The Female Eunuch

Introductory activities

Class discussion and activities prior to reading the text:

• Ask the students to consider the meaning and the context of the following quotes:

1. ‘You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.’ Brigham Young
2. ‘When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.’ Bette Davis
3. ‘I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.’ Madonna
4. ‘A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.’ Gloria Steinem
5. ‘I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.’ Rebecca West
6. ‘Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.’ Cheris Kramarae
7. ‘Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it.’ George Carlin
8. ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.’ Margaret Atwood
9. ‘To terrify children with images of hell, to consider women as an inferior creation – is that good for the world?’ Christopher Hitchens
10. ‘Barefoot and pregnant’ is a common figure of speech. What does it mean/refer to?

• What does the term ‘Feminism’ mean? (Find a dictionary definition as well as outlining your own cultural understanding of the term.)
• Would you ever conceive of calling yourself a feminist? The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, used this term to describe himself. He also called on men and women to embrace feminism. Why do you think he did this?
• Who was Emmeline Pankhurst and what is she remembered for?
• Class to watch the 2015 film, Suffragette. Following the viewing, the teacher could lead a class discussion using the questions below – as well as any other interests that arise from the film.
  • Who were the suffragettes and what did they want?
  • Who/what was against them, and why?
  • Why is this time/movement now known as ‘First Wave Feminism’?
  • What were the issues that forced the young heroine to become an activist?
  • What was the price she had to pay for her role in the movement?
  • What were the means of protest used by the women?
  • What were the immediate results and the lasting legacy of their action?

Research topics

Numbers 1–5 below could be done as small group work or set as homework – in either case, students report their findings back to the class for the benefit of all. The economic theory activity (number 6) should be done in class time as an expository talk (although prior knowledge could be built on to begin) and then a brief YouTube viewing followed by teacher-led discussion.

1. Which was the first country in the world to allow women to vote and when?
2. When did women get the vote in Australia? UK? USA? Saudi Arabia?
3. Australian abortion laws and practice.
4. Domestic violence in Australia? Statistics, funding of Women’s Shelters and role of Rosie Batty?
5. Ratio of male/female CEOs in Australia, and the ratio of female to male politicians in federal government in Australia, Rwanda, Sweden, Iran and Zimbabwe.
6. The teacher could give a brief explanation of Communism, Marxism and Capitalism as economic systems. Since the 1970s Greer has described herself as an anarchist or Marxist. She critiques both men and women’s roles under the current Western Capitalist system. Students should watch the YouTube clip of The Pursuit of HappYness: Best Scenes. This could be followed by a class discussion about haves/have nots under the present neo-capitalist system; the idea of the noble striving of the individual (American Dream); racism in America and Australia; similarities between racism and sexism; similarities between Australia and America in general and the pros and cons of Capitalism and Communism as systems for running countries.

Personal response on reading the text

Class discussion about the look of the book:

• The graphic on the front depicts a human torso hanging off a rod. What could this signify?
• Look up some common definitions of the word ‘eunuch’. Any suggestions as to why Germaine Greer may have chosen to use this word?
• In the blurb on the back, this book is described as a ‘masterpiece of polemic’. What does the word ‘polemic’ mean?
• It is claimed that this book changed lives. Without reading it, how do you think a text about women’s issues could change lives?

Activity

Divide the class in half. In pairs, groups from one half of the class to discuss, briefly research and report back on Concepts. Likewise, the other half of the class to report on People.

Concepts: patriarchy, liberation, lesbianism, phallocentricity, stereotype, feminine/masculine, social construct, enculturation, misogyny

People: Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Virginia Woolf, Gloria Steinem, Sigmund Freud, Anne Summers, Juliet Mitchell

NB: The Female Eunuch was first published in 1970. It is dated. However, some aspects of it are now more pertinent than ever. This unit will attempt to hone in on what current feminist thinking can take from the original text (including the current thinking of Germaine Greer). The ‘Foreword to the Paladin 21st Anniversary Edition’ (first published in 1991), the ‘Summary’ and the essays at the back of the book: ‘The New C-Word’ by Elizabeth Wurtzel, ‘The Female Eunuch in Feminist History’ by Louise Tucker, will also be used, as well as the basic body of the main text, as found in the 2012 edition.

