'Germaine Greer can no longer be called a feminist'

[pisacake]

This appears to be mainstream opinion among young people. Our fucked up universities now employ 'safe space marshals' i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/25/01/45A4A9FE00000578-5013379-image-a-6_1508889824115.jpg in case people say things that offend the deemed status quo.

www.varsity.co.uk/comment/13829

"Greer is now just an old, white woman who has forced herself into exile. Her comments are irreparably damaging, reflecting a total lack of regard for trans lives. Thinking what she thinks, she cannot be a prominent feminist any longer. She no longer stands for the same things we do"

It's not quite clear why someone who appears to be a 19 year old, er white woman, thinks that 'old, white woman' is an insult. But there you go.

The reason Greer said men wouldn’t want womb implants is because she believes they don’t really want to be treated like women. Like the way actual women are treated.

And she’s right.

But of course, if transwomen were given these (fictitious) wombs, we all know that they would not be treated like actual women. But special, better, women, with a whole heap of male privilege.

Plus childbirth would suddenly be at the forefront of medical research. Pain relief, stretchmark removal, every surgical problem would instantly have millions of pounds thrown at it.

Transwomen, having been socialised as men, actually believe that childbirth would be a piece of piss for them.

And they are right, it would.

I have many things to say about this article but have a migraine so it would likely come out as incoherent babbling, so here's just one thing: despite the author's writing off GG as an old white woman, only 'out' radfems I know offline are young women of colour who do not take kindly to the lie that white trans-identifying people are more oppressed than, for example, black women. All the black women (and most of the women I know who aren't white) will not put up with trans activism for a second (and yes, they do believe trans people have the right to good lives that are free of violence, etc. They are the furthest thing from bigots).

Admittedly this is just unscientific anecdata, but it seems to be at least somewhat corroborated by what I see from women of colour online with regard to trans activism.

I often think the reaction of the black community to Rachel Dolezal is a good template for women reacting to the crazy end of trans ideology.

Perhaps that’s where the strong attitude Coleridge observes - of having no truck with this shit - comes from.

I am in the same place as those women.

Germaine Greer represents me and my feminism far more than that disparaging 'critique' but then again what do I know I'm only an old white woman with an education and experience and Germaine is only an old white woman academic who has fought the patriarchy most of her adult life and written many fantastic eloquent books on the subject. I mean she only managed to become a Professor of English - who does she think she is?

Brava, brava, brava!

“Bet they'd like monthly periods too!“

Well actually...

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1122689/menstruation-matters-transgender/amp

Well she sounds like a silly billy.

I used to find GG's ideas a bit of a turn off. Then I grew up, and realised that she is bang on the money on almost everything (not everything, no one's perfect)

I agree the young woman may well be embarrassed about this in the future. Was just thinking about this stuff the other day when I was helping my Mum with a clear-out of the old family home (she's downsizing) and came across my teenage diaries. Oh dear, did I ever have some daft opinions and a pompous attitude. But at least it was just a private diary. Imagine if those immature rantings had been splashed all over the internet with my real name attached...

The 'old, white woman' thing... yes, there's an unpleasant ageism I notice these days on the left, especially towards women. And is 'white woman' meant to imply that it might be different if she was a black woman with the same opinions? I doubt it would, though, as black women have also been no-platformed and similar for having 'incorrect' views on trans issues.

I am so embarrassed to be a part of this generation

As regards to black women’s views on Transactivism - the feminist (think it’s feminist) forum on Lipstick Alley makes interesting reading and they take no prisoners.

What a silly child. And how low Cambridge’s standards seem to have dropped.

They 'us and them' don't they.

