 Who's
afraid of Germaine Greer?
April 20, 2001
"A
feminist is one who identifies herself as a woman before she identifies
herself as belonging to any race or colour or creed or class." -
Germaine Greer
By
Kwok Kar Peng
Oh
where will women be now if not for the feminist movement of the
70s?
Being
a Gen Y woman and oblivious to the substandard treatment women were
subjected to prior to the movement, I have taken my life as a woman
for granted.
 Hey,
aside from some grumbles, we are quite cool and comfortable right?
But
a feminist doesn't think so. She's angry again.
At
this time and age, most people would shudder in embarrassment at
the word 'feminist', or worse, being labeled as one.
Notions
of an angry, man-bashing and humourless shrew immediately comes
to mind.
Not
Germaine Greer.
For
one, she sympathizes with men. And she's got humour.
Who is she? Different reports give conflicting and complex versions
of this woman.
In
some, she is hailed as a feminist icon ever since her first book
The Female Eunuch was published in 1970. The book reportedly is
extremely well written and argued, and besides changing the lives
of little women around the world, it also converted the basic thinking
of the other sex.
With
her latest book The Whole Woman, sequel to The Female Eunuch, Germaine
complains that the liberation struggle is not over and it's time
'to be angry again'.
Another
report isn't so kind.
She
is portrayed as a bitter, self-centered old woman who becomes a
victim of her own sexual liberties advocated in The Female Eunuch.
The
book is now viewed to be lacking in any 'sustained idea or vision'
and it's 'all over the place, impulsive and fatally naïve'. In the
sequel, she is further accused of writing about herself, rather
than about women.
A
revolutionary feminist or a bitch? What is this new wave of feminism
about? Find out for yourselves.
Catch
Germaine on Channel NewsAsia's In Conversation with host Channel
NewsAsia's Shankar Aiyar next Wednesday April 25, at 8pm.
Following
that, pose all your questions directly to her in a web chat from
8.30pm onwards at Channel
NewsAsia website.
She
will also speak at the Singapore
Advertising Lecture 2001 at The Oriental Singapore Ball
Room on Thursday April 26 from 6-10pm. MediaCorp TV is the official
media sponsor for the prestigious lecture.
Air
your frustrations, disagreements, and questions and find out why
Germaine Greer is without doubt, one of the most controversial and
respected women in our time.
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Germaine Greer: The Author… The Woman
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Germaine Greer on Feminism and War
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Germaine Greer
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