By 1964, Bond had found a large audience despite the character’s sexual politics breaking with traditional views on premarital sex and monogamy. In both Dr No and From Russia With Love, Bond had used sex to manipulate women for his own ends, whilst taking his own pleasure in them. Jon Burn explores what happened next, when 007 faced off against his foe Goldfinger, causing James Bond to enter a considerably less heteronormative and more ‘perverse’ world than he had ever encountered before.

Aside from seeing the meteoric rise of James Bond from a literary character to a world-renowned pop culture icon, the 60s would also bring the so-called Sexual Revolution with it, creating a shift in sexual practices and attitudes, bringing the beginning of a sense of liberation and openness to individuals' sexuality. In a post World War II world, the new generation was outspoken about sexual politics, giving themselves freedom of expression while changing wider attitudes to premarital sex, homosexuality and abortion. Clearly these practices and others were being engaged in before the Revolution, but were done in secret, not just because they were deemed taboo by society, but actually punishable by law. What went on behind closed doors was once purely the subject of idle gossip and speculation, but the first steps towards the social emancipation of sexual identity and practices were taking place in the 1960s.

By the third film in the series, James Bond has been established as a virile, heterosexual male with no desire to form a monogamous relationship. Through the course of a Bond film, Bond will engage in sex with at least one woman, for his own pleasure, but also sometimes with an agenda towards his mission. Almost immediately after being given his orders to observe Goldfinger, Bond interferes in Goldfinger’s gambling and seduces Jill Masterson, Goldfinger’s accomplice. Jill is very quickly seduced by Bond’s charm and sleeps with him. This seduction appears fairly effortless on Bond’s part, which sets up the polarising difficulty that Bond has in forming a similar relationship with the other women in the film: Tilly Masterson and Pussy Galore.

“You can turn off the charm. I’m immune.”

The contrast with Bond’s initial meetings with both Tilly and Pussy is striking, as film audiences are seeing Bond’s charm fail to attract a woman for the first time. Although not outwardly stated in the film, Fleming wrote both characters as lesbians. Both first encounters have the women give cold reception to Bond, only returning his conversation as a polite formality and not from any desire to actually engage with him on a social or sexual level; the film’s Pussy Galore even states outright that she is “immune” to his “charm.” Pussy will go onto eventually sleep with Bond after he forces himself upon her; after a kiss, she relents and reciprocates back, the troubling implication being that all it takes is the right man to turn her away from homosexuality, and the film ends with the two in an embrace. As Pussy does not return for the next film, we can surmise that the relationship did not last, and perhaps it was not the significant turning point in her sexuality that it was made to appear to be.

Fleming’s novel is much more direct than the film when it comes to the women’s sexuality and Bond’s attitude towards it. Tilly exhibits the same coldness and distrust of Bond as a representative of male heterosexuality; she goes as far as slapping Bond in the face when they meet, when he compares their car accident to a sexual innuendo. Tilly instead becomes attracted to Pussy Galore later on, and Bond finally realises why Tilly has no interest in him:

“Bond thought she (Pussy Galore) was superb and so, he noticed, did Tilly Masterton who was gazing at Miss Galore with worshipping eyes and lips that yearned. Bond decided that all was now clear to him about Tilly Masterton.”

The queer revelation to James Bond creates a bizarre 3-way dynamic, as Pussy slowly becomes attracted to Bond. Bond implies in his inner monologue that “beautiful lesbians” are a “challenge” for all men. Just as Bond is about to consummate his relationship with Pussy, she reveals that her only heterosexual experience was being raped by her uncle during her adolescence, suggesting that she was not born this way, but made this way, and her trauma has made her sexuality a perversion, in terms of nature vs nurture, and sex with James Bond will ‘course correct’ her sexuality.

“Positively shocking”

The term ‘perversion’ is a loaded term in everyday usage; in the mid-20th Century it was often used to describe homosexuality, and not in a positive way. Not limited to just homosexuality, it also applied to various practices deemed different by the society of the time. But in terms of classic psychoanalysis, the term is not used in a disapproving way. It is merely used to denote something that deviates from the norm. In Freudian terms, the norm is to indulge in heterosexual intercourse for reproduction; absolutely anything else is perverse.

The ideology signified by Galore’s ‘conversion’ is outdated, and a sign of the times. Male homosexuality was still a crime in the United Kingdom when the novel was published and the film released and female to female sexual contact heavily stigmatised. Taking the moral stance of society at the time, Tilly is punished by the author with death for being attracted to Pussy; if she had not been so desperate to be with Pussy instead of Bond for protection, she would have survived.

