Germaine Greer

[siggie-reported-by-alarmists]

Germaine Greer has spoken out about the Duchess of Cambridge's second pregnancy, saying the duchess " has a b…..d of a job" and

is under too much pressure to produce more children.Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/germaine-greer-the-duchess-

of-cambridge-is-too-thin-20140929-10ndf1.html#ixzz3ErtyNgg0

[kilroy_is_here]

Ho does she know it wasn't kates choice?

[polksaladallie]

I applaud you, Kilroy, because it is something that needs thought.   

[raptor_rebooted]

kate looks great - she is not too thin.

germaine should leave kate and her family

alone.

[karliandjacko]

---

@*julia*2010 wrote:

kate looks great - she is not too thin.

germaine should leave kate and her family

alone.

---

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/03/duchess-cambridge-how-britain-stopped-believing-royal-fairytale-2...

The original article writer spoke to other women about the story and yet Germaine was singled out for vilification.

Caroline Watson, director and co-founder of Progressive Women, an organisation that seeks to “enable, inspire, and support women to achieve their full potential”, puts it this way: “We have seen change in terms of the royal family in recent years, and I think Kate represents a different era, but she hasn’t spoken.” Watson doesn’t say it, but I have the sense that she rather wishes Kate would speak and looks forward to that day. Women need and would like her to do so. “All these magazines – Heat, Grazia, Closer and so on – scrutinising women’s bodies, it’s not exactly misogyny, because so much of it is written by women for women about women, but we have to get away from that culture.”

Elizabeth Frazer is head of the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford. “In life and in politics, we can overcome our beginnings,” she says. “It is surely not fated that Kate must live the life that her predecessors have lived. One of the surprising things is that structures can be broken or challenged and this happens all the time. It’s happening now with regard to Scotland. Of course, there are lots of mythic ideas and narratives in play surrounding Kate – ‘Isn’t it great that she isn’t stroppy?’, ‘Isn’t she clever in hooking herself such a husband?’ – but these imposed ideological accounts of womanhood need not define her. My sense is that – within the constraints of the office – she could mature into a great occupant of the role. Hers is the script to write however it is received.”

The distinguished writer, Marina Warner CBE, who has honorary doctorates from 11 of the UK’s leading universities, including St Andrews, Kate’s own alma mater, has made a career of studying and writing about, among other things, the deeper myths of European culture.

“The most insidious and virulent aspect of [Kate’s] position – the clothes horse side of things – means she cannot strike a blow for women except for the most ironic way,” says Warner. “But it is significant that she has had a  proper education and this gives her real status.”

[punch*drunk]

---

@kilroy_is_here wrote:
Ho does she know it wasn't kates choice?

---

Exactly, its not like she's getting any younger. I didnt have kids till my 30's and I wanted them as close together as possible, pregnancy only gets harder and riskier as you get older. She may want 4 or 5 kids for all anybody knows, I think having them close together is a good thing.

Its not like the morning sickness wil magically disapppear if she waits longer between pregnancies.

[bright.ton42]

So Kate wants another baby.  So what?   She is to be villified because of that?.  How many maternal people here for example who have had babies close together think it to be unnatural or worthy of bad-mouthing from the likes of Greer who imo is hanging on to

past 'glories'.  

[karliandjacko]

She was not vilified by Germaine Greer.  What is so hard for people to understand about that?

[4c4sale]

---

@karliandjacko wrote:

---

@*julia*2010 wrote:

kate looks great - she is not too thin.

germaine should leave kate and her family

alone.

---

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/03/duchess-cambridge-how-britain-stopped-believing-royal-fairytale-2...

The original article writer spoke to other women about the story and yet Germaine was singled out for vilification.

Caroline Watson, director and co-founder of Progressive Women, an organisation that seeks to “enable, inspire, and support women to achieve their full potential”, puts it this way: “We have seen change in terms of the royal family in recent years, and I think Kate represents a different era, but she hasn’t spoken.” Watson doesn’t say it, but I have the sense that she rather wishes Kate would speak and looks forward to that day. Women need and would like her to do so. “All these magazines – Heat, Grazia, Closer and so on – scrutinising women’s bodies, it’s not exactly misogyny, because so much of it is written by women for women about women, but we have to get away from that culture.”

