Comments on: Crikey! Germaine Greer Again Angers Australia

By: Michaela

Michaela — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:45:36 +0000

Thank you for the link Jovan… and thank you Kim for the refreshing review. I agree that the seemingly constant attack on Greer’s work, in Australia, reveals something of aspects of Australian culture. I do wonder how much this rejection/attack on Greer is linked to her being a “controversial” figure (unaustralian because she does not reside here and therefore should not comment on australian affairs) and how much could be attributed to her feminist work/celebrity. I have found increasingly that feminist perspectives are considered unrealistic, unfeminine… I recall a number of seminars where fellow students of anthropology quickly dismissed any feminist framework as unrealistic in the “real world”. I would be intrigued if anyone could share any knowledge of studies related to this… feminist studies/theories and generally anything to do with a focus on the female gender is not considered truly academic in Australia on the whole – to the extent that acknowledging/considering motherhood as a significantly different experience to fatherhood is considered to be a broad assumption by some… and any hints of a feminist direction in an anth. thesis is considered uninteresting as one lecturer put in (but I must say this is not the commonly held perspective, but perhaps the one I seem to come across most frequently) I digress… again thank you Kim, I am pleased to have read your review and shall keep an eye on larvatusprodeo hence forth…

By: \david

\david — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:14:12 +0000

l went to melbourne

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:57:05 +0000

I’ve read the book and published a review here, if anyone’s interested:

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/08/21/on-rage-germaine-greer-reviewed/

By: Jovan

Jovan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:15:25 +0000

As posted by Simon Batterbury on AASNet, Marcia Langton has made a response to Greer’s essay, labeling it as ‘racist’.

See here

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24202631-7583,00.html

and here

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24203985-2702,00.html

By: Anne

Anne — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:20:29 +0000

If I may correct my own reply when I said she needs to ‘substantiate’ her claim about the existence of rage what I meant was that she needed to ‘nuance’ this claim. What I was trying to say is that it’s essentialising to argue that all ‘Aboriginal men’ are any one particular thing. i.e. what is needed is Wittgensteinian not Aristotelian categories here.

By: amonchamp

amonchamp — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:21:02 +0000

I have read it and I found it both problematic and interesting. I think she makes too many assumptions in regards to Aboriginal men’s rage (I would like to see her substantiate this more) but her theory as to why rage exists (if you can assume it is there) is interesting and provocative. I think it is very worth a read just because it brings home so many points we often elude to yet rarely say so directly. I don’t agree with all of her opinions but that doesn’t mean that something isn’t worth engaging with.

I do agree with you that regardless of what she says she can’t win in Australia post- Steve Irwin and other ‘sins’ – - she has become another intellectual that the media can deride without restraint.

By: M.Stockey-Bridge

M.Stockey-Bridge — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:42:45 +0000

I am interested to know ifyou have read Greer’s book? I have noticed that Australian’s seem to just let fly at anything Greer says or writes, and conflate and generalise her work to the extend that the media and academics seem to miss the point of what Greer is actually saying. I must admit that I have not read this book (or essay and Greer calls it) but from what I have gathered from televised debates, those arguing against the book have not read it either… I watched a gruelling debate wherein Greer was part of the panel and found consistantly that Greer was spending more time recontextualising the snipets of the essay people were arguing about. In an interview Greer gave an ABC reporter the reporter was so on the attack I wondered from where this reporters rage against Greer had come!