Pussy herself is written as redeemed for becoming attracted to Bond, and is spared. The relationship between Bond and Pussy is given a new dynamic in Anthony Horowitz’s continuation novel Trigger Mortis. Set just two weeks after the events of Goldfinger, the relationship between Bond and Pussy has stagnated while they are living together in Bond’s home. She has become an annoyance to him, and he longs to be rid of her, so he can continue his promiscuous ways. The relationship appears like Bond and Pussy are a long married couple who have lost their spark. But this is a sham, covering up that neither of them are happy sexually with being together. They do not connect with each other, and their sexual relationship falls apart showing how unnatural it is, and Pussy leaves Bond to be with Logan Fairfax, another lesbian character who Bond fails to seduce.

Characters exhibiting other forms of ‘perversion’ are punished through Goldfinger; the more perverse to society, the greater the punishment.

Freud’s evaluation of perversion in his Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality establishes perversion as a deviance away from heterosexual intercourse, and applies to Goldfinger when heterosexuality overcomes the odds and save the day. The theory is valid in its terms, however it is much too definite when looking at the broader sense of sexuality and sexual culture. The Lacanian Theory builds to a much broader interpretation, and creates an ascending scale of perversion, on which the various characters can be observed. Looking at Bond and Jill for instance, their relarionship is perverse, based on both of their sexual attitudes. Both take pleasure in each other as a distraction; Bond desires information and Jill subconsciously desires escape.

Taking the starting point of heterosexual intercourse, anything that is performed as a sexual act without the goal of reproduction is considered perverse. By Lacan's theory, Bond and Jill are a perverse couple, as they are sexually active together, both satisfying the others needs. The structure of homosexuality is perverse by Lacanian Theory, not because of repulsion to a same-sex relationship, but because of the divergence from the social structure of procreation and family. The application of the theory to Bond, who indulges in casual sex for pleasure, is just as perverse, making the heterosexual and homosexual equal to each other. And so, as Bond’s sexual attitudes are acceptable in society despite the perversion, then so should be Tilly’s or Pussy’s relationships be.

In the relationship between two human beings there is a Subject and an Other. The Subject satisfies their perversion when the Other gives, and this desire is reciprocated. This is a standard that is common in society, with co-operative sexual relationships that are not bound by the sole purpose of procreation; essentially, casual sex between consenting adults. When the Other's desires are not considered, the Subject becomes more perverse. The Other exists only as a tool to give pleasure to the Subject; taking pleasure from a sex worker, for instance. Behaviours like this are taboo, and shunned by social standards, therefore labelling the Subject as more perverse. The stranger it seems to society's standards at the time, the more perverse it is considered to be.

“The Man with the Midas touch”

To show the relative normalcy of Bond’s, and even Tilly and Pussy’s sexuality, there must be an opposite presented; going to the far end of the scale where sexual perversion is so morally bankrupt that it is extremely perverse, and this is where Auric Goldfinger sits. Before the character is even introduced, Shirley Bassey’s theme repeatedly says how Goldfinger loves gold. The obsession over the precious metal goes much deeper than just greed. Goldfinger is presented as being asexual. Bond implies that both Jill and Pussy may have more than just an employee and employer relationship with him and both deny this, with a noted amount of hostility towards the notion. Despite surrounding himself with beautiful women in his organisation, Goldfinger shows little interest in women sexually, but he has chosen women with golden blonde hair to work for him, or dress them in gold coloured clothing to affirm his possession of them.

The only time Goldfinger shows an attraction to a person is towards Pussy Galore, while they discuss Operation Grandslam. Goldfinger begins to caress Pussy’s hand when he makes mention of how wealthy she will become from their scheme. Pussy has only become sexually attractive to Goldfinger as he imagines the wealth that she will have, and not for her body or her personality. She becomes an object of desire to him only for her value in terms of the gold she will possess. Pussy’s reaction to Goldfinger’s flirtation is to draw her hand back as naturally as possible, putting an exclamation point on her lack of sexual interest in men by talking about the island she wishes to purchase, with a sign saying “No Trespassing”; she makes this remark as she draws her hand away from him. Goldfinger understands the double meaning of her words, and does not seem disappointed by the rejection, as it is not Pussy herself that he is really attracted to, but the idea of her potential wealth.

Everything that Goldfinger owns is either made of gold or has the appearance of a gold colouring in some way; his film wardrobe is made up of yellow, brown and orange articles of clothing, giving his appearance an almost golden glow. The fascination with gold goes beyond desire to be wealthy, as Goldfinger admits to Bond: “This is gold, Mr Bond. All my life I’ve been in love with its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.” Goldfinger’s perversion is object sexuality, having sexual desire for an inanimate object, specifically to the precious metal gold, and not to a person of any gender, or even any human being. His sexual attraction to gold makes him the most perverse character in terms of sexuality; there is no desire to reproduce sexually and his attraction is self-indulgent; Goldfinger's deviance is proportional to his villainy.

