Germaine Greer in the 21st Century

went to see Germaine Greer the other night at the Gatehouse Theatre in Stafford. She was as amusing, witty, challenging and forthright as you would expect.

Her talk was structured around a proposal she had received (for the second time) for her to present a television programme, where the central argument was that the current problems of society are largely the result of too much sexual liberation in the 1970s caused by the victory of the feminist movement.

In a prolonged and scathing attack, she proceeded to demolish this premise, and the various steps contained within it, with controlled anger. There was no victory by the feminists, she said, merely equality to be victims of capitalism, and there will be no sexual liberalisation until everyone and everything have ceased to be seen as commodities. (I think I've summarised her main points accurately, but I could well be wrong.)

The audience, for the most part, seemed impressed. Laughter at all the right places, and complete silence at the particularly challenging parts.

Questions aftwerwards included "Where do you see organised religion in this?" and "How does this compare with primitive socities?" (She didn't like the word 'primitive', and talked with awe about the resilience of the Aborigine people.) There were also less intense questions, such as "What was Celebrity Big Brother like?" and "Do you like men?"

The last of these was asked by a woman who, on questioning by Germaine Greer, said that she and her friend had been happily married for over forty years, had never felt exploited or mistreated by her husband, and thought that everything Germaine had said that evening was complete 'tosh'. That was a refreshing end to the evening, though it was a shame there wasn't more time to explore that view.