Great Germaine Greer Documentary

Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
It was great TV but inevitably hagiographic.

She has come out with some proper nonsense over the years amongst the good stuff. At times she resembles those old man controversialists you get in the Daily Mail or Spiked.

Still, I'd rather see a tonne more flawed documentaries about feminists than the usual BBC4 muso talking heads you get on a Friday night. :)

It was great just watching her in her everyday life being irascible and grumpy.
 
sufi

sufi

lala
I was glad to see the Colin Tudge book on her shelf, i wasn't sure whether she was or not
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
meh. feminism is for privileged white women and literature professors. we brown middle easterners have had no real stake in it outside of so-called intersectionalism. pass me the sick bucket.
 
T

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
we pretend to hate men even tho that doesnt apply to our boyfriends and heavens forbid you try and explain that a white woman has more power dynamics over a brown or black woman than a poc man

and sex class analysis is pseudoscience.

Conveniently they also turn a blind eye to disability cos you know it doesn't fit into their biological essentialism.
 
Last edited:
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
Closer to home some friends recently published this:

black women org jpg.jpg

Which is cool. My copy is due to go to the charity shop now but I can send it on to you if you like @thirdform
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
those Jacobin podcasts look great, thanks for flagging that up John

Re Germaine Greer, definitely interested to watch the documentary. I know little about her, so unclear if she has changed over recent years, or whether a particular brand of controversialism has always been her modus operandi.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/30/germaine-greer-calls-for-punishment-for-to-be-reduced This seems to me like Ken Livingstone levels of unthinking controversialism, coyly acknowledging that it might, y'know, upset some people. Juxtaposing some points that are very relevant - the inability of the present legal system to deal with allegations of rape, for example - with things like this:

She suggested that a fitting sentence for (rape) might be 200 hours’ community service and perhaps an “r” tattoo on the rapist’s hand, arm or cheek.

She questioned a statistic which said that 70% of rape victims had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder compared with 20% of conflict veterans. “What the hell are you saying? Something that leaves no sign, no injury, no nothing is more damaging to a woman than seeing your best friend blown up by an IED is to a veteran?”

The whole point of this seems only to be to get people talking about Germaine Greer and...shit, I've fallen for it.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
She questioned a statistic which said that 70% of rape victims had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder compared with 20% of conflict veterans. “What the hell are you saying? Something that leaves no sign, no injury, no nothing is more damaging to a woman than seeing your best friend blown up by an IED is to a veteran?”

The whole point of this seems only to be to get people talking about Germaine Greer and...shit, I've fallen for it.
Click to expand...

i think in fairness to her - she was actually raped herself. AND i think her comments come from a place of not wishing to be psychologically defeated by men. ALSO the context of her argument is the fact that so many rape prosecutions never result in a conviction - her argument being let's make it easier for courts to pass judgement by packaging that with what *she sees* as more realistic sentencing.

it doesn't seem SO unreasonable.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Greer's comment on rape were indefensible, more worthy of a right wing provocateur than a feminist. Her position on trans rights are similar. I saw that documentary when it was on and couldn't help but think that her predilection for controversy has long since overridden the fierce intellectual brilliance and razor wit that formed her reputation.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Matthew said:
i think in fairness to her - she was actually raped herself. AND i think her comments come from a place of not wishing to be psychologically defeated by men. ALSO the context of her argument is the fact that so many rape prosecutions never result in a conviction - her argument being let's make it easier for courts to pass judgement by packaging that with what *she sees* as more realistic sentencing.

it doesn't seem SO unreasonable.
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right - she says in that article (I think) that she was raped when she was 18. But lots of people have undergone horrendous things, and end up having positions on those things that are indefensible.

I can understand some of the logic of what leads up to her declarations, but the declarations themselves are bonkers. The comment about PTSD also is woeful for so many reasons.

I do think you're right that she wants not to be psychologically defeated by men. That can't be achieved by pretending that rape isn't a big deal, and leaves 'no injury'.
 
Last edited:
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I watched half the documentary yesterday and I liked it. I liked her for the most part. But it's difficult to go on liking her 2018 self that much when you know everything that she's said.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Thanks Benny. I think that's interesting - expanding on the useful points GG made, without lapsing into needless controversialism
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top