# Pussy Galore **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601 "2019-03-27T12:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/21 "2019-03-28T11:55:09Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Goldfinger was only the third Bond movie (ignoring the TV version of Casino Royale), and From Russia With Love didn’t do it, unless I’m entirely missing a joke in Tatiana Romanova’s name, so the tradition wasn’t that well established for those who hadn’t read the books. No, but the movies got made because the book series was immensely popular (It got a big boost from the news that Kennedy liked the books.) By the time the film _Goldfinger_ came out 12 of the 14 Fleming books had come out (with _You Only Live Twice_ having been released earlier in the year). Fleming’s Bond girls didn’t usually have suggestive names, but they were exotic and unusual – Solitaire, Verper Lynde, Honeychile Ryder, Tiffany Case, Kissy Suzuki, Gala Brand. Kingley Amis, Bond’s friend\* pseudonymously published _The Book of Bond, or Every Man his own 007_ in 1965, only a year after the film _Goldfinger_, which gave rules for creating the name of a “Bond Girl”, showing that the trope was pretty well known by then (Amis based his book on Fleming’s novels, not the movies). \*and author of the first post-Fleming Bond novel, _Colonel Sun_, not to mention _The James Bond Dossier_ , I addition to the above. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/22 "2019-03-28T14:37:13Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Rosa Klebb was even more obviously a lesbian in the previous film. Kinda hard to interpret the scene differedntly when she has Tatiana take off her jacket and turn around, smiling lecherously, then instructs Tatiana to seduce Bond, then acts all seductive towards her and says “You’re very fortunate to have been chosen for such a simple, _delightful_ duty - a real labor of love” while she rubs her shoulders and Tatiana recoils from her. ISTM that both the idea of Pussy Galore as lesbian, and Rosa Klebs as lesbian, rely in the movies on something that was made more explicit in the books. In the novel _Goldfinger_ it is stated outright that Pussy Galore is a lesbian, and at the end she says it is because she was raped by her uncle. That couldn’t be something they said in the movie, because it was the 60s and it was that kind of a movie. Although they could show how Bond essentially rapes her and thus converts her to heterosexuality - go figure. The Rosa Klebs character in the novel is a sadist, and Kronsteen thinks she is a Neuter with no sexual interest in men or women, but there is that weird scene where Klebs tries to seduce Tatiana. Which is kind of jarring, because it has already been said that Kronsteen thought she was a Neuter, or asexual. Also because nothing ever comes of it - when Tatiana runs out of the apartment, no consequences follow and the incident is never referred to again. I don’t know the purpose of that scene in the novel, other than to establish that Krebs is a scary pervert weirdo. Krebs’ presentation in the movie is more ambiguous - I think they were counting on viewers having read the book. _From Russia With Love_ is my favorite of the Bond novels (and films), but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that Fleming wasn’t a great author in many ways. He was writing spy fiction with lots of sex and violence. Plausibility wasn’t by any means his strong suit. And the movies weren’t any better than they had to be, at least in the ways that didn’t matter. Bond was suave and sophisticated and had exciting but highly unlikely adventures, and could have any woman he wanted, and had cool guns and gadgets and dialogue. And a hell of a lot more luck than brains. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/23 "2019-03-28T14:57:47Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > _From Russia With Love_ is my favorite of the Bond novels (and films), but that doesn’t blind me to the fact that Fleming wasn’t a great author in many ways. He was writing spy fiction with lots of sex and violence. Plausibility wasn’t by any means his strong suit. And the movies weren’t any better than they had to be, at least in the ways that didn’t matter. Bond was suave and sophisticated and had exciting but highly unlikely adventures, and could have any woman he wanted, and had cool guns and gadgets and dialogue. And a hell of a lot more luck than brains. > > Regards, > Shodan Fleming was actually very upfront about that last bit. Bond could be perceptive , clever, and rational on occasion, but it wasn’t his strong suit. Bond was basically an intuitive card player who relied upon his luck to pull him through a situation. All that gambling he did wasn’t merely metaphor – it was his persona. You can pull it off if you really ARE lucky, and in Fleming Bond had a God who was willing to stack the odds in his favor. Of course, Bond had no illusions about the danger of this kind of life. it’s the reason he lavished his money on his car and high living – he figured he would likely be killed in the service, and not live long enough to enjoy a retirement, so why save for it? he demonstrates his willingness to die in the service of his country, too, as when he proposes to immolate himself to defeat Hugo Drax, blowing up himself and the Moonraker. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/24 "2019-03-28T16:03:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Wasn’t that long ago that pussy could mean a cat. > > It was a running joke in Are You Being Served, Mrs Slocombe was always worried about her dear pussy. It wasn’t feeling well. I recall a George Carlin bit about ‘twat’ and how it had no non-vulgar connotations. > [@GC](#): > > I mean, you can say, “We’re gonna snatch that pussy, put in a box, and take it on the airplane with us,” in a Disney movie but twat stands alone! ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/25 "2019-03-28T16:39:55Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I recall a George Carlin bit about ‘twat’ and how it had no non-vulgar connotations. Don’t tell that to [Robert Browning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twat). (Or Edward Bulwer-Lytton.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/26 "2019-03-28T17:08:45Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Although they could show how Bond essentially rapes her and thus converts her to heterosexuality… Yeah, at the time it was thought that a Real Man could make a lesbian straight. I don’t know about that, but I’ve made a lot of straight women turn lesbian. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/27 "2019-03-28T17:30:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Fleming was actually very upfront about that last bit. Bond could be perceptive , clever, and rational on occasion, but it wasn’t his strong suit. Bond was basically an intuitive card player who relied upon his luck to pull him through a situation. All that gambling he did wasn’t merely metaphor – it was his persona. You can pull it off if you really ARE lucky, and in Fleming Bond had a God who was willing to stack the odds in his favor. > > Of course, Bond had no illusions about the danger of this kind of life. it’s the reason he lavished his money on his car and high living – he figured he would likely be killed in the service, and not live long enough to enjoy a retirement, so why save for it? he demonstrates his willingness to die in the service of his country, too, as when he proposes to immolate himself to defeat Hugo Drax, blowing up himself and the Moonraker. That’s interesting, and something I didn’t notice before. Maybe it highlights something about Fleming that does work as an author - he can “sell” a universe where the good guy always wins, and it is no more implausible than it needs to be. And also the point about Bond always winning at gambling - all the horseshit Bond tells himself during the books about why he always wins was nonsense even to me when I first read it - the more you gamble, the more you lose, but Bond’s confidence in himself and his own abilities, however misplaced, is of a piece with his over-confidence in his ability to solve the case, still works in the novels. It’s adolescent wish-fulfillment fantasy, of course, but who doesn’t want to be the ultra-cool superspy where everything goes right. He can gamble without losing, drink like a fish without getting fat or sick, have any woman he wants with the crook of a finger, and even the less savory fantasies of a not-terribly-mature adolescent work out for him. He never gets anywhere with Tilly Masterson, and why? Turns out (in the book) because she’s a lesbian, and that’s OK because Bond gets to seduce the ueber-lesbian Pussy Galore. Indeed, she flings herself at him, because of his irresistible masculinity. I am not sure how Fleming manages to sell it, but he does. Even in its more preposterous manifestations - Bond makes it thru Dr. No’s Evil Testing Ventilation of Death with a table knife, a cigarette lighter, and a piece of wire, kills a giant squid, and then kills the Evil Villain by burying him in bird doo-doo and finishes with sexing up Honeychile Ryder the beautiful child of nature. (She’s another rape victim - what the heck was up with Fleming? All of his women seem to have suffered significant trauma. Pussy Galore, Honeychile Ryder, and Tiffany Case were all raped. The woman he marries married some creep who left her, and then her child dies, and she seduces Bond by saying “treat me like the lowest whore in creation”. Ick. Vesper Lynn is a Soviet spy, Gala Brand is engaged to someone else, Domino Vitale has one leg shorter than the other, of all things, and then he impregnates and abandons a Japanese fisherwoman who used to be a Hollywood star and was badly treated by everyone in Hollywood except David Niven. Hmm.) I grant you, Bond didn’t move in the kind of circles where you meet the wholesome girl-next-door types, but Fleming seems to have rather taken it to extremes. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/28 "2019-03-28T18:43:13Z")
Poor pussy, poor pussycat. Are we sure Pussy Galore is not just a code name, going from lesbian spy to lesbian spy down through the years? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/29 "2019-03-28T19:13:42Z")
