The Whole Woman: Germaine Greer

[poliphilo]

Greer is furious at the world as it is- and with good reason. She is as much contrarian as feminist. There's not a received opinion she isn't itching to refute, not a party line she doesn't want to scuff. Be careful, you right-thinking liberals, of assuming she's your ally; she doesn't always think what you think she's going to think. She takes an almighty swipe at transsexuals, she puts the case for female genital mutilation. Her fury at the way women are treated by the system is almost matched by her exasperation at women for being such saps. 

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I find that her point about everyone who is not a perfectly masculine male being defaulted to female is a thought provoking one. Thus making "female" a kind of dustbin gender that has to accept anyone who doesn't fit the male ideal.

However, on the whole these days I find myself disagreeing with Greer more than I agree with her. Though I did like her book about the menopause. The Change was so dismal that in a strange way, it was immensely cheering.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I find that her point about everyone who is not a perfectly masculine male being defaulted to female is a thought provoking one. Thus making "female" a kind of dustbin gender that has to accept anyone who doesn't fit the male ideal.

I think many feminists (myself included) would accept that. The move from that commonplace observation about the modus operandi of patriarchy to setting oneself up as kind of judge and jury at the gates of womanhood - in many respects simply mirroring the very practices one is supposedly objecting to - is vile even on paper, but much more so when she carries it into the real world in order to persecute women, as she has done.