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| Down Under |
| Germaine Greer: Still Alive, Obnoxious, Shrill, and Hypocritical |
| 2006-03-08 |
| GERMAINE Greer wants Australian women to be more outspoken, reject bad female role models, take control of their future and demonstrate modern feminism through pacifism, socialism and environmentalism. And while they're at it, Australian women should also trash Holden dealerships in protest over the company's new ad campaign. Departing from her planned speaking points at an International Women's Day lunch on the Gold Coast, the expatriate Australian author and academic launched a wide-ranging tirade against all things anti-woman, including some of the world's most well-known women and elements of the feminist movement itself. Greer became one the standard bearers for the feminist movement with the 1970 publication of her book The Female Eunuch. Officially retired, she lives in Britain. Greer, who would like to "shoot" 4WD drivers, began her speech by attacking Holden over ads for the new Rodeo ute, in which a woman asks a man what his ultimate fantasy is, only to have him imagine driving off-road with a younger, slimmer and "entirely servile" woman. "My question to you women is, why have you allowed this to happen?" Greer said. "Why haven't plate-glass windows on Holden showrooms been exploding all over Australia? How much humiliation are you up for? I promise you, they wouldn't dare do it in Europe. They would not dare." Greer, who said Holden would have based the ad on market research, said it demonstrated the problem of Australians, regardless of sex, not speaking out. "Australians are naturally egalitarian, direct, honest, not eaten out by envy, but lazy and too slow to anger," Greer told a crowd of 300 women at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. "Please get annoyed about this (Holden ad) because it shames us all." A Holden spokesman last night said the ad had been tested among several groups, including women, and the company had not sought to humiliate anyone. Greer also appeared to have departed from her pledge in 2000 not to set foot on Australian soil until traditional Aboriginal owners allowed her in. Gold Coast Native Title Group committee member Wesley Aird said Greer had not contacted his group to seek permission to enter its land. In her speech, Greer criticised some women in leadership roles, saying feminists would have a bittersweet victory if the next US president was female: Condoleezza Rice's best asset was her relationship with George W. Bush, while Hillary Clinton's was her marriage to Bill Clinton. She said government leaders should not have to "lug along a receptive female" as proof of their manliness and women should not let them, particularly British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie, whose public appearances made her look hideous and demented and led her to be hated by the British public. "Here we have our own dear Prime Minister - this big man inside a tiny man struggling to get out - who's been walking around India with his elbows out, just to prove he's really big; 'I really am a silverback, I might look like a chimp, but I am really a silverback'," Greer told the lunch. "And there is his wife (Janette Howard), following on in case he should be overcome with conjugal passion. He might need her right there, you know, within six feet: 'Come here my dear'." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 Thank you so very much for the substantiating link, Desert Blondie. I owe you one, big time. Now please pardon me while I go puke. It is almost impossible to imagine a deeper betrayal of one's own gender. Greer and her irrational liberal ilk are exactly why the democratic party is rightfully foundering. However misguided (Christian) fundamentalist morality can be at times, it much less frequently assumes such a completely insane and hypocritical stance. Greer is unworthy of any more media coverage. This sort of betrayal should pre-empt all further right to air time. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-08 21:48 |
| #5 Zenster, she's gone beyond that. Apparently the dumb broad (yeah, I know....but I'm a chick, so I can call her that...) actually thinks that women would choose to do that. Not that she would actually give it a go herself, considering how it's usually done (piece of glass, no anesthesia, no medically trained personnel and no sanitary procedures followed). But it's perfectly ok for little brown and black women, however. It's part of their "culture", after all. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-03-08 21:36 |
| #4 According to "The Adversary Culture" (The perverse anti-Westernism of the cultural elite) by Keith Windschuttle, Ms. Greer is having quite the bout of cognitive dissonance. Feminists once denounced the surgical removal of the clitoris of Muslim women as female genital mutilation. Lately, the procedure has been redefined as genital “cutting”, which the literary and art critic Germaine Greer now argues should be recognized as an authentic manifestation of the culture of the Muslim women concerned. With all due respect, it is difficult to find a direct quote of hers to substantiate this, but it is entirely symptomatic of the moral relativism so beloved by irrational liberals. To be sure my search did not turn up any repudiation by her regarding this. Ergo, I'd write this paticular person off as entirely useless to the cause of intelligent life on earth. http://www.sydneyline.com/Adversary%20Culture.htm |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-08 21:12 |
| #3 Wonder if she's ever tried getting laid. She might calm down a bit. I don't think the female/female thing works the same way though. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2006-03-08 20:34 |
| #2 She's right about HRC, but boy does she miss the mark on Condi Rice. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-03-08 19:03 |
| #1 Sounds like the ravings of a very bitter woman who has been left behind by people who want to go forward with their lives and relationships. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2006-03-08 18:38 |