What the hell is the world coming to? On another blog, someone dogmatically asserts that MI6 secret agent James Bond 'effectively' raped Pussy Galore in the scene set in the barn on Auric Goldfinger's stud farm. I've since learned there are other sites where such an utterly ridiculous accusation is repeated as though it's fact, when the real facts are that there's nothing at all in the scene to suggest Bond is raping her. Just where does such lunacy come from? (Stick around, I'll tell you shortly.)
Here are the real, incontrovertible facts of the case.
In the movie, Pussy Galore's lesbianism (as mentioned in the novel) is seriously downplayed - to the point that it's not exactly clear whether she is or she isn't. (Though it looks as if she might help out if they were short-handed.)
While Pussy is showing 007 around Goldfinger's farm, they go into a barn and engage in what appears to be a playful, flirtatious, fighting tussle; it certainly doesn't look like either one is seriously trying to hurt the other. Bond tries to kiss Pussy, who initially appears resistant to the idea (after all, Bond is her hostage and trying to thwart her boss's plans), but then, going from her expression, changes her mind and willingly returns his kiss. (Look at the above screen-grab - her arms are embracing him, not pushing him away.)
The scene fades out on that kiss, and it's left to the viewers' imagination as to whether they actually went any further, but Bond being Bond, it's not unreasonable to assume that they did (consensually). Pussy then decides to switch sides, helps Bond defeat Goldfinger, and then, in the movie's final scene, gleefully (and willingly) engages in a bit of (unseen) rumpy-pumpy with our hero under the folds of a parachute.
So here's where the ludicrous assertion that Bond is a rapist breaks down. (In fact, all that Bond can be accused of is trying to steal a kiss from her, and even then, likely only in a strategic manoeuvre to get her 'on-side'.) If he'd raped Pussy, it's almost a certainty that she'd have killed him at the first opportunity, not switched sides and betrayed her employer.
It's also clear, from her readiness to engage in another 'tussle' (without the half-hearted judo or karate this time) with Bond at the end of the movie, that she's completely 'up for it' - which isn't usually the response of someone who'd previously been raped by the person with whom she's now about to have consensual sex.
So how did the rape accusation come about? Obviously, it originated from a bunch of woke feminists (male and female), who just don't like the idea that there are 'manly-man' men like Bond out there whom women can't resist. I should know - I'm one of those men. (Heh heh, little joke there.) Add to that the fact that the literary Pussy was a lesbian, the idea that Bond 'converted' her ("I must've appealed to her maternal instinct" he says, when asked why Miss Galore changed sides) throws misandric feminists and lesbians into a paroxysm of fury at the very idea of such a thing. (Yet, strangely, they're always quick to suggest that straight women can be easily 'turned' after a few sherries.)
So our hero - in essence a hired government assassin (when need be), but one who only kills bad guys in pursuit of a better world, is not only a randy cove, but also a bloody rapist! According to a bunch of men-hating feminists with an agenda, that is.
Anyone else out there who's fed up with this nonsense? Make your feelings known now. In fact, make your feelings known even if you think Bond is a rapist. I'm always prepared to give the other side of any controversial subject a fair crack of the whip, even if they are seriously deranged and talking utter bollocks. (So completely impartial then.)
Right - who's going to be brave enough to be first?
Its a mad, mad mad mad world (just to name another film) and gets madder every day. I applaud your moral courage to eloquently and politely call out the utter idiocy that is around these days. I am for controversial or contrary opinions, but not those fanatically held. We live under a new fascism I fear.
ReplyDeleteSpirit of '64
And it's only going to get worse before it gets better (if it ever does), S64. God save us all from woke idiocy.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I ever saw a potential rape scene in that or any Bond scene (not that I have seen all the Bond films all the same, but most of them). At worst Bond from that time is simply a dated male ego fantasy trip, at best a fun tonge in cheek adventure film (I mean Pussy Galore is hardly serious stuff is it) both imho harmless.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for sensible comments like yours, McS. The only thing I'd perhaps disagree with is that it's a DATED male fantasy - 'cos I still have them every day. Yes, tongue-in-cheek adventure film - unfortunately, those who can't see that have all had a sense of humour bypass.
ReplyDeleteI can't recall Pussy screaming or fighting of the attacker Bond in the movie. In fact the reverse. I agree its going to get worse. Once lesbian supremacy gets its grip totally on society the destruction of society is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteShe tries to push him off when he first tries to kiss her, but given their earlier flirting, it could be construed as her not wanting to be seen as a 'pushover'. I suppose it's open to interpretation. What isn't though, is that trying to kiss someone (in pursuit of serving queen and country) isn't the same thing as trying to rape them.
