[on James Bond] This was one model of masculinity I was formed by and enjoyed without thinking. [But on looking closer] I saw an interesting contradiction in the character. It's really tempting to draw a genealogy that connects Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger-type macho roles with the Bond figure, as crusaders taking it upon their shoulders to right the wrongs of the world - examples of a seamless masculinity, with utter power at all times. But when I looked at the novels and the films, I saw a much more vulnerable Bond than that reading suggests. Again and again, though he's the playboy philanderer, in the novels he's afraid of women and their sexuality.