Page 2 | Germaine Greer

Coolstorysis · 2023-12-12T15:05:34+00:00

I recently saw clip of her on reddit from the 70s I think, where the presenter was so condescending and sexist. She handled it magnificently and I was reminded how great she is . Anyone have any good discussions/videos to share?

Lorelaigilmore88 · 13/12/2023 13:16

No great videos to share I'm afraid but just to say, she is ace. I remember reading the female eunuch when i was about 20. Sometimes she is just so spot on and she does not give a shit.

Anyfeckinusername · 13/12/2023 13:32

I adore her. I wish there were more GGs. Agree JB has the unapologetic quick wit too.

However it was GG that I grew up in awe of as, basically she put a lot of dicks back in their boxes

ScrollingLeaves · 13/12/2023 15:34

theilltemperedclavecinist · 13/12/2023 13:11

It seems to be universal that crimes are not dealt with proportionately to the distress of the victim (maybe because people with low social and political capital are more likely to become victims). I've always thought for instance that DV with coercive control, where the victim knows they'll be pursued if they try to escape, should be treated as essentially a kidnapping.

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And I think that even having the status of just below murder is what makes it seem acceptable to men as an inevitable part of war.

Yes, even many U.K. men think this at least secretly. U.K. and US men were also rapists in WW11.

On Woman's Hour this week, Christina Lamb, who has written about sexual violence in war, was speaking to Emma Barnett, and mentioned how newspaper editors have said people don’t want to read about it. This was her speaking generally and also apropos vicious rapes of Israeli women by Hamas which have only just been properly brought into focus of the news( and denied by some including Owen-Jones). It was all too buried and ignored.

Back to Germain Greer on rape, I may be wrong, but I think possibly she may have said this partly because she wanted women to refuse to give men the power they [men] think raping gives them - to help belittle rapists so to speak.

I think it would be necessary to see the greater context of what she wrote about this to get that message though.

ScrollingLeaves · 13/12/2023 15:37

Grammarnut · 12/12/2023 22:46

Rape has an elevated status just below murder because that's just what it is, a form of murder, a violation of the person. Germaine Greer (right on many things) is wrong on this one, despite being a rape victim herself. And rape comes in many forms, child abuse, gang rape, sex slavery, forced marriage, rape during war (which involves all the rest). It's traumatic and an ever-present fear in the back of every woman's mind.

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I am sorry, my post before was in response to Grammernut (agreement).

AdamRyan · 13/12/2023 17:11

ScrollingLeaves · 13/12/2023 15:34

And I think that even having the status of just below murder is what makes it seem acceptable to men as an inevitable part of war.

Yes, even many U.K. men think this at least secretly. U.K. and US men were also rapists in WW11.

On Woman's Hour this week, Christina Lamb, who has written about sexual violence in war, was speaking to Emma Barnett, and mentioned how newspaper editors have said people don’t want to read about it. This was her speaking generally and also apropos vicious rapes of Israeli women by Hamas which have only just been properly brought into focus of the news( and denied by some including Owen-Jones). It was all too buried and ignored.

Back to Germain Greer on rape, I may be wrong, but I think possibly she may have said this partly because she wanted women to refuse to give men the power they [men] think raping gives them - to help belittle rapists so to speak.

I think it would be necessary to see the greater context of what she wrote about this to get that message though.

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Yes I think that's what she was doing too.

I think rape is universally portrayed as one of the worst things that can happen but that's almost objectifying the victim and not giving them agency in how they process it.

I also think that perception leads to a further impact which is to imply that accusing someone of rape without being 10000000% certain they did it is unacceptable. And because its usually so hard to prove it happens, that works against victims as either it isn't discussed at all, its discussed in graphic detail to prove it happened or its implied it didn't happen for xyz reason.

Paradoxically, it might be easier for women to get justice for their rapes if it wasn't seen as such a horrific crime.

AdamRyan · 13/12/2023 17:14

ScrollingLeaves · 13/12/2023 15:34

And I think that even having the status of just below murder is what makes it seem acceptable to men as an inevitable part of war.

Yes, even many U.K. men think this at least secretly. U.K. and US men were also rapists in WW11.

