Greer also draws a bizarre distinction between violent and non-violent rape, which demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of sexual assault. The non-consensual penetration of a human body is an inherently violent violation. When trivialisation and disbelief lie at the heart of a rape culture , attitudes that can be traced right back to the Bible, see Judges Levite and his wife where a woman is gang raped and cut up into pieces , the impact of comments such as these from those who identify as feminists cannot be underestimated.
They provide a platform to the myths that create environments where sex crimes become normalised. Non-consensual sex is common. One will be triumphant, sated or vindicated, and the other ashamed, diminished and angry.
Or pregnant or infected. Is Greer right to distinguish between rapes that involve penetration against our will and a violent hatred of women by violent men?
Yes, I believe she is. What is wrong is the clumsy nature of our courts. Having read The Secret Barrister , I am convinced that the adversarial system is the wrong one to give justice to violated women and girls. Jacqueline Darby Twickenham, Middlesex. She wrote a book a long time ago. Her comments and attitudes have often been a source of embarrassment, which I believe lack depth of understanding or feminist analysis, and these latest statements are so crass and ridiculous as to make it a matter of debate whether she can really even be called a feminist.
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and public intellectual who rose to international influence with her book published in , The Female Eunuch. It was a watershed text in second wave feminism, a bestseller around the world, and it made Greer a household name.
Her strong character and take no prisoners approach to public debate saw her regularly contribute to panels and broadcast media. Greer was launched into the public eye as a young, bolshie feminist star. Since then, Greer has written many books spanning literature, feminism and the environment. Almost five decades on, we take a look at her contributions to feminist philosophy. Greer is a liberation, rather than equality feminist. Greer wanted to be certain about this female difference, and for her, this certainty started with the body.
She claimed it kept women docile, repressed, and weak. Only by liberating women sexually could they remove this imposed submissiveness and embrace the freedom to live the way they wanted. Freedom to run, shout, talk loudly and sit with your knees apart. More than anything else, she should be viewed as a utopian.
Is it relevant that some women fantasise about being raped? The answer is no, because in such fantasies, unlike in real-life rape, a woman is in control. Why is the criminal justice process of reporting a rape so traumatic for victims? Greer articulates the reality that a victim becomes not a party to the proceedings but a piece of evidence — submitting their integrity for interrogation. This is often just as — or more — traumatic than the rape itself.
When they meet with casual brutality they are deeply humiliated and traumatised. Yes, there is no shortage of examples of this depressing state of affairs. There are so many examples of this ilk, that only the most extreme, or those where the accused is a celebrity, trigger any wider interest. But this does not amount to the conclusion that men and women are incapable of having consensual and enjoyable sexual encounters. The problems Greer identifies are fostered and nurtured by culture — a culture that currently pornifies us all more, and invites us to explore substance and intimacy less.
These are ideas that we as a society have created, with little attempt to re-educate ourselves as to just how wrong, and consequential, they are. There is nothing inevitable about that. Just as we have perpetrated this culture, so we are capable of changing it, too. Ask someone at random to name a feminist, and the likely answer will be Germaine Greer. Maybe Betty Friedan. Possibly bell hooks.
But probably Greer.
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