Of human bond-age and the rise of shakti

Fans of James Bond, otherwise known as 007, will be both shaken and stirred by the recent announcement made by the producers of the films about the secret agent’s exploits that a future screen avatar of the protagonist could well be a woman.

The hard-drinking, hard-living Bond represents the ultimate alpha male and the thought of his being given a gender transformation might cause many a chauvinist to suffer pangs of existential angst. Tinseltown watchers may see in the proposed move an attempt by the producers to try and refurbish Hollywood’s image that has been tarnished by a spate of allegations made by women of sexual harassment they have suffered at the hands of male colleagues.

What better way to turn tables on predatory maledom than to take a macho role model and turn the guy into a gal in the cause of equal opportunity and gender justice? Such politically correct genuflections to women’s empowerment might seem like cosmetic window dressing in a cultural clime in which, in principle if not in practice, sublime Shakti has long been venerated.


Hollywood might learn an object lesson from the white supremacist redneck who, revived after a near-death experience during which he’d glimpsed Heaven, was asked what the Almighty was like. “It’s complicated,” replied the redneck. “To begin with, She’s black.”