Just don’t suggest that, in the next adaptation, Pussy Galore should be played by Idris Elba. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/30 "2019-03-28T21:39:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just don’t suggest that, in the next adaptation, Pussy Galore should be played by Idris Elba. ISWYDT. Still, I’d suggest Ving Rhames instead. Only “Cobra Bubbles” could make a guy named Pussy Galore work. I’m not going to make fun of his name… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/31 "2019-03-28T21:51:46Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Poor pussy, poor pussycat. > > Are we sure Pussy Galore is not just a code name, going from lesbian spy to lesbian spy down through the years? Sort of like The Phantom, but with a very different punching ring? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/32 "2019-03-28T22:04:50Z")
actually im reading an Agatha Christie collection and pussy seems to be a a semi affectionate slang for the nice medding little old lady who lives down the lane ……. "well the old pussies who have nothing to do but knit and gossip will try to meddle in the affairs of young and single people that they think would be a great match for each other " is almost an exact copy of a line in her books ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/33 "2019-03-28T23:32:00Z")
I was about to mention Agatha C too. She’s of a slightly older generation than James Bond of course, but this suggests that the older generation who might be more likely to be scandalised by a sexual reference would be less likely to actually notice it in the first place. Rather like my grandmother talking about “such a gay party” in the 1980s ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/34 "2019-03-29T00:00:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wikipedia says, "One of Fleming’s neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell, mother of Chris Blackwell of Island Records… I will point out, for trivia fans, that [Chris Blackwell is a vampire](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/may/31/artsfeatures.popandrock2), according to Lee “Scratch” Perry. A Bob Marley-killin’ vampire, no less. I don’t know if Perry worked Fleming into his conspiratorial ganja-hazed worldview, but if he didn’t, he should’ve. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/35 "2019-03-29T06:06:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > ISWYDT. > > Still, I’d suggest Ving Rhames instead. Only “Cobra Bubbles” could make a guy named Pussy Galore work. I’m not going to make fun of his name… I wonder, when people hear “Pussy Jones”, do they primarily think of Edith Wharton, or the Welsh rugby player? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/36 "2019-03-29T14:58:46Z")
While we’re on the subject, I must say, I don’t see how having an abundance of girlie parts is supposed to be a good thing. “Alotta Fagina” isn’t something I would say would be something to brag about. And having eight just seems silly. Can only use one at a time. All I can think of are bad taste jokes (if your mother were here, we could have saved the wagon) (echo!) and the whole subplot of The Godfather that was mercifully removed from the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/37 "2019-03-29T15:43:33Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > While we’re on the subject, I must say, I don’t see how having an abundance of girlie parts is supposed to be a good thing. I always took “galore” here to mean not abundance in size but in frequency or availability. That Ms. Galore’s privates were in frequent use. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/38 "2019-03-29T18:44:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I always took “galore” here to mean not abundance in size but in frequency or availability. That Ms. Galore’s privates were in frequent use. That makes sense. (Not Alotta Fagina, though, but that was obviously a joke). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/39 "2019-03-29T19:20:50Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > ISWYDT. > > Still, I’d suggest Ving Rhames instead. Only “Cobra Bubbles” could make a guy named Pussy Galore work. I’m not going to make fun of his name… How about “[Big Pussy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Pussy_Bonpensiero)?” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601/40 "2019-03-29T19:36:06Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > How about “[Big Pussy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Pussy_Bonpensiero)?” Supposedly it came from his early career as a cat burglar, when he must have been a lot lither, and to distinguish him from “Little Pussy” Malanga. Supposedly David Chase had heard of two actual mafioso called Big Pussy and Little Pussy and decided to use it in the show. (Note that this is a difficult topic to research in Google.;)) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pussy-galore/831601.md?page=3)