On Woman's Hour this week, Christina Lamb, who has written about sexual violence in war, was speaking to Emma Barnett, and mentioned how newspaper editors have said people don’t want to read about it. This was her speaking generally and also apropos vicious rapes of Israeli women by Hamas which have only just been properly brought into focus of the news( and denied by some including Owen-Jones). It was all too buried and ignored.

Back to Germain Greer on rape, I may be wrong, but I think possibly she may have said this partly because she wanted women to refuse to give men the power they [men] think raping gives them - to help belittle rapists so to speak.

I think it would be necessary to see the greater context of what she wrote about this to get that message though.

Show quote history

The reviews on the book are interesting. I might read it. Had forgotten she'd written this until this thread.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rape-Germaine-Greer/dp/1526608405?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=e5d59340-2987-48c7-b972-b58a7f8af84c

SleepingisanArt · 13/12/2023 17:25

I met her once when I was a lowly shop assistant. She was unbelievably rude, referred to me as 'you' (despite visible name badge), and sent me all over the shop fetching things for her - including upstairs because the lift was out of order and she 'obviously' couldnt manage the stairs! No please or thank you.

ARockIsASlowSlowCooledOffFlameAndACradle · 15/12/2023 12:10

I saw her speak at The University of Western Australia 5 years ago. She stayed for HOURS afterwards to speak with attendees 1 on 1. When I finally got to speak with her myself I was overwhelmed by the compassion for women that drives her. I was expecting anger, you-go-girl type sentiments but she was full of love.

LondonLass91 · 15/12/2023 12:35

This thread made me look again through The Whole Woman book - isn't this section absolutely heartbreaking..copied below. Makes my skin boil that we perform genital mutilation (on boys and girls)..and no one fucking condemns it when it's boys having circumcision!

LondonLass91 · 15/12/2023 12:36

SleepingisanArt · 13/12/2023 17:25

I met her once when I was a lowly shop assistant. She was unbelievably rude, referred to me as 'you' (despite visible name badge), and sent me all over the shop fetching things for her - including upstairs because the lift was out of order and she 'obviously' couldnt manage the stairs! No please or thank you.

Oh that's disappointing!

catduckgoose · 16/12/2023 15:20

"What is really happening to women in our society is we are being persuaded to deny the reality of our own existence. We are being persuaded to agree that there is nothing special about being a woman and that a man who is sexually altered may be a woman. And without any history as a woman, without any experience of the oppression that women have to deal with, without any understanding of women's visceral reality, a man who has surgery considers himself entitled to speak on behalf of women and will do and will insist upon being allowed into women-only groups which I regard as typical male behaviour. And I may say that having had death threats from members of transsexual pressure groups, they are just the same as any old male death threats."

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/wwp/about/archive/writers/greergermaine/281198

Writers - Germaine Greer - The Whole Woman

28 November 1998

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/wwp/about/archive/writers/greergermaine/281198

AdamRyan · 17/12/2023 08:56

LondonLass91 · 15/12/2023 12:35

This thread made me look again through The Whole Woman book - isn't this section absolutely heartbreaking..copied below. Makes my skin boil that we perform genital mutilation (on boys and girls)..and no one fucking condemns it when it's boys having circumcision!

I don't know how you can read a brutal paragraph about girls having their criticises removed and come away furious about male foreskins. I don't want to derail this thread but that is some quite severe whataboutery

Floopyfloop · 17/12/2023 09:34

I went to a talk she did in Cardiff when I was studying sociology back in the 90s. She was magnificent and even though I struggle to follow long speeches she was gripping.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 17/12/2023 09:44

SleepingisanArt · 13/12/2023 17:25

I met her once when I was a lowly shop assistant. She was unbelievably rude, referred to me as 'you' (despite visible name badge), and sent me all over the shop fetching things for her - including upstairs because the lift was out of order and she 'obviously' couldnt manage the stairs! No please or thank you.

I saw her being similarly rude to junior staff in the Cambridge University Library once.

She absolutely can be a twat. Someone I knew once who worked with her had a young daughter who was getting into feminism and very much wanted to meet her and she couldn’t decide whether to introduce them or not because Greer might have been absolutely lovely to her but also couldn’t be relied on not to be horrible.

Her work is similarly unpredictable. I have always enjoyed the sense of not knowing if I am going to agree with it or not- there are brilliant insights and things that don’t seem to me to reflect reality at all.