Elizabeth Frazer is head of the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford. “In life and in politics, we can overcome our beginnings,” she says. “It is surely not fated that Kate must live the life that her predecessors have lived. One of the surprising things is that structures can be broken or challenged and this happens all the time. It’s happening now with regard to Scotland. Of course, there are lots of mythic ideas and narratives in play surrounding Kate – ‘Isn’t it great that she isn’t stroppy?’, ‘Isn’t she clever in hooking herself such a husband?’ – but these imposed ideological accounts of womanhood need not define her. My sense is that – within the constraints of the office – she could mature into a great occupant of the role. Hers is the script to write however it is received.”

The distinguished writer, Marina Warner CBE, who has honorary doctorates from 11 of the UK’s leading universities, including St Andrews, Kate’s own alma mater, has made a career of studying and writing about, among other things, the deeper myths of European culture.

“The most insidious and virulent aspect of [Kate’s] position – the clothes horse side of things – means she cannot strike a blow for women except for the most ironic way,” says Warner. “But it is significant that she has had a  proper education and this gives her real status.”

---

Greer is being "vilified" due to her own crass vilification of Kate.

And the topic here is Greer's crude comments, yes. They have been "singled out" for discussion just as things like hats and pigeons are "singled out."

She is also by far the best known of the women noted above.

For anyone to defend Greer, who has a history of courting controversy and making outrageous comments, and worry about her "vilification?"

It's a bit like someone taking offense at Mick Jagger being called a womanizer.

That horse left the stable a LONG time ago.

[4c4sale]

---

@siggie-reported-by-alarmists wrote:

Personally, I found Greers comments an attempt to patronise  Kate, and the Royal Family.

Is she jealous of the happiness and status Kate has achieved in life....perhaps love, children and status the Greer will never achieve?

How's her life philosophy really worked out for her......I bet she thinks about it often.

---

Other than her penchant for seeking controversy, I think envy played a big part in this, yes.

[4c4sale]

---

@karliandjacko wrote:

She was responding to questions in an interview about the subject.  What was she supposed to do? Talk about the memory span of a goldfish?

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/nobody-panic-germaine-greer-has-not-killed-fem...

In fact, Greer was responding to a comprehensive study conducted by Newsweek which showed the declining appeal of the British monarchy and its most seemingly fascinating member. In addition to referencing the pressure the monarchy has always placed on young women to produce heirs, she also criticised the intense scrutiny placed on them and the resulting lack of spontaneity. Rather than demonise Middleton, she praised her as the most intelligent of the lot, a statement which seems to make Greer’s disappointment in the bare facts of her metaphorical confinement all the more obvious. To anyone even remotely interested in looking beyond the Schadenfreude of laughing at Mad Old Germaine, it should be patently clear that any criticism she had was directed squarely at the monarchy, while actually defending Middleton from the deeply ingrained classism and sexism that has been its defining characteristics.

It is becoming increasingly common to hear how other women are either ‘letting feminism down’ or destroying it altogether. Women, entitled to the same expression of critical engagement as men, are absurdly demonised when they apply that critical lens to arguments or oppressive systems either made by or marginally occupied by other women. So it is that Denis Walter, a well paid white man on a weekday roster made up solely of nine other well paid white men, on a station whose executive positions are predominantly made up of men and whose most frequent female voices appear in the form of unpaid telephone interviews in order to strike the appearance of balance, can muse with no apparent sense of irony on whether or not Germaine Greer is responsible for letting women down.

This is ridiculous. Women are not tangibly ‘let down’ by comments made by another woman, but by the persistent and systemic refusal to treat them as equals and liberate them from the reductive notions of what it means to be female in a world which prioritises men as its leaders and changemakers.

---

I think Greer may wish to consider that Kate has made choices as an adult, and that these choices may reflect values which she holds in greater regard than any Greer might choose to royally impose upon the Duchess.

But I don't think Greer is mad. She's just being Greer.