In the video women are used primarily to add visual appeal to the title sequence for men. The general concept plays off of old spy TV shows and movies, and women are used in a similar manner to affect the “Bond Gaze”. The silhouettes of the women dancing spliced into the intro are there solely for their looks. The hosts of Top Gear even say to the audience before they air the clip that they specifically needed to have cars, guns, karate, and women. At one point, Jeremy Clarkson is shown stopping a plane from taking off and afterwards a beautiful women walks out. In this clip, he not only saves a woman from supposedly being kidnapped (stereotypical damsel in distress role) but also has two half naked women sitting in the back of his car for absolutely no reason. In another clip with the same women, he is shown driving along and one of the women touches his arm in that “oh you’re so strong” sort of way after which Jeremy glances at the camera with an “I’m so cool” look. These two scenes refer to everything that is wrong with women’s roles in media: they have to show off their body, they have to be saved by a strong male lead, and they have to reinforce the male lead’s masculinity. Near the end of the video, Richard Hammond drives up to the Playboy Club of London in an attempt to make himself look “cooler”. Frankly, this really has nothing to do with being a spy unless spies need to objectify women like Playboy does to appeal to the masses. Isn’t that a strange thought? Again it is the objectification of women that makes men look better to the world.
The whole point of this introduction scene is to highlight the coolness of the Jensen Interceptor, the car featured in the video. Everything the hosts do in the video is to emphasize how cool the car is. The way women are presented in the video in relation to purpose of the video is very sexist indeed. They cannot look “cool” unless they are either half naked or being saved from doom by the men which is a direct reference to the gender stereotype and appeals directly to the Bond Gaze. The Bond Gaze refers to how men view women only as objects and think that women are an accessory to their glory.
Throughout their show, the hosts of Top Gear have been known to poke fun at topics in news, politics, popular culture, and anything they can get their hands on. Despite their childish jokes on screen, they all have deep views about society. From Jeremy’s article on women in Top Gear, it can be inferred that the hosts agree with the feminist views that women are only important if they look good on screen. Thus it is possible that the entire introduction sequence is a satire on the traditional concepts of what makes a cool TV show. After all, a silhouette of a man kicking a dancing woman in the crotch cannot be interpreted as anything but humor.
As a spoof of the whole spy genre of TV shows, I think that the video makes a good point as to what made the genre appeal to men: fast cars, karate, and women. I also think that people noticed how wrong it was and changed the way the shows opened. In Burn Notice, a modern spy show, the title sequence only has a small clip of women on the beach. It is so small that if you blink, you may miss it. This shows that society understand the problem with how women were portrayed used in these introductions just to attract male viewers. On the other hand, even though TV shows may no longer feature women as objects in their openings with as much frequency, they still have them “featured” in the shows themselves.
Burn Notice Opening by xkaelar
I think that Top Gear definitely made this video as a satire of all that was wrong with television back in the day. Not only does the fact that when women come onto the show, they are spoken to about their opinions and not about their looks (as much). Furthermore, the humor in the clip makes nothing serious or believable and at least when I saw the way women were cast I laughed because it was making fun of their typical roles in the genre.
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