Germaine Greer Fan Club

Yup, love her. So lucid, so clear

I love Germaine Greer. I found a battered copy of the Female Eunuch on my mother's bookshelf when I was 16.

I didn't understand some of it, didn't agree with some of it and still, I had the sense that, for the first time, I was being spoken to and not around. It was the important heads up of what was coming as I moved towards an adult world and made sense of what went before. It was the starting point of thinking what was happening around me and how that related to my sex.

Though my mother insists she has never owned or read a copy of the Female Eunuch and says that Greer is evil.

I love Germaine Greer and so pleased to see her on tv this morning being treated with respect. Also looking forward to Woman’s hour today - thought this thread could use a bump to discuss.

There is a thread now on MN regarding unisex toilets and how most people do not like or want them, doesn't make Germaine Greer look very popular if she thinks they are a good thing.

Because admiring someone means we must agree with every single one of her views?

I don't think there is a person on this earth that I agree with on every single topic.

I pulled out my copy of Sex and Destiny and thought this paragraph from the opening "Warning", is as good a summation of Greer's approach as anything. Forgive the image, I didn't have time to type out the quote.

I hadn't read GG for a while, and I'd forgotten how compulsively readable she is. Her scholarship informs her writing like a buttress holding up a cathedral roof, but her style is so direct and vigorous.

Writersblock2
Thank you for posting that video. I've just listened to the whole thing while doing the dishes. My first foray into Greer and shit, she's a smart woman. I am seriously surprised by and interested in her thoughts on some topics which I thought we would never see common ground on, but which I had recently been thinking about as a reaching out between conservative and radfem women. So it was a really pleasant surprise to hear her speak in a similar vein to what I had been pondering. Wow. Thanks again.

Actually, I don't apologise - the AS function is an excellent way for women here to assess the people they are engaging with.

Vicky, I apologise, but I AS'd you.

You're someone who posts on Mumsnet "There's a Woman's Hour on R4, but not a Men's hour".

You are not on this thread, in good faith, to discuss Germaine Greer. You just want to rubbish her. I engaged with you in good faith last night - I see now that was a mistake.

I have watched the vidios at the top of this thread and have come to the conclusion that Germaine Greer is a very disturbed woman.
She clearly hates men and try's to get other women to do the same, I have yet to see her discuss her warped views with a man, or men, to get there opinions on her rants.
I don't know if she is married or has children but my guess is not, I think this is the cause of her bitternes as she has missed out on family life.

I saw her speak last year and asked a question. She's amazing.

I went to see her talk in Brighton last year - took one of my DDs who was very impressed. We had to walk the gauntlet of TAs (she was talking about ecology FFS). GG is amazing

Another huge GG fan here

I heard so much crap about her. When i actually read her work and seen her interviews i thought why are they bashing her? I think its important not to bully or silence views just because we disagree and that goes for both sides of the trans debate. The channel 4 genderquack show with kathy newman was such a mess....

That was a fabulous video ToeToToe. It's instructive to see just how offensive men were willing to be, when talking to women in those days. The man at the end was being so offensive and GG basically said, "I see you, you muppet" and put him right in his place. She was so fierce and intelligent and take-no-prisoners, I just wanted to stand up and cheer.

Absolutely!

Blimey... double flowers (not necessary but thank you). I hadn't heard the lecture Germaine Greer gave at the library before that writersblock2 linked too in this thread but it drew together so many strands in my life and I'm deeply grateful both to Germaine greer and also Writersblock2 for linking it.
In the middle of the video, she says something along the lines of, 'I don't tell anyone what to do, I encourage them to think.' I believe that this is what is so desperately needed now.

Vicky1990
Germaine Greer's point was likely more about her regard for what she sees as the peculiarly English fetishisation of toilets / urination etc. The greatest shame is that in this particular context her nuanced and deeply considered views are being limited to the characters of a tweet...

I really don't think she thinks they're a good thing, VIcky. I think she doesn't think it's that important.

She's been doing this for 50+ years. She's on a different plane to the rest of us. Don't get hung up on it.

You can disagree with admirable people on certain points. It's called debate. An exchange of views. A difference of opinion. The danger comes when masked men are shutting down that debate.

There is a thread now on MN regarding unisex toilets and how most people do not like or want them, doesn't make Germaine Greer look very popular if she thinks they are a good thing.
She is way out of touch with reality on many subjects, this is one of them.

Women generally say No to free-for-all toilets.

No.

There, I've said it.

Well I don't feel any particular shame over my female body - but that doesn't mean I want to do away with my privacy either. Because - quite simply men are obsessed with women's bodies. Even from young boyhood - never mind porn - they will sneak the M&S lingerie catalogue away to get a glimpse.

So a wish for privacy and dignity - not shame.