Germaine Greer: Will She Ever Just Go Away?
August 13th 2008 23:11
Germaine Greer. What can you say about Germaine Greer? The woman is a professional bear-baiter. Every month or two, she pops out of her self-imposed exile to pop off a ridiculous statement that is certain to offend or enrage a certain sector of Australian society. Her comments on Steve Irwin are perhaps some of her most well-noted. Germaine Greer has severe problems keeping her verbal vomit in check and up until then people were mostly able to write it off to a dissatisfied old woman. But there are limits and to many Steve Irwin was an icon, and speaking ill of a dead icon in the hours after his death is just not on by any standards. That was strike one for the original Female Eunuch.
Second strike and next in her sights was Princess Diana. How can Germaine out-do herself when it came to claiming Australians felt Steve Irwin was an embarrassment? Well, by referring in the British press to Diana as a “devious moron”, “desperate”, “disturbingly neurotic” and “guileless”. Ten years may have passed since Diana’s death, but emotions about her and her death still run high amongst the world’s population. Germaine made a mistake when she assaulted the memory of a woman that many consider the closest thing to an earthbound angel.
So, what will strike three be? Who knows but today she has made another attempt at bear-baiting. What has she done this time? She’s compared the Australian Government to Nazi’s. Yes. Nazi’s. It always is a bit of a shock when someone invokes the memory of the Holocaust to describe a contemporary government, and it’s quite ironic that it’s always Western nations that bear the brunt of Nazi comparison and not the genocidal countries that truly deserve it. It’s typical of Germaine Greer’s brand of outlandish attack to invoke the image of the Nazi’s when talking about her long-abandoned home country. Why are we Nazi’s? Aboriginal relations.
Ahhh, that old story. She does have a point that our relations with Aboriginals have not been stellar, historically speaking. When British settlers first arrived here there was confusion and in typical colonial style there was bloodshed. And many point to the Stolen Generation as a source of brutal cultural destruction. Or, if you’re Germaine Greer, the story goes a little bit like this:
“In my worst moments I think that we might be way too late. They have been jerked from pillar to post ... they've ended up in one concentration camp after another."
What Greer is referring to is the Stolen Generation morphing into our generations Northern Territory Intervention. You know? The Intervention supported by both sides of parliament? The Intervention that was asked for by Aboriginal community elders to help stem the flow of substance abuse, violence and child sexual assault going on in remote communities? Ah yes. But Germaine Greer knows best. She says that this Intervention is yet another “concentration camp”. Say what you will, she has a flair for the dramatic.
Greer goes onto say that the Aboriginal people need an outlet through which to vent their hundreds of year’s worth of pent up rage and aggression. I’m glad we have Germaine to be outraged on behalf of Aboriginal communities. The problem with Germaine Greer is that she is a divisive character. She isn’t committed to bringing people together. What she’s committed to is setting the cat amongst the pigeons and watching the fur and feathers fly. I don’t think Germaine Greer would be truly happy if the White Australian and Aboriginal Australian communities were ever completely reconciled. And so she strives to drive a wedge between the two groups and poison the relationship with rage and scorn. Germaine Greer is a counter-productive figure in this genuine discussion about the role of Aboriginal communities in modern Australia. Greer is the type of person who waits until a lull to remind people about the horrors of the past. In doing so, she grabs the kerosene and sets the situation on fire.
Germaine Greer is a genuinely poisonous woman. She was relevant once upon a time and yet she hangs on for dear life by chiming in on issues in a way that only serves to inflame them. If she truly wanted to help, she would be far more responsible in the things she says and the actions she takes. She’s a smart woman, she knows what impact her words have before she says them and she chooses her words very carefully. Germaine Greer is a professional antagonist. It’s what she does for a living.
She’s already exiled herself to the UK. Maybe she should exile her opinions there too.