White women == the bad ones, who everyone else is on the other side of naturally. Black women, LGB(TQ) people, disabled people - no need to actually speak to any of them, they're oppressed, they're definitely on the side of right with us, not on the side of evil like those old white women /s

Olenna - I'm the same, I definitely thought she was a militant feminist and that was bad, but as I get older I realise she was right about a hell of a lot (and that there's nothing wrong with a bit of militant feminism)

What is really going on here? If we thought that what Germaine said when she was younger was still relevant, then we would be forced to consider that perhaps there was still a long way to go? That umpteen years of feminism still had a ways to go yet. If you said that what she said then was relevant then (but not now), then you're still stuck with having to explain exactly when she went from being relevant to being irrelevant.
The current tactic (which organisations like Stonewall seem to have adopted as well BTW) is saying that almost everything that went before in terms of womens liberation, gay liberation was somehow very wrong in that it 'forgot' about trans folk. Hence Stonewalls apology for not concentrating enough on trans folk. And hence current dismissal of not just what Germaine says now but also of everything she said in the past! Of not 'allowing' her to speak even about other issues! It really is the most massive attempt to disappear almost the entire history of feminism, because we all got it wrong and failed to include trans folk. If you were planning this, it is difficult to see how you could have come up with a better plan of defanging feminism!

And as before, if you can 'disappear' the history of feminism, then you can also 'disappear' the reason why true equality has not yet been achieved -- it's our fault, we were all doing it wrong, and now the task for this current generation is to expose us all for a bunch of mistaken individuals, whilst of course the patriarchy just trundles on blithely unconcerned as younger feminists do their job for them and demolish the older feminists....................

Because what the patriarchy certainly wouldn't want is younger women believing what their foremothers said was still relevant, that things are ongoing, that they need to understand the history of both the patriarchy and womens long resistance to it. That things aren't almost all sorted now............

applauds very insightful SomeDyke.

Great post SomeDyke
"Disappearing feminism for failing to include trans folk.." It makes sense...

As regards to black women’s views on Transactivism - the feminist (think it’s feminist) forum on Lipstick Alley makes interesting reading and they take no prisoners.

I love reading that forum. They don't take any shit.

Yes! Agree SomeDyke, good post.

If you disparage what older women say and do you can erase their contribution to feminism and rewrite it (in your image).

It's the basic "divide and rule" concept. Depressingly enough it seems to be working.

What really bugs me is that Stonewall supposedly 'apologised' for doing stuff wrong. That Joanna Russ apparently recanted as it were for saying the wrong things about transwomen in one of her Sci-Fi novels (The Female Man). This isn't just criticism, or views evolving naturally, it's taking something someone said 30-40 years ago and expecting them to recant, apologize profusely, or else be forever not just ignored but reviled. We have Inga Muscio and her book 'Cunt' that I read recently, where she does a similar thing in the afterword to the second edition. Of course, those like Germaine and Janice Raymond who refuse to recant, or issue profuse apologies and cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and seek forgiveness from the TRAs, they are forever damned, their works to be misfiled, denounced and (hopefully) forgotten, removed from the libraries and course reading lists.............

Hopefully they'll all die soon and their hateful views will die with them................They are all old women after all!

That rings depressingly true SomeDyke. Sadly also true that Greer and colleagues won't be with us forever. When they're gone it will be even easier to dismiss them.

I adore Germaine. I obsessively read her books as a teenager and I fully credit her for my having enough savvy to continue being passionate about radical feminism through the murky waters of liberal feminism gaining popularity as I grew into my twenties.

💛GG

One of the many lovely things about seeing Greer speak this year was the number of young women in the audience.

The "old, white woman" comment is infuriating.

Criticising Greer because she is white = massive privilege-checking virtue-signalling bonus points! "Old" and "woman" tacked on adds the necessary air of disgust not provided by the word "white". Whereas if she'd dismissed someone's because they were "just a young black guy" she'd be crucified. In that scenario, "black" = OMG racist, as the overriding factor. In fact "guy" and possibly "young" may actually confer an advantage in terms of people giving a shit; certainly no privilege-checking bonus points are awarded for pointing these things out.

I loathe the way their is a hierachy in activist circles, amongst the very people who claim to care about this stuff. And the related trading off of one "ism" against another (eg. middle class males who champion the rights of the masses, freedom for the working class blah blah, until a member of the working class says something they don't like and suddenly they're the Great Unwashed again...) It's like a weird rock-paper-scissors with identity.

I think trans trumps everything. The only thing in identity rock-paper-scissors that might flag up the madness to the political left is if it conflicts with black men's rights somehow.

It's more like some crazy game of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock, platypus, artichoke.