ReplyDeleteJust another brick in the wall,she embraced him willingly after an initial moment of uncertainty. No rape, no force, no violence but in the mixed up world in which we live in (lol) there has to be retro condemnation of any and all sexual behaviours
ReplyDeleteTG
Just another brick in the wall,she embraced him willingly after an initial moment of uncertainty. No rape, no force, no violence but in the mixed up world in which we live in (lol) there has to be retro condemnation of any and all sexual behaviour where the male seems in control.
ReplyDeleteWell put, TG. All men apparently suffer from 'toxic masculinity' (according to some feminists), so we need to be put in our place. This is yet another example of a bunch of dungaree-wearing harridans (and their simpering male collaborators looking for their approval) trying to turn us all into wusses and wimps so that 'wummin' can dominate us. No surrender!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I often find it difficult to make a comment about James Bond. You see there are too many of them. In the 1960s there were just two Bonds, Ian Fleming’s and Sean Connery’s. The book Bond was very different from the movie Bond.
ReplyDeleteToday of course there are the Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Bronson and Craig Bonds, each different.
In the books there are the Fleming, Amis, Wood, Pearson, Gardner, Benson, Faulks, Deaver, Boyd and Horowitz versions. (Not to mention the graphic novels.)
Kid, what I sick and tired of, as you point out in your post, are the people who have not seen the movies or who have not read the books, commenting on what happened. They take a snippet out of the film and don’t want to watch the rest. That is if you see the complete movie Goldfinger, Pussy alerts the authorities and saves Bond and, and he very end, finds that it is no time to be rescued.
The 1960s were a very different time. You COULD NOT show close romantic moments, they’d be censored, so the scenes had to cut short, leaving much to the imagination. And Lesbianism, by many, was thought to be “curable.” So Bond being intimate with Pussy would cure her. By the way, in Horowitz’s recent Bond Book, “Trigger Mortis” Pussy comes back and shows she was not “cured.”
Pussy obviously plays for both teams, BP - maybe she thinks that's the best of both worlds. In Britain, homosexuality between males was considered a crime and was illegal for a time. Strangely, lesbianism wasn't made a criminal offence because Queen Victoria (or whichever queen it was) reputedly thought that women weren't capable of ever indulging in such acts. Little did she know, eh?
ReplyDeleteI think I've only ever read one (maybe two) of the John Gardner Bond books, but I wasn't very impressed, so never read any of the others by different authors.
I tend to think that the "sexual conquest" scene in the movie is like many you saw throughout the history of sound cinema, and maybe silent as well (Rudolf Valentino anyone). The woman resists not because she's unwilling to have sex, but as a challenge to the man, defying him, as it were, to make herself seem more enticing. One can go back and forth on whether this trope is based on anything in real life-- but even if everyone agreed that it's pure fantasy, it's been grabbing both male and female audiences for decades. Check out 1942's BLACK SWAN. Power kisses Maureen O'Hara, and belts her when she bites him. Toxic masculinity, right? Well, despite his violence he keeps trying to conquer her with charm-- to which she responds, at least once, by cracking his head with a rock. She only relents when he acts heroically to save her and foil the villains.
ReplyDeleteObviously it's a little different with Pussy Galore, even if her lesbianism in the film is less overt than in the book. I could be wrong, but I don't think the book has a scene in which Bond wakes up and beholds Pussy-- who is, incidentally, smiling coquettishly at him, rather than scorning him as a filthy breeder. In the book Pussy's not too interested in Bond until she switches sides to save herself some jail time, and at the very end she claims she turned lesbian because her uncle raped her and so she never knew what a "real man" was like. That tidbit probably didn't influence the movie, which is more in the line of sexual conquest fantasies from books and movies-- which is something the filmmakers knew would sell the movie better.
As everyone knows, GP, there is a certain kind of 'etiquette' that women sometimes feel obliged to indulge in to show that they're not of 'easy virtue'. Ask a woman out and if she says no, she might mean no, but often what she actually means is 'try harder, convince me of your ardour, make me feel desired and wanted while I make up my mind in whether I'm interested in you or not', etc. As for slapping, I tend to think that it's a good idea if people generally don't slap one another whatever their gender, but it's always surprised me that it's considered acceptable for a woman to slap a man (even for just saying something she doesn't like, like 'Yes, you're bum does look big in that'), and that men are expected to accept it. Even in Doctor Who, Clara Oswald slapped the Doctor on one occasion and threatened to do so on another, giving out the message that violence against men is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteAs for Goldfinger, there's probably many a woman who fantasized about being ravished by James Bond or Sean Connery, so that scene likely appealed to women as much as men (for different reasons obviously) back in the day, but those who say that Bond is raping Pussy are just being ridiculous. Anything where men seem to take the lead in a romantic or 'sex' scene is automatically condemned by the femi-nazis, because it offends their overly delicate sensitivities, as well as their misandric sentiments.
Spare us from their tediousness, eh?