Second strike and next in her sights was Princess Diana. How can Germaine out-do herself when it came to claiming Australians felt Steve Irwin was an embarrassment? Well, by referring in the British press to Diana as a “devious moron”, “desperate”, “disturbingly neurotic” and “guileless”. Ten years may have passed since Diana’s death, but emotions about her and her death still run high amongst the world’s population. Germaine made a mistake when she assaulted the memory of a woman that many consider the closest thing to an earthbound angel.
So, what will strike three be? Who knows but today she has made another attempt at bear-baiting. What has she done this time? She’s compared the Australian Government to Nazi’s. Yes. Nazi’s. It always is a bit of a shock when someone invokes the memory of the Holocaust to describe a contemporary government, and it’s quite ironic that it’s always Western nations that bear the brunt of Nazi comparison and not the genocidal countries that truly deserve it. It’s typical of Germaine Greer’s brand of outlandish attack to invoke the image of the Nazi’s when talking about her long-abandoned home country. Why are we Nazi’s? Aboriginal relations.
Ahhh, that old story. She does have a point that our relations with Aboriginals have not been stellar, historically speaking. When British settlers first arrived here there was confusion and in typical colonial style there was bloodshed. And many point to the Stolen Generation as a source of brutal cultural destruction. Or, if you’re Germaine Greer, the story goes a little bit like this:
“In my worst moments I think that we might be way too late. They have been jerked from pillar to post ... they've ended up in one concentration camp after another."
What Greer is referring to is the Stolen Generation morphing into our generations Northern Territory Intervention. You know? The Intervention supported by both sides of parliament? The Intervention that was asked for by Aboriginal community elders to help stem the flow of substance abuse, violence and child sexual assault going on in remote communities? Ah yes. But Germaine Greer knows best. She says that this Intervention is yet another “concentration camp”. Say what you will, she has a flair for the dramatic.
Greer goes onto say that the Aboriginal people need an outlet through which to vent their hundreds of year’s worth of pent up rage and aggression. I’m glad we have Germaine to be outraged on behalf of Aboriginal communities. The problem with Germaine Greer is that she is a divisive character. She isn’t committed to bringing people together. What she’s committed to is setting the cat amongst the pigeons and watching the fur and feathers fly. I don’t think Germaine Greer would be truly happy if the White Australian and Aboriginal Australian communities were ever completely reconciled. And so she strives to drive a wedge between the two groups and poison the relationship with rage and scorn. Germaine Greer is a counter-productive figure in this genuine discussion about the role of Aboriginal communities in modern Australia. Greer is the type of person who waits until a lull to remind people about the horrors of the past. In doing so, she grabs the kerosene and sets the situation on fire.
Germaine Greer is a genuinely poisonous woman. She was relevant once upon a time and yet she hangs on for dear life by chiming in on issues in a way that only serves to inflame them. If she truly wanted to help, she would be far more responsible in the things she says and the actions she takes. She’s a smart woman, she knows what impact her words have before she says them and she chooses her words very carefully. Germaine Greer is a professional antagonist. It’s what she does for a living.
She’s already exiled herself to the UK. Maybe she should exile her opinions there too.
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Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I was about to write about the same thing after seeing Greer interviewed on Lateline last night. Where might I add she made a complete fool of herself by resorting to fillabusting and emotional rhetoric rather than answering criticisms.
Greer scored strikes on my board long ago.
The biggest being her hatchet job on Mother Teresa (which was filled with speculations, fictions and errors)
Her Steve Urwin poison remembrance, Australians and just about anyone else she sees as an easy score. However like all coward she gets irate when the same treatment is handed to her.
I found her latest attempts at seeking attention to be a blatant attempt to stir up racial hatred. That is what I found very disturbing and no amount of calling it 'a pathology examination' make her motives seem less pathological.
Ever patronizing and emotive but rarely on subject she tries her best to find weak minorities to exploit for her own agenda. Which I can only see as destructive.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
For her to dedicate the essay to the Memory of Mum Shirl is an insult to Mum Shirl who apposed almost all of her views.