Apart from being a satire of James Bond, Austin Powers also represents the archetypal 1960s mod, with his constant advocacy for free love, his use of obscure impressions and his clothing style (including crushed velvet suits and Beatle boots, which is also a costume George Lazenby’s Bond has worn), though the womanizing side of him could be said to neatly combine his 1960s side with his James Bond template in itself. With his flamboyant ways and never-changing dress-sense, he is deliberately made to stick out from his surroundings – though invariably escaping detection when disguised – particularly when he talks about things that would have had no place in the 1990s.
In the many instances he takes off his clothes, he is revealed to have a very hairy chest. Indeed, his chest hair resembles two testicles at the top, tapering into a phallic shape further down. Much of his attitude toward relationships could be a parody[citation needed] of Bond’s lack of reflection with regard to the loss of a woman. For example, after partner Vanessa Kensington is revealed to be a “fem bot” and explodes on their honeymoon, Austin mourns at first, then joyously exclaims, “Wait a tick … that means I’m single again! Oh, behave!” and proceeds to dance through the hotel in the nude. Some of his abilities include a kind of hypnosis he learned in India from the late Guru Shastri, “a chaste man, who died from a disease that had all the hallmarks of syphilis.”
Interestingly, Austin does display a streak of morality dating from his period – he will not make love to a girl (such as Vanessa Kensington after a night in Las Vegas) when she ‘is smashed…it’s not right’. This morality is not completely ironic, since Austin does not consider other mind-altering drugs to fall under this limitation. Alcohol, however, does snap inhibitions, hence his unwillingness to permit an alcohol-induced event.
From the original film he lists only two things which scare him. One is nuclear war, the other are “carnies” or “circus folk”.
