Germaine Greer: She can dish it out but can’t take it.
July 14th 2008 01:21
Germaine Greer: She can dish it out but can’t take it.
Perhaps Germaine Greer does not get or perhaps she has been living in her world of self-righteous sledging so long that she thought that she was untouchable. Having established her messiah like credentials with the angry feminists in a range of books she has tried to keep herself relevant by writing spiteful diatribes at random ideological enemies. Yet unlike a true intellectual discourse Greer relies upon poison pen letter and questionable evidence to make her case. Her own father was described as hypocrite when she discovered that he had changed his name at one stage. Her other enemy was Mother Teresa who oddly enough was alive when she launched her verbal diatribe filled with errors pontificating about how everyone should be judged against her standards. Even Steve Irwin was savaged within days of being killed by a stingray. Rather than offer a calm analysis of his life she delighted in the revenge of the animal kingdom. Even if the accusation had any merit (which it did not) to make such inflammatory statements as his wife and family had just heard of his loss brings the definition of utter nastiness to a new low.
You would expect that someone who prides herself on being one tough arsed bitch would react with some kind of self control if the finger of criticism was ever pointed at her. The old adage of ‘don’t dish out what you cannot take’ should apply a hundred times over for the queen of vitriol and self professed grumpy old woman.
So what is her reaction a new play where she sees an image of herself being satirized?
Anew play opened in London called ‘The Female Species’ where snippets of Greer’s life have been mimicked. In an almost instantaneous tantrum Greer has burst out with one of opinions.
"Murray-Smith is an insane reactionary who boasts that she has not read a single feminist text. She holds feminism in contempt.... They call this a comedy. What actually happened was a tragedy. What are they doing putting this play on in the West End of all places?"
Insane reactionary? A reactionary to what? I thought that communism died out years ago. Greer must be speaking about Greer’s personal ideology where she decided who is a ‘Progressive’ and who is a ‘Reactionary.’ Heaven forbid that anyone falls on to her naughty insane reactionary list because with her current grip on sanity they are such because she says so.
Murray-Smith, who is based in Melbourne, says while her play is "not a character portrait of Greer it does attack aspects of Greer's brand of feminism... There are many fallibilities among the women of Germaine's generation."
Murray-Smith goes onto say that, "I'm sorry she has formed that opinion of me without having met me or read my work.”
Perhaps Greer’s bra burning version of feminism will arise once more to be held up as the pinnacle of liberation. Yet somehow I think that the world has moved on from this ideologically driven dinosaur. Whether Greer knows it or not she has, through her own serial personal attacks, moved herself into a position where she really has not earned the right to complain when it happens to her.
History: Really Long Link
"Only Insane Reactionaries criticize me."
Perhaps Germaine Greer does not get or perhaps she has been living in her world of self-righteous sledging so long that she thought that she was untouchable. Having established her messiah like credentials with the angry feminists in a range of books she has tried to keep herself relevant by writing spiteful diatribes at random ideological enemies. Yet unlike a true intellectual discourse Greer relies upon poison pen letter and questionable evidence to make her case. Her own father was described as hypocrite when she discovered that he had changed his name at one stage. Her other enemy was Mother Teresa who oddly enough was alive when she launched her verbal diatribe filled with errors pontificating about how everyone should be judged against her standards. Even Steve Irwin was savaged within days of being killed by a stingray. Rather than offer a calm analysis of his life she delighted in the revenge of the animal kingdom. Even if the accusation had any merit (which it did not) to make such inflammatory statements as his wife and family had just heard of his loss brings the definition of utter nastiness to a new low.
You would expect that someone who prides herself on being one tough arsed bitch would react with some kind of self control if the finger of criticism was ever pointed at her. The old adage of ‘don’t dish out what you cannot take’ should apply a hundred times over for the queen of vitriol and self professed grumpy old woman.
So what is her reaction a new play where she sees an image of herself being satirized?
Anew play opened in London called ‘The Female Species’ where snippets of Greer’s life have been mimicked. In an almost instantaneous tantrum Greer has burst out with one of opinions.
"Murray-Smith is an insane reactionary who boasts that she has not read a single feminist text. She holds feminism in contempt.... They call this a comedy. What actually happened was a tragedy. What are they doing putting this play on in the West End of all places?"
Insane reactionary? A reactionary to what? I thought that communism died out years ago. Greer must be speaking about Greer’s personal ideology where she decided who is a ‘Progressive’ and who is a ‘Reactionary.’ Heaven forbid that anyone falls on to her naughty insane reactionary list because with her current grip on sanity they are such because she says so.
Murray-Smith, who is based in Melbourne, says while her play is "not a character portrait of Greer it does attack aspects of Greer's brand of feminism... There are many fallibilities among the women of Germaine's generation."
Murray-Smith goes onto say that, "I'm sorry she has formed that opinion of me without having met me or read my work.”
Perhaps Greer’s bra burning version of feminism will arise once more to be held up as the pinnacle of liberation. Yet somehow I think that the world has moved on from this ideologically driven dinosaur. Whether Greer knows it or not she has, through her own serial personal attacks, moved herself into a position where she really has not earned the right to complain when it happens to her.
History: Really Long Link
| 174 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
A Global Citizen
Paranormal Paranormal
Is Why
Alaska Chronicle
What foul, dry, stench is emanating from that area wherein normally a heart driven tongue would reside, or in some humorless karmic way, a womb now forever voided. Let us pray.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Or as Orwell would say: "By the time you are 50 you will have the face you deserve."