Suggested order for reading:

1. ‘Feminism’s Real Madonna’ by Louise Tucker – back section of book (pp. 2–6)
2. ‘Foreword to the Paladin 21st Anniversary Edition’ (pp. 9–12)
3. ‘Summary’ (pp. 13–26)
4. ‘The Female Eunuch in Feminist History’ by Louise Tucker – back section of book (pp. 15–21)
5. ‘The New C-Word’ by Elizabeth Wurtzel – back section (pp. 7–13)
6. Original text – with guidance as to which are the most important chapters for today’s readers.

 Reading the text

• Individually, students read ‘Feminism’s Real Madonna’ to give them some insight into Germaine Greer as the author and as an enduring and sometimes controversial figure.
• As a class, read the dedication at the front of the book. Who are these women that this book is dedicated to? Why is it dedicated to them?
• Look at the order of contents: Body, Soul, Love, Hate, Revolution – with sub chapters within each. Is there a rationale or a logic to this which students can guess at?
• Read ‘Foreword to the Paladin 21st Anniversary Edition’ together as a class. Allocate small groups to present short addresses to the class on what they think each of the following concepts mean:

1. What is the ‘Freedom’ that women still want?

2. How did the end of communism affect women?

3. Explain the last paragraph from, ‘You can now see the female Eunuch the world over’ to ‘You can find her triumphant even under the veil’.

4. How could this 1970 text be valid today given all the ‘new breeds of women’ upon the earth’ (p. 9)?

‘Summary’

Note to the teacher – this is an important chapter and needs to be studied in detail as it sets out the main arguments and concepts of the text. Within the Close Study of this unit, only those chapters deemed to have relevance to the themes will be alluded to. There is not enough scope in one unit for the entire polemic.

After reading the ‘Summary’, students to complete the True/False worksheet (PDF, 103KB). Class discussion on responses.

‘The Female Eunuch in Feminist History’

Students to read this and construct a power point presentation outlining the history of feminism as it has played out from the late eighteenth century (Mary Wollstonecraft) to the present (some might call it post-feminist) phase.

Reasons why The Female Eunuch is still relevant.

Louise Tucker ends ‘The Female Eunuch in Feminist History’ with these words: ‘The Female Eunuch might seem anachronistic. But since her argument ends with the request for everyone, both men and women, to fight for freedom from rampant consumerism, to ‘struggle to maintain co-operation and the matriarchal principle of fraternity’, to revolt against war and slave-like working conditions, it is just as relevant as ever.’ To this, Elizabeth Wurtzel adds further arguments in ‘The New C-Word’. These are listed below and students could be asked to explain in class discussion how these points reinforce the continuing relevance of some of Germaine Greer’s arguments in The Female Eunuch.

• Pornography is more popular than ever.
• Sex becomes more and more mechanical.
• More and more women (in the wealthy West) are choosing to stay at home as housewives instead of contributing to society.
• Abortion on demand is under threat all over the world.
• Women are increasingly seen as ‘silly sex objects’.
• Misogyny is rampant.
• Women are still being left behind.

Synthesising task/activity

Choose any of the research issues discussed in the Introductory Activities and prepare a ten minute talk for International Women’s Day to give at your school assembly. Highlight the importance of your chosen topic to these students as they progress through school and go out into the world. Your topic could be of historical interest, of present day interest or used as a warning for the future.
(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN076)   (ACEEN077)

Text and meaning

NB: For the sake of brevity and relevance, this Close study will deal with chapters deemed to have bearing on the themes. The scope of The Female Eunuch is too vast for a six week unit, although obviously students should be encouraged to read the text in its entirety. To this end, the format adopted for approaching this section on the text itself, is a series of highlighted themes, followed by tasks relating to the focus theme. All of the tasks set in this section have relevance for the final Rich Assessment tasks. Some have the potential to be directly developed for assessment purposes – these are noted. Time constraints may also limit the teacher to choosing only the most relevant tasks, depending on the aspect, angle or perspective they are pursuing.

Exploration of main themes and ideas

• Feminism (Second Wave Feminism, Liberation Feminism, Equality Feminism)
• Repression and manipulation of women’s sexuality
• Stereotyping, socialisation and enculturation of women and girls (and by default, men and boys)
• Misogyny
• Pornography
• Basic human rights – for all.

