ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the changing politics of representation in the cinematic terrorist through a focus on the post-9/11 Daniel Craig-era Bond films. The contention here is that the feminization of Craig-era villains, which is largely absent in pre-9/11 Bond films, and its projection through facial disfigurement alongside other physical impediments is constructed in opposition to the muscular hypermasculinity of Craig's Bond. Such polarization of gender qualities between Bond and the various (always foreign) villainous antagonists works to reclaim Western standing that was damaged by the terrorist events of 9/11 and 7/7. Engaging with critical and scientific scholarship on facial disfigurement and work on masculinity related to 9/11, it considers pre-9/11 terrorist tropes in the Bond franchise before centering on the binary oppositions of those of the post-9/11 era. In so doing, the essay considers the extent to which post-9/11 Bond films exploit known perceptions of and responses to facial disfigurement.
