"The freedom I pleaded for twenty years ago was freedom to be a person, with dignity, integrity, nobility, passion, pride that constitute personhood. Freedom to run, shout, talk loudly and sit with your knees apart. Freedom to know and love the earth and all that swims, lies, and crawls upon it...most of the women in the world are still afraid, still hungry, still mute and loaded by religion with all kinds of fetters, masked, muzzled, mutilated and beaten." Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch
Germaine Greer:
Germaine Greer is an Australian-born and UK-based academic, writer, and journalist, and is widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the twentieth century. Greer's ground-breaking book The Female Eunuch, published in 1970, became an international bestseller. The resulting publicity turned Greer into the key figure in the emerging women's movement, bringing her both acclaim and criticism.
Born in 1939, Greer was educated at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, where she associated with the anarchist poets and philosophers who frequented the inner city in this period. In 1964 she travelled to England where she studied at Cambridge University, gaining her PhD in 1967. Greer wrote The Female Eunuch while working as a lecturer in English at Warwick University. The publication of the book coincided with the emergence of a second-wave of the women's movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Female Eunuch was Greer's first book. In it she declares that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation. She examines in a new way the in-built and unchangeable biological differences between men and women and looks at them in the light of the psychological and social differences that result from the way society runs. The book's main idea, which is reflected in the title, is that the traditional, suburban, consumerist, nuclear family represses women sexually, and that this devitalizes them, rendering them 'eunuchs'. A eunuch traditionally refers to a man who has been castrated for the sake of disempowerment. Eunuchs often served in royal courts in ancient times.
Greer believed that women had somehow been separated from their 'libido'. Alienated from their own sexuality, women are cut off from their capacity for action and self-empowerment. Greer applied many of the ideas of the political philosophy of anarchy (in which she was involved in her Sydney University days) to her analysis of women's repression in society.
Some of the book's main ideas surrounding the theme of the 'Female Eunuch' are:
• that the nuclear family is not a good environment for women and for the raising of children;
• that the way Western society manufactures and restricts women's sexuality is demeaning and repressive; and
• that girls are taught to be submissive females from childhood through rules which make them consider themselves inferior to men.
As women grow up, Greer argues, they embrace the stereotypical version of adult femininity produced by men, and they develop a sense of shame about their own bodies. They also lose any natural and political autonomy. The result is that women are left powerless, isolated, and suffering a diminished sexuality and general unhappiness. In particular, the book paints a bleak portrait of marriage in the 1960s. She states that women's liberation can only come through a revolutionary rethinking of their own bodies and sexuality. Although it is a very political book, The Female Eunuch does not offer any concrete political solutions. Instead, Greer deals with abstract ideas of 'freedom' and 'redemption' in women's individual lives.
Germaine Greer told the New York Times in 1971, “"Women have somehow been separated from their libido from their faculty of desire, from their sexuality. They've become suspicious about it. Like beasts, for example, who are castrated in farming in order to serve their master's ulterior motives – to be fattened or made docile – women have been cut off from their capacity for action. It's a process that sacrifices vigour for delicacy and succulence, and one that's got to be changed. "The book went on sale in London in October 1970 and by March 1971 it had nearly sold out and had been translated into eight languages. It has been written that when The Female Eunuch was first published, women had to keep it wrapped in brown paper because their husbands would not let them read it. Fights broke out between married couples and copies of the book were thrown across rooms at husbands. Germaine Greer’s visit in 1972 have the movement an enormous boost in publicity. In person and speech Greer represented the sprit of the Women’s Liberation. She was arrested for using the words “bullshit” and “fuck” during her speech, which attracted major rallies in her support.
Germaine Greer sold 8,000 copies in six weeks of its release in New Zealand. The Listener reported: “The message Dr Greer carried to New Zealand women was one of defiance and activism. She showed how women have been deprived or castrated of a basic energy. Women can regain this energy by becoming aware of themselves through sexual and economic autonomy”. Historian Barbara Brookes explained that the second wave of feminism was a part of a new style of activism- “youthful, unbound by convention”. It helped Woman’s Liberation to move from being the cranky fringe of angry, jean-clad activists who apparently disliked men to being glamorous, attractive and sexually assertive”.
The Female Eunuch was a cornerstone of the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which produced many progressive achievements for women in society. Second-wave of feminism encouraged a common female identity in which all women could find political solidarity, and this led to criticisms from the following generation of 'third-wave' feminists, who found this line of thinking too restrictive and all-encompassing. Nonetheless, in Greer's writings the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s found a common set of ideas and goals, which were central to many of their aims and achievements in this period. The legacy of Greer and the Second Wave of the women's movement is significant to New Zealanders. One major change in society is that issues affecting women, which were previously considered private matters, were brought out into the public sphere. Subjects like domestic violence and the right to a no-fault divorce were now considered areas for public debate and for legislation by the government.
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan wrote the Feminine Mystique in 1963, she asked the questions that women in New Zealand society was asking themselves. The book challenged societies values and lifestyles especially the “cult of domesticity” that entrapped women and caused a “cult of domesticity” that trapped women into their homes doing domestic work and causing the spread of depression. Women were starting to gain independence; getting a job, making their own money, learning to drive and learning about their family’s finances. This created a consciousness of competence that undermined male power in the home. This was big in an era where societies opinion was that a women’s place was in the home. Women had a new choice to have a career or stay at home.
Sue Kedgley
In the early 1970’s there was a strong idea of full time mothers participating only in the household. This idea was thoroughly discussed in Sue Kedgley and Sharon Cederman’s book The Sexist Society (1972), both authors stated that: “We have tried to include a balance of males and females because we believe that men are restricted almost as much as women in our sexist society”. The book portrayed a society saturated with sexism: “Women’s liberation is not just removing the obvious discrimination against women….liberalising the abortion laws, free contraception, childcare centres. All these things assist women in gaining control of their lives…. But they are only partial measures. The real liberation takes place within you. It affects your whole lifestyle. It is a way of life”. This message challenged the belief that there was equality between the sexes and it was up to individual women to negotiate or pursue equality. The new politics of women’s liberation embraced the concept of women’s rights, and insisted that marriage and childrearing should not preclude a woman’s right to sexual and economic independence.
Christine Wren
The Synthetic Woman in a Plastic World by Christine Wren was featured in the 1972 book published by Wellington Organisation for Women. It talks about how women are creating a youthful image; “the synthetic woman is always slim and uses special slimmer foods, diets, pills, and doubtful miracle methods to reduce weight and to remain that way”. It also comments on society and their ideals “the average woman, having been brain-washed into wishing she was identical with the artificially created beauty-norm is offered a fake solution”. This article was written by Christine Wren, who is a strong feminist and wrote of her opinion of the synthetic women, this was written at a time where society wanted to create the nuclear family.
The consequences of this literature was the spread of feminist ideas throughout New Zealand. It tackled issues that the media did not usually discuss at the time. The literature was popular helped to spread feminist ideas throughout society and gave the energy and inspiration needed for women to make change.