Feminism

Students have already done some research and thinking about feminism in the Introductory activities. Germaine Greer, in The Female Eunuch, likens the suffragettes to the first wave of feminists (First Wave Feminism). These women were fighting for equality with men and the right to participate in civic affairs and professions previously denied to them. However, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women was published in 1792. This was a powerful treatise on the way women were oppressed and denied their potential in society. Germaine Greer draws heavily on the writing of Mary Wollstonecraft in the many boxed insets which illustrate her text.

Task a)

Choose one of the Wollstonecraft insets from the following pages: 63, 68, 73, 80, 89, 209, 274, 367 and contextualise it for use/application in today’s world.

OR

Task b)

In light of reading Mary Wollstonecraft, students are to argue a case that in fact A Vindication of the Rights of Women marked the First Wave of Feminism, the Suffragette Movement was the Second and therefore the likes of Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan, etc. were the Third Wave and the Fourth is yet to come. Students could look at issues such as the pay gap, abortion on demand, superannuation disparities, relative value of predominantly women’s occupations, the working mother’s double load and any other issues which seem pertinent to now. The argument needs to focus on the fact that there is a need for another feminist revolution. There is much still to be done.
(ACEEN060)  (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN062)   (ACEEN064)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN067)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN076)

For both Task a) and b) students could present their findings as a short talk or a mini-lecture either to a group of their choosing, or as a class presentation.

Germaine Greer calls herself a Liberation Feminist as opposed to an Equal Opportunity Feminist (Equality Feminist). Students are to read chapters ‘Rebellion’ (pp. 329–350) and ‘Revolution’ (pp. 353–371). These are dense chapters, especially the former, as it explains the often abstract arguments between different schools of feminist thought. A reading of Germaine Greer’s Women and Power may help. Betty Friedan, writing in the same era, called herself an Equality Feminist.

Questions for class discussion following the above readings:

• What are the main differences between Germaine Greer’s Liberation Feminism and Betty Friedan’s Equality Feminism?
• Which activist has achieved the most? Justify your answer.
• Why does Greer not place her faith in women gaining equality with men?
• Why is the last chapter of the book called ‘Revolution’?
• What is the link between revolution and Marxism? What did Karl Marx mean by the ‘proletariat’? Germaine Greer calls women the true proletariat. ‘But if women are the true proletariat, the truly oppressed majority, the revolution can only be drawn nearer by their withdrawal of support for the capitalist system.’ (The Female Eunuch ‘Summary’ p. 25) How could women revolt according to Germaine Greer (‘The Summary’ pp. 21–23)?
• Is there any need for a revolution within Western society now that so many inequalities have been redressed?
• Julie Bishop recently stated that she was not a feminist (‘I’m no feminist’). Why was there a backlash to this statement? (This statement is all the more interesting in the light of the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, stating recently that he IS a feminist. Radio National AM 7 June 2016)
• Gloria Steinem once said, ‘A feminist is anyone who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men’. What sort of feminist is she?
• In Australia in 2016, the Foreign Affairs Minister, the Minister for Defence, the Minister for Health and the Premier of Queensland are all women. We had a woman as Prime Minister of the country very recently. Is there still a need for any sort of feminist ideology – or should discrimination issues be addressed on a purely practical level? (Note: It might be worth suggesting students check some of the vitriolic comments directed at Julia Gillard when she was the Prime Minister of Australia – for example the ‘Ditch the Witch’ incident. Germaine Greer has been the subject of a so-called witch hunt recently. She has also been publicly labeled as a ‘Feminist Witch’. Students might like to research the origins and current understanding of the term ‘witch’ and discuss how even now, ‘witches’ are seen as a threat to patriarchy, masculine power and the world order.)
• As Germaine Greer was going into the New York Town Hall in 1976 for her famous debate with Norman Mailer, women were outside protesting and holding banners that said ‘Germaine Greer does not speak for the poor’. One could argue that she does not speak for the vast majority of the women of the world. Why is this?

Repression and manipulation of women’s sexuality

Activity: Part 1

Class to pair off. From the following list of chapters, allocate one pair to each chapter: ‘Body’, ‘Gender’, ‘Sex’, ‘Energy’, ‘Baby’, ‘Girl’, ‘Puberty’, ‘The Raw Material’, ‘Womanpower’, ‘Obsession’ and ‘Romance’. If there are more pairs than chapters, students could work in threes, or more chapters could be added. (However, check on-going reading first, there are many more chapters coming up within this unit).

