To What Extent Does History Present a Balanced Interpretation of Your Personality?
Essay Preview: To What Extent Does History Present a Balanced Interpretation of Your Personality?
Report this essay
To what extent does history present a balanced interpretation of your personality?
Germaine Greer is a highly opinionated and controversial feminist whose ideas and theories have divided critics over the decades. She first gained infamy with the release of her first and groundbreaking book The Female Eunuch in 1970 – she was turned almost overnight into an international success and a household name, bringing her both adoration and criticism. Former British MP Edwina Currie has called her “a great big hard-boiled prat” , while others such as New York novelist Bruce Benderson have a markedly different take on the matter; “Her job is that of an artist, to reveal as clearly as possible what exists in nature and society, but not to take advantage of it” . This essay hopes to outline her place in modern history and to determine the accuracy with which she is portrayed. This essay will conclude that history does indeed present a balanced interpretation of Greer – although critics maintain division on her ideas, her place in history is neither guaranteed nor obvious. History cannot judge someone who is still publishing books based on contradictory themes and ideas. She seems to be unable to illicit contentious comment, but history will hopefully eventually judge her as someone who contributed to the modern furtherance of the emancipation of women.
Greer is certainly not someone who espouses indifference – people are either for or against. One is unlikely to remain indecisive about her, she has always been one to shock and is perhaps one of the first women to make controversy a career choice. Greer is either one of two things; an intellectual feminist who nobly breaks outmoded social dictates, or a woman with little relevance who might be ignored. Historians continue to remain divided about her, but for Greer, breaking social taboo is simply part of her persona. Her latest book did nothing in her favour – it furthers her contentious position in the eyes of many. The Beautiful Boy ¬ contained hundreds of photos of naked and semi-naked boys, and critics stampeded to either attack or defend her actions. Greer intended the book to be an “appreciation of the short lived beauty of boys,” but recently acknowledged that some will read it and call her a paedophile; “Its going to get me into a lot of trouble.”
For many historians, her shock tactics have become predictable. Miranda Devine, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, said Greer provokes controversy as a marketing ploy, using the “cheapest trick” to do so, breaking taboo. In her scathing critique of the book, Devine wrote, “If theres a taboo left, shell break it. And since one of the few remaining taboos in Western liberal democracies is paedophilia, thats the area shes most recently entered. The taboo against paedophilia is nothing to her.” William Feaver shares this view, writing for The Age, “Germaine Greer is a big name with a big mouth.”
In Greers second book, Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, published in 1984, Greer attacks Western attitudes towards sexuality, fertility, and family. She argues that the world is over-populated only by Western standards of comfortable living and of poverty in preference to consumerism. She wrote that female genital mutilation has to be considered in context, and could be compared with breast augmentation in the West. The book consequently gained a great deal of criticism. Pam Bone wrote in The Australian, “Consider this: a struggling screaming little girl is held down by several people (usually women) while another woman cuts through her clitoris and inner labia, with the intention of ensuring this girl will never experience sexual pleasure; and the worlds most famous feministcan compare this practice to adult women choosing, for whatever silly reason, to decorate their sexual parts with metal”.
Greer shows no sign of ceasing: in 2001 she attracted publicity for her criticism of Australians as “too relaxed to give a damn” and mocked her native country as being “defined by suburban mediocrity.” In September 2006 she wrote a column in The Guardian about the death of Steve Irwin; “The animal world has finally taken its revenge on IrwinI really found the whole phenomenon embarrassing and Im not the only person who did”.
However, Greers relevance in history cannot be disregarded by her brave indifference to conflict and of raising difficult issues, because without her there would be a lesser climate for change. She has continued to break down barriers, attacking the social conditioning of women in which the roles and rules taught from childhood to “feminise” them also deform and subjugate them. Her first book, The Female Eunuch, examined the womens movement in the United States and Britain, concluding that emancipation cannot be achieved by women merely adopting male roles or by economic change. Greer also rallied against the possibility of womens self-determination within the nuclear family.
She mostly employs two main themes – her belief that the suburban and isolated nuclear family is both constraining for women and an undesirable environment in which to bring up children, and her intense dislike to the Western industrialised society and the resulting confined sexuality. She employed the most elemental shock tactic of nudity long before Madonna ever did, and has written about her own experiences of lesbian sex, rape, abortion, failed marriage and menopause. Writes Stephanie Merritt for The Guardian, “In part, her ability