Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jtom93 's review for:
Female Eunuch
by Germaine Greer, Germaine Greer
I brought this book on a whim; I'd seen it sat in the exact same place in my local Waterstones for years and had always found one excuse or another not to indulge. As a feminist I finally felt I should read what is often sign posted as one of the 'feminist literary greats'. Almost immediately I came across it's portrayal of transwomen as 'men who mutilate themselves'. I sighed. An old book was guarenteed to have outdated ideas, but the problem with outdated ideas about transfolk is that they come hand in hand with outdated ideas about what makes a woman.
Greer has some good points: women are desperate to fulfill a stereotype which we think will give us security; women have been told to live and die for the household; women are sold the idea of a love that is often not real. However, in her many anecdotal assumptions of women she reveals her own misogynistic streak. Somewhere in the first half of the book she states that men are the ones to have truly deep friendships and women are not capable of this, being only ever able to form gaggles of gossips of which each woman secretly despises. I snorted at the mere thought. The idea that women can not be friends because we all secretly hate each other is so densely similar to what every man who hates women thinks, I could not believe she'd write it in a feminist book and expect all female readers to just gently nod along. Then there is her call of teaching being a 'Cinderella degree'. As a secondary science teacher, let me assure you Ms Greer, teaching is no fairytale.
Her writing was constantly marred with the typical distaste for 'other women' that is often seen from academics. Much of the book is without scientific claim and bows to speculation. Women hate each other because Greer believes it so. Men have much tighter friendships because Greer believes it so. There is so much context missing from her narrative. Not a word or a thought does she spare for women's own contribution to romance, or why people lust for romance, or how men may struggle with their own emotions. These things are glossed over in the pursuit of keeping the conversation focused on what Greer insists is the greatest evil; women, in and of ourselves.
I enjoyed and understood the things she said which had grounding in observable ways. I rolled my eyes at the tired stereotypes. The missing data. The almost conservative acknowledgment of women's faults yet absolutely none of the praise for their hardiness. In it's effort to be self-criticizing of the female condition, it pushed itself further into being a complete damnation of it. If every word of this book was literal, woman is painted as much the shrew people believe her to be and 'The Female Eunich' gives no other reason for this shrewness than 'woman and her self made misery.'
This book makes some good points but it's out dated. It's trans-misogynistic and Greer doesn't shy away from the N word nor does she mind brushing that feeble idea that 'Woman is the N-word of the world'. Read it with a pinch of salt.
Greer has some good points: women are desperate to fulfill a stereotype which we think will give us security; women have been told to live and die for the household; women are sold the idea of a love that is often not real. However, in her many anecdotal assumptions of women she reveals her own misogynistic streak. Somewhere in the first half of the book she states that men are the ones to have truly deep friendships and women are not capable of this, being only ever able to form gaggles of gossips of which each woman secretly despises. I snorted at the mere thought. The idea that women can not be friends because we all secretly hate each other is so densely similar to what every man who hates women thinks, I could not believe she'd write it in a feminist book and expect all female readers to just gently nod along. Then there is her call of teaching being a 'Cinderella degree'. As a secondary science teacher, let me assure you Ms Greer, teaching is no fairytale.
Her writing was constantly marred with the typical distaste for 'other women' that is often seen from academics. Much of the book is without scientific claim and bows to speculation. Women hate each other because Greer believes it so. Men have much tighter friendships because Greer believes it so. There is so much context missing from her narrative. Not a word or a thought does she spare for women's own contribution to romance, or why people lust for romance, or how men may struggle with their own emotions. These things are glossed over in the pursuit of keeping the conversation focused on what Greer insists is the greatest evil; women, in and of ourselves.
I enjoyed and understood the things she said which had grounding in observable ways. I rolled my eyes at the tired stereotypes. The missing data. The almost conservative acknowledgment of women's faults yet absolutely none of the praise for their hardiness. In it's effort to be self-criticizing of the female condition, it pushed itself further into being a complete damnation of it. If every word of this book was literal, woman is painted as much the shrew people believe her to be and 'The Female Eunich' gives no other reason for this shrewness than 'woman and her self made misery.'
This book makes some good points but it's out dated. It's trans-misogynistic and Greer doesn't shy away from the N word nor does she mind brushing that feeble idea that 'Woman is the N-word of the world'. Read it with a pinch of salt.