• Students do a close reading and have a discussion about their allocated chapters.
• Focusing on the repression and manipulation of sexuality, students are to summarise the main points so that they can report back to the class.
• Student pairs create two questions pertaining to the overall information in their chapters, and send these through to the teacher. These could be used as an overall quiz.
• Class discussion on main questions and issues raised.

Activity: Part 2

According to Germaine Greer a woman is a eunuch because, ‘She is the Sexual Object sought by all men, and by all women. She is of neither sex, for she has herself has no sex at all’ (The Female Eunuch p. 67). She also describes women as being eunuch-like in the following way. ‘Her essential quality is castratedness. She absolutely must be young, her body hairless, her flesh buoyant, and she must not have a sexual organ‘ (p. 69). Louise Tucker describes The Female Eunuch‘s ‘. . . frank, fearless and funny take on the status of women as castrates raised from birth to be “cut off from their capacity for action” and divorced from their own reality and sexuality … ‘ (‘Feminism’s Real Madonna’ The Female Eunuch p. 4 – back of book). Summing up, women are separated/divorced from their own active sexuality and desire, thus they are castrated (rendered eunuch-like). This passivity is encouraged by their conditioning in patriarchal society, which begins in infancy.

Students to read the chapters: ‘The Middle-Class Myth of Love and Marriage’ and ‘Family’ and answer the questions below. These could be set as a homework activity or done individually in class or in pairs or groups.

• What is the central ‘myth’ about marriage?
• How has marriage been instrumental in the manipulation and repression of women?
• What role has the traditional marriage ceremony played in perpetuating the state/status of women within patriarchal society?
• Who was Lillith and how did she threaten the family structure?
• How has the nuclear family been justified, and how does it oppress women in particular (but also men and children)?
• Why is the nuclear family ‘possibly the shortest lived familial system ever developed’ (p. 248)?
• Is the nuclear family breaking down already – in other words, since this book was published in 1970, and why? (Direct students to read The Drawing Room article)
• What are the advantages of a stem family over a nuclear family? (Students could do a pros/cons list on both.)
• Which sort of family would students prefer to live in? What other sorts of households exist within our society?
• What is Germaine Greer’s alternative to the nuclear family? List some possible disadvantages to her solution.

Following this, students are to read this Guardian article. Geraldine Bedell claims that The Female Eunuch is ‘a furious attack on the ways in which women were encouraged to be meek and a demand for a brazen, confident female sexuality’ and ‘that The Female Eunuch was a rallying cry against housewifery and the servicing of men’.

• Would students agree with the thesis of her article?
• What criticisms does Bedell make of Germaine Greer?

Task

Students should read the articles by Miriam Cosic and Radhika Sanghani (both of whom write about The Female Eunuch as well as feminist issues confronting society currently) and choose as a topic an issue or injustice that women face today.

Suggestions:

• sexual objectification of women
• body image issues (including labiaplasty and plastic surgery in general, anorexia and bulimia, self harming, genital mutilation in non-Western cultures)
• social media and its affects on women and girls (sexting, bullying, depression, Facebook, Instagram, sexualistion of young/prepubescent girls)
• marriage (underage marriage in some societies)
• religion
• nuclear family life.

Students need to state the issue clearly. (For example, ‘The impossible dream of the perfect life: teenage girls and the pressures of Instagram’.) After a brief discussion on the topic, students need to suggest steps that would ameliorate this problem. This task could be done at the highest level, for example lobbying for government legislation, or at a more basic level such as parents talking to their children, or as a principal talking to parents.

The mode of the task could vary according to purpose and audience. Some suggestions include:

• a booklet for use in school, community or sports groups
• a television advertisement
• a council speech
• an election speech
• a speech on a graduation night
• a letter from a principal to parents of girls entering years 11 and 12
• a parliamentary address – and so on.

(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN066)   (ACEEN068)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN076)   (ACEEN077)

Stereotyping, socialisation and enculturation of women and girls

Germaine Greer is scathing about the feminine stereotype of her day (‘She was for consumption’ p. 65). Fashions change, and likewise our preferred image of the beautiful female has changed over time. However, this dominant image still rules our culture as much as it did 50 years ago – in fact more so now than ever, since in our connected world the image is everywhere at all times.