“Sounds like a French nail varnish”

Before his first appearance, Bond makes mention of the queerness of the name Auric Goldfinger, comparing it to a French nail varnish; emasculating Goldfinger by likening him to a feminine product; insinuating femininity in Goldfinger, with the possible implication that Goldfinger sounds like he may be homosexual. Goldfinger pays Jill to be seen with him, she is very specific that this is all, as a way of increasing his social standing and masculinity; effectively peacocking himself and flaunting the image of heterosexuality without taking physical pleasure with her behind closed doors. Jill, or any other woman that Goldfinger pays to be on his arm, is a cover for his sexual desire for gold, acting in public as his beard. When Jill betrays Goldfinger to Bond, Goldfinger takes revenge by fatally covering her body with gold paint. The act gives Goldfinger his possession over Jill back, making her worthless to Bond, or any other man, as a sexual partner, but now more attractive to Goldfinger as a golden, inanimate object; Goldfinger in Fleming’s novel would have prostitutes hypnotised and painted gold before sex, stripping their gender and humanity away from them in order to make them into living golden statues, which are more attractive to him sexually.

For Bond’s punishment in the role of humiliating Goldfinger socially, he is strapped to a gold slab and threatened to be cut in half by Goldfinger’s laser. The scene is one of the most iconic in film history, but is also a Freudian nightmare upon inspection. After Bond’s continued attempts to emasculate him, Goldfinger plans to castrate Bond, removing his sexuality, just as he did by painting Jill. The weapon of choice for castration is Goldfinger’s unique laser, intricate to operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger’s boast to Bond about the laser’s power prior to almost slicing Bond in half, genitals first, gives a demonstration, as the phallic laser penetrates the gold beneath Bond, leaving a scorched cut which appears vaginal. The imagery of Goldfinger’s phallic laser penetrating the gold is quite blatant. As the tension builds, as the laser cuts closer to Bond’s groin, he becomes more afraid for his life (as well as castration) through the danger of this cuckolding death-trap that Goldfinger has prepared for him. Bond’s sexuality is a vital part of his character and his work, and to lose this to castration is just as devastating to his identity as death is.

“What’s your game Mr Bond?”

The world that Bond encounters in Goldfinger is a queer one, with a wide scope of sexual practices that has heterosexual James Bond in the minority. From Bond’s promiscuity, to Tilly’s homosexuality through to Pussy Galore’s ‘failed experiment’ with bisexuality, all of the characters are perverse in one way or another. But it is the range of the perversion that defines the characters. Those that the audience root for are presumed to be normative. But are they?

The less normative characters’ perversions and sexual desires will be shared by many queer audience members too, either outwardly or secretly. There is a common ground shared by the heteronormative and the queer characters in Goldfinger through perversion, in terms of wanting sexual pleasure instead of having sex for reproduction.

The label "perverse" is not meant to be disparaging, but instead simply denotes difference to social standards. As the standards were beginning to change, these "perversions" were more commonly outed in society, becoming the new normal. The scale of how perverse a sexual orientation can be considered in psychoanalytic terms is relative to social acceptance at the time; both are always in a constant state of flux. Just as attitudes towards relationships, gender and sexuality today have become more tolerant of difference since the 60s, there are also attitudes that were common then which are outdated and problematic now.

By comparison though, Goldfinger’s perversion is deviant, and these characteristic desires of his are made to be unnatural and bizarre. Object sexuality is (as far as we are aware) relatively uncommon in society, and because it is more unknown and strange it makes the character strange too. It is this strangeness that makes object sexuality perverse (psychologically); it is far away from nature's need to sexually reproduce, or humanity's desire for pleasure or love. An unusual and perverse sexual preference is just as much a villainous characteristic to a James Bond villain as a facial scar. If you are not conforming to society, you are the villain. In terms of Goldfinger, he is difficult to relate and sympathise with on purpose, as we are encouraged to identify and cheer for the hero. By making Goldfinger such a perverse character, it makes him less appealing morally. His love for gold over a human being makes him difficult to identify with.

He really does love only gold.

“He loves only gold” - sexual ‘perversion’ in Goldfinger

“You can turn off the charm. I’m immune.”

“Positively shocking”

“The Man with the Midas touch”

“Sounds like a French nail varnish”

“What’s your game Mr Bond?”

“Homos make the worst killers”

Q is for Queer?