The Female Eunuch // Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is a household name for the second wave of feminism.

She was a major voice in her internationally known works like, The Female Eunuch, The Change: Women, Aging, and The Menopause, or The Whole Woman. Greer’s ideas have always been a topic of controversy. Like her deconstruction of  such ideas like womanhood and femininity, arguing that women are forced to assume submissive roles in society to fulfill male fantasies of what being a woman entails. Yet, her goal is not to be equal to man, but for women to have the freedom to “define their own values, order their own priorities and decide their own fate” (Greer).

The Female Eunuch

During this time the women were “fighters”. The women in the 70s were using their voices in more ways than one. Whether it was burning bras, stirring up women’s marches, or boycotting. A major voice for the women then was Germaine Greer with her first book, The Female Eunuch.

The Female Eunuch is an analysis, written with a mixture of scholarly research. In sections titled “Body”, “Soul”, “Love” and “Hate” Greer breaks down historical definitions of women’s perception of self and uses a premise of imposed limitations to critique modern consumer societies, female “normality”, and masculine shaping of stereotypes quoting, “The World has lost its soul, and I my sex,” writes Greer. “(that) men hate women, though the latter do not realise this and are taught to hate themselves.” The Female Eunuch perfectly captures the message many women were trying to portray. “…(Yet) they should not burn their bras. “Bras are a ludicrous invention,” Greer wrote, “but if you make bralessness a rule, you’re just subjecting yourself to yet another repression.”