Is Skyfall misogynistic?

While Skyfall was lauded by many critics for being a step forward in terms of representation, there are many who believe the precise opposite, that the film is misogynistic. Misogyny is a step beyond sexism, and refers to the active hatred of women (just for reference, the hatred of men is called misandry). This excellent blog post gives a detailed textual analysis on exactly how Skyfall presents a misogynistic ideology through its textual elements.

The arguments of this essay are presented as a chart below, where the role and outcome of every female character with a name in Skyfall is detailed.

Click to see in full size

It is essential to have a detailed point of view in your response to the MS4 exam. While this point of view should be personal to you, it is clear that you can make a powerful argument that Skyfall is not only sexist, but pushes the boundary from sexism to misogyny. The real A grade answer will then attempt to suggest why this is the case. Here are a few, very brief examples;

1. The representation confirms audiences expectations of the genre, both the action genre and the more specific 'James Bond genre'
2. The representation confirms and reinforces patriarchal hegemony, constructing a narrative where men are in charge, and women are too useless to do anything than be subservient to men
3. The representation is typical of the action film narrative, creating easy binary oppositions for the audience to decode, where women drive the narrative by being threatened, killed or simply messing things up

Questions for the other two films

What are the narrative functions of both male and female characters in The Selfish Giant and Brave? Do they challenge or subvert genre conventions? And is the representation of gender in these films typical, atypical, or in any way misogynistic?