• Thinking about the advertising and the cult of the celebrity which is so prolific in girls’ and women’s magazines, how would students describe the perfect female of today’s world?

Students to read chapters: ‘The Stereotype’, ‘The Psychological Sell’ and ‘Work’. Following these readings, discuss the following questions in groups or as a whole class discussion:

• What is the feminine stereotype that Germaine Greer is describing, the one that she was familiar with in the 1960s?
• How does it differ from the one we admire today?
• In your own words, what is the psychological sell?
• ‘Work’ is an interesting chapter in that much has changed during these 50 years, in this country and the UK at least. We do now have a system of equal pay for equal work, yet many of Germaine Greer’s (Hardtalk Youtube) premises (both in The Female Eunuch and stated recently) remain pertinent in contemporary society. Name three of them.
• Anne Summers was (and still is) another Australian feminist writing of the 1970s. Her book, Damned Whores and God’s Police suggests that historically, Australian women have been divided into two main stereotypes. What sort of women comprised each category and do these stereotypes still apply today?
• Stereotyping, socialisation and enculturation of both boys and girls begins early and is often unconscious. Try to think of ways in which gender socialisation is carried out: in the home from infancy, in schools, in advertising, in sport, in social media, literature, the workplace and every day language. (Direct students to the Pink Brain Blue Brain article.)

Task

Either from the following list of resources, all of which are current and topical to mid-2016, or from your own recent experience, choose one topic to research and develop into a rough plan/springboard for a TED Talk titled ‘Bring on the Revolution’ (or students may choose their own titles). At this point, they are planning (only) for one of the final Rich assessment tasks. The talk needs to be linked to socialisation and stereotyping of girls and/or women.

• Women-only train carriages in Australia
• University of Queensland cup cake bake
• School subject selection – numbers of girls choosing Maths, Science or IT as electives in their final school year
• The ‘Pink Princess’ construction of femininity
• Women’s sports inequality: pay and exposure
• Intimidation and harassment of women in the armed forces.

(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN064)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN075)

NB: This task links directly to the Ted Talk Rich assessment task in Section 4: Informed Reaction.

Misogyny

‘Women have very little idea of how much men hate them’ (p. 279). These are Germaine Greer’s opening words in the chapter titled ‘Loathing and Disgust’ in the ‘Hate’ section of the book. Students are to read chapters ‘Loathing and Disgust’ and ‘Abuse’. They are confronting. However, in view of the increasing violence towards women in this country, they are important.

Task

Referring back to the readings of Cosic and Radhika plus Germaine Greer’s own pronouncements on the topic of misogyny (The Female Eunuch pp. 279–293) students prepare a Petition information sheet for a petition which they wish to start on social media in order to protest about a particular aspect of misogyny. It might be useful to check the websites of Change.org and/or ‘Avaaz – Changing the World’ for tips. Some suggestions include:

• domestic violence in Australia (including the role of Rosemary Batty)
• misogyny in rap music, video games, sporting culture, social media, language, religion and community attitudes (such as slut culture and slut shaming)
• rape as a war crime
• Donald Trump and misogyny.

(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN066)   (ACEEN068)   (ACEEN069)

Pornography 

Germaine Greer might not have had a lot to say about pornography in The Female Eunuch, although she does touch on the topic in her chapter, ‘Revolution’ (‘The male perversion of violence is an essential condition of the degradation of women’ p. 355) but she has been vocal about the topic in more recent times.

Direct students to read Gluttons for Porn and to watch Porn perpetuates stereotypical notions of sex – both authored recently by Germaine Greer, and list the various harms that Germaine Greer thinks the pornographic industry is doing to our society.

Basic human rights

Ask students to revisit and skim read Germaine Greer’s final chapter, ‘Revolution’. This, like the chapter, ‘Work’, seems dated now. Students should watch Germaine Greer in the Hardtalk interview (if they have not already done so earlier) and consider the following questions.

• Is there any need for a revolution anymore – or has the battle been won?
• Why do so many young Western women shun the ‘feminist’ label?
• Have women in the Western world now got the ‘freedoms’ which Germaine Greer talks about in her ‘Foreword to the Paladin 21st Anniversary Edition’?
• Are men now freer than they were in the 1970s? Give examples of their new freedoms.
• Is the sum of human happiness increasing as we in the West become wealthier? Evidence?