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
A Global Citizen
Paranormal Paranormal
Is Why
Alaska Chronicle
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
A Global Citizen
Paranormal Paranormal
Is Why
Alaska Chronicle
Comment by Norm
Consumption Malfunction
Equal and Opposite
Arses and Elbows
Footy Power
I know her friends call her Germs, so I'd not have what she dished out, anyway.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
I never thought of that.
Perhaps my title is too ambiguous.
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art
Made up, she really is STILL a very sexy, good looking lady, that is if the word lady could truly be applied to her.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder isn't it. Some may say that she has a look of serenity and peace with herself but other may say she looks like and angry old cow. To the eye what matters is what it wants to see.
Take on Greer? No in this life. I am going to follow her example and wait until she croaks then as her family is still reeling from the shock I will pour vitriolic scorn upon her memory.
Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
I say bag the old bag. She's setting feminism back years. Women are equal to men without having to resort to bitchiness and trashing others' reputations.
she looks and sound like a pitt bull.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
I totally agree with you on the Irwin thing. It takes courage to attacked the living but absolutely none to attack them when they have no right of reply.
I think that the play could be seen as Karma.
The other Karma is her looks.
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
STILL implies that she was at one stage a very sexy, good looking lady. Nup. Sorry.
Greer is a scary woman - to the point that even feminists are afraid of her.
Poetry!!!
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
From my observations of Greer she does not seem to like any form of direct engagement. Television sound bites or one sided written diatribes maybe.
Her stint on Big Brother England lasted until she decided to walk out crying victim.
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
The very fact that she agreed to do the show shows how far she has fallen in most people's estimation, surely!!
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
She has her fans just like many of the other 70's self appointed gurus that no one can remember.
If you want to know who is a has been just look at any celebrity based television program.
What Tiny Tim was to music she is to literature. A forgotten remnant of an era that no longer exists.
Comment by Mrs M
Mum's Word
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
It seems like a common theme with her.
Everyone but her is an idiot deserving of no mercy and no empathy. It seems rather ironic that she is being subjected to the generational mocking that she became so synonymous with in the 1970's.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments
If America has not heard of her then America is that much the richer. She is what you can the angry man hating feminist. She migrated to England years ago and Australia was much richer for it.
Comment by Geoff Egan
Cinema XYZ
Noise Fanatic
I have a great deal of respect for feminist theory, but when things are said like 'missiles and guns barrels are purposely built like that to represent penises' I begin to get annoyed. Go and design a missile shaped like a vagina and we'll see how aerodynamic it his hey?
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
More apropos than you know. George Harrison said Tiny Tim was "a gas", hahahahahaaaaahhhh!
I've heard of her. She wrote a book called "The Female Eunuch" when I was around 7 or 8 years old. My Mum, an independent and educated woman, threw it away and said it was "too biased to offer anything of value."
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
Greer is a pet annoyance for a lot of people. Some may even suggest that she is a cynical career controversialist who only attacks soft targets that either don't hit back or can't because they are dead.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I think you will find that The Female Eunuch is over 40 years old. Back when radical feminists were angry, loud, man haters or they were ignored by the media.
Greer has been known to attack people looks in the past then fling up the defense that "I a man is aggressive it is ok but if a woman does it she is a bitch."
Comment by Mrs M
Mum's Word
You've got one smart mum D.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I think that she has succeeded in selling on shock value what we would never accept when explained in a calmer manner. How to hate.
Comment by Sheree
Cliche Murder
I like what you've done with the place.
Ahh good ol' Greersies. I think the associated fame that comes with being controversial has gotten to her head.
Now Bob Ellis, he's a legend who kept a low profile. But did you know they were classmates at Syd uni? Fascinating!
Cheers.
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
I redecorated. The old blue smear needed a coat of paint.
I am so glad that she does not read blogs are you may face the 'Wrath of Greer.' I just find it amusing how thin skinned she actually is. The one way sledging sort of seems cruel in her world only if it against her.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
I think that was drummed into my head when I was a kid. "All those you knifed in the back on your way up are going to be waiting for you on the way down again."
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Damo, luv...I'm over 40. I remember when the book came out...
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
"The Female Eunuch is a book, first published in 1970."
There you go it is 38 years old.
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Like most things in this world - there is a use by date . . . and guess what?
Nice piece
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments
I think that Greer has pissed off to many people for anyone to have any sympathy left for her. Back in 1970 Charles Manson was still cool, The Uni Bomber was only doing what all wanted to do and Greer was just another finger nail down the black board of history.
Now it is the future and she belongs in a museum.
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Not twenty something. You carry on as if that is something to aspire to.
Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
I jumped on her bandwagon when I was about 14....With the mother I had, it was all "YAY Greer!" and "Go Feminisim!" but then. You Know. You grow up. It is Greer that caused me to fear all feminists, and love men indiscriminatly.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Thanks for your comments.
Greer is a professional controversialist.
She has a brand of feminism that is extremely narrow because it was lifted almost directly from Trotskyism.
(Sorry I just bored myself again and forget I mentioned that name.)
However no side of politics, ideology or religion has a monopoly on being nasty. I just found it amuzing that sometimes the nastiest people on the planet cry foul when it turns back on them.