The #1970 Club: Germaine Greer and The Female Eunuch

Thanks to the #1970 Club, I’ve spent the spare moments of the past week immersed in The Female Eunuch and all things Germaine (rock groupie, celebrity, author, Shakespearian scholar, wrecking ball, rainforest protector, fearless truth-teller) Greer. I borrowed the book from the library, got stuck in, and then started on the videos of talks, interviews, appearances via YouTube. 

Not being based in the UK, I had missed her frequent appearances on British TV in talks, debates, game shows and entertainment high and low.  It’s clear that Greer – now retired in a care home in Castlemaine, north of Melbourne – became  a cross between a force of nature, a pariah, and an international treasure. 

The Female Eunuch was a phenomenon. It sold millions of copies and catapulted Greer into media stardom through the sheer force of her personality. She was a public intellectual with a talent for commanding attention.

It may be that the thing that most annoys people about Greer is – that after her meteoric burst of fame – she didn’t go away. She kept on talking –  in public. The woman just wouldn’t shut up. That means that everyone has something they disagree with Greer about although I’ve not followed her career closely enough to have my own objections. For me she remains the daredevil intellect who wrote a landmark book; the glamorous wit who demolished Norman Mailer in raucous debate on stage in NY;  and the fearless truth-teller who told a fatuous and relentless BBC interviewer “I don’t care”. 

Smashing the Patriarchy and S.C.U.M.

When The Female Eunuch first came out, everyone seemed to have an opinion—even if they hadn’t read it. I remember buying the paperback and not being particularly impressed.

I understood why it stirred so much discussion, but I didn’t feel it spoke to me. I had no intention of becoming a wife let alone a housewife and I already saw myself as rejecting sexist stereotypes. The passed-around, stapled-together, mimeographed copy of Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto, was more fun.

Of course, Greer was right about sexism, stereotypes, violence, and the ways that language, conditioning, and social conventions constrained women. She was also right that simply striving for equality wasn’t enough—why settle for the dismal status quo?

Back then, some of us really believed we could change the world for the better. 

Freedom

Greer of circa 1970 wanted freedom: 

“Freedom to be a person, with the dignity, integrity, nobility, passion, and pride that constitute personhood. Freedom to run, shout, to talk loudly and sit with your knees apart.” 

The consumerist suburban nuclear family was deadly. It repressed and devitalized women and was no good for men either. 

“The first significant discovery we shall make as we racket along our female road to freedom is that men are not free, and they will seek to make this an argument why nobody should be free.”

She wanted a new society, one in which women run their lives, set their  agenda, and make their own unconstrained  choices.

Reading it now, some parts still resonate. Her insights into the way girls are conditioned, consumerism, misogyny, and the reality of male violence hold up. 

Women have no idea how much men hate them

The 1970s were a decade of real significant legal gains for women in the UK and the US, yet – fifty-four years after the book’s release – it’s rational to ask: How much has actually changed for women? 

Greer  wrote: “Women have no idea how much men hate them”.

That insight feels as relevant as ever as we see women’s sex based rights being eroded and rolled back. No more so than in Greer’s native Australia.  Reading it now, much of it still resonates. 

What better example than the Paris Olympics? Men have been violent toward women forever, but not until this summer has a man been awarded a gold medal for punching a woman in the face.

On Screen

So many interesting videos and clips of Greer over the decades. From interviewing Led Zeppelin to wiping the intellectual floor with a hapless William F. Buckley Jr..and all the other talk show hosts who tried to take her on and found themselves subject to her wicked sense of humor, playful wit, eye-rolling, and – if they allowed – her erudition and fearless raw honesty.

Here’s a sampling of what I found:

#1 Germaine Greer brings feminism to Australia (1972)

Best part for me is the interview with girls at Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School.  The book is in the library, these girls have read it, and they have opinions: 

#2 Town Bloody Hall: “The Role of Goddess Exists in the Fantasy of the Male Artist.” 

In March 1971, Norman Mailer, the author then at the height of his fame, published “The “Prisoner of Sex” in Harper’s . It was his response to Kate Millet who in Sexual Politics (1970) had taken Miller and other male writers to task for their misogyny. .

Mailer wanted to debate Millet  but she turned him down.  A debate did happen that April with Mailer and four women including Greer who was on tour to promote the American publication of her book. You can watch the whole raucous  and rowdy event here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qu-JsKV52w. It includes Cynthia Ozick asking Mailer – who had once said he dipped his balls in ink – what was the color of the ink. He had a good comeback.

This is Greer’s speech:

In a 2004 interview that you can watch here  – Town Bloody Hall Mailer – explains his obliviousness to the intensity of the women’s liberation movement: “I was doing everything they wanted me to do to fulfill the notion of the male gender being assertive, aggressive, stupid, and oppressive. It wasn’t my brightest night.” As for the event itself, he says participant Jill Johnston turned his hair gray that night. Greer also appears with her reflections on the event. 

#3  Town Bloody Hall: NYTimes Book editor gets his comeuppance

Among the audience members were writers Susan Sontag, Elizabeth Hardwick, John Hollander, Cynthia Ozick, Betty Friedan, Gregory Corso, and Anatole Broyard, book critic and editor at the NYTimes. At the end of the evening, Broyard tries to trip her up with a clever question and is thoroughly put down to he roar of the crowd:

#4 Germaine Bloody Greer – Documentary

This video is age-restricted because of some very brief nudity. But you can watch it on YouTube.

#5 Jeremy Isaacs 1995 interview with Germaine Greer

#6 On the Need to Speak to Muslim Fundamentalists

And finally: #7 “I don’t care”

Germaine Greer – a one-of-a-kind brilliant woman unafraid to speak the truth. Fierce, unapologetic with bracing raw honesty and devastating wit.

She wrote a book we’re still talking about and that presents ideas we are still wrestling with. She deserves the last word.