailed me out of the blue to invite me to contribute to a new documentary series he was putting together for Pride Month I jumped at the chance to spread the word: QUEER BOND FANS EXIST.
Queer re-view: On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Bond’s first queer director creates a masterpiece in which 007 gets a new face, goes undercover as a gay genealogist and finally takes a woman up the aisle. But his happiness is, perhaps inevitably, short-lived.
Queer re-view: GoldenEye
Brosnan’s opening mission ends with the death of his best buddy. But unbeknowst to him, the object of his bromantic affections isn’t really deceased: he’s just watching from the shadows. Will Bond manage to stay Onatopp of things? Will he leave it up to a Russian computer programmer to save the day while he runs off to have a messy break up with his best mate? And will we ever get to the bottom of why 007 spends so much time hanging around in men’s bathrooms?
Queer re-view: The Man With The Golden Gun
Like a bottle of Phuyuck ‘74, The Man With The Golden Gun has aged… interestingly. Officially, 007 is hot on the pursuit of (*checks notes*) something-to-do-with-solar-energy. But the real drama is whether Bond will be able to save his fractured masculinity in a ‘mano a mano’ duel to the death with Francisco Scaramanga.
Bond books: ages 8 and up?
If it’s true that books we read as children influence us for the rest of our lives, then Thunderball, which I first read when I was eight years old, has a lot to answer for.
Does your Martini leave you 'shook’?
Is there ever a good reason to shake a Martini? Bond only does it to disguise his fragile masculinity. Here’s how to make a beautifully clear Martini which shows you have nothing to hide…
Queer re-view: Licence To Kill
Dalton’s second and final adventure has a fated bromance driving its Shakespearean rampage of revenge, with a cold-hearted hero, a warm-blooded villain and a very capable girl with a disdain for feminine clothing. And what IS going on with that Felix Leiter cigarette lighter?
My video game crush on Xenia Onatopp
In this love letter to GoldenEye’s Xenia Onatopp, I explore what my obsession with playing as her in the classic Nintendo 64 version reveals about me, as well as what the research says about the choices we make in video games.
The Gay Man With The Golden Gun
Returning the Bond novels as an adult, I am struck by how much of an influence these, perhaps even more than the films, had on my teenage self. If anything, they invite queer readings as readily as Scaramanga inviting 007 to join him for a long weekend.
Film students from East Sussex have recreated the iconic opening titles to Goldfinger, subverting the presumed-to-be straight male gaze by substituting the buxom female form with a muscled male model.