However, as with almost everything she wrote about in The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer has updated her views. For example, it is interesting to see what she has to say about equal pay and the relative value of women’s work in her speech entitled ‘Women and Power’, which she delivered amongst interesting controversy at Cardiff University in 2015.

Task

Students are to take either a human rights concept affecting women (such as: paid housework; generous, paid maternity leave; abortion rights for all; equal pay for equal value work; affordable child care for all); or an actual issue women face in the world (such as: sweat shop labour; sex trafficking; gay marriage; transgender issues; bridal age; lack of maternal care) and in groups prepare a Panel discussion in which each person shall have the right to speak for the same amount of time. For example, taking the issue of maternity leave, speakers could include: the potential father, the potential mother, the director of the company for which the woman works and a child psychologist. In the work value topic, speakers could include a mixed group of women who each outline the value of their work to/for the common good. Examples could be a nurse, a lawyer, a sex industry worker, a child carer, a professional sportswoman, an engineer – the options are endless.
(ACEEN064)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN067)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)

NB: This task links directly to the Panel Discussion Rich assessment task in Section 4: Informed Reaction.

Ways of reading the text

Critical perspectives

The Female Eunuch is hailed as a landmark feminist text. Nevertheless, it has also drawn powerful criticism and there is a place for a resistant reading.

1. The text as a cultural artifact

As Julie Bishop intimated, and Anne Summers as good as stated in her Radio National Interview in March 2016, there is no longer any need for ideology. We just need to address practical issues. We need new and better enforced laws against discrimination. In the view of a great many Western women, there is no need for a revolution or another wave of feminism. Women now have equality. The Female Eunuch is at best a quaint rant, something to be read as a cultural artifact, but of no real significance now. The very term ‘feminism’ is  often seen as anachronistic with many young women distancing themselves from the movement.

Task 1

Ask students to read Caitlin Moran’s Feminist Handbook Panel Verdict (Caitlin Moran is a modern and vocal feminist writing in England), and discuss the following questions:

• According to Moran, is feminism an outdated ideology?
• Is Moran an Equality Feminist or a Liberation Feminist?
• Are women now equal to men?
• What is the main reason why women distance themselves from the movement?

Task 2

To counter the claims of Anne Summers and Julie Bishop that equality has been achieved and there is no need for any further struggle, students could be invited to read the 2016 Stella Award winning novel, The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood. This disturbing and dystopian book set in the near future highlights the treatment of women who are forcibly and secretly removed from society and imprisoned for having their affairs with prominent men in the public eye revealed (slut shaming).

2. The Female Eunuch as a patronising tract of Western privilege  

The Nigerian feminist, Ajai, once responded to Germaine Greer thus: ‘It is presumptuous of anyone to assume that women of the Third World are unable to articulate their own outrage on any issue which concerns them. As a member of the Third World, I repudiate this patronising attitude and particularly the underlying intellectual imperialism.’

• What is meant by ‘underlying intellectual imperialism’?
• What are some of the issues faced by women in the developing world which are not generally faced by women of the developed world?
• Watch the Tunisia section of Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next? (The entire documentary addresses women’s issues and would make an excellent tool for classroom discussion.)

Other criticism of this nature has come more recently from Rebecca J. Sheehan’s article: ‘If we had more like her we would no longer be the unheard majority’. She suggests that Greer ‘failed to recognise that race and gender intersected for women of colour, a failure that feminists of colour sought – and continue to seek – to redress  (p. 68).

3. Criticism from both sides

Strangely, although Greer draws attention to misogyny within our Western society, she herself has been labeled a mysogynist by some feminists. Nevertheless, many men are wary of feminism and women’s liberation politics.

• Students are to watch YouTube: Town Bloody Hall, (if they haven’t already watched it) in which Norman Mailer criticises the feminist movement for being ‘frightening, miserable and humourless’. He also states that it is boring. Discuss. Is there any merit in his comments?
• If time, they could also watch Feminist Witch Germaine Greer Smears Fathers and decide whether their sympathies lie mainly with the fathers, or with Greer – and why.
• Louis Nowra descends to direct personal abuse in his recent criticism, ‘. . . she looked like a befuddled and exhausted old woman. She reminded me of my demented grandmother, who towards the end of her life, was often in a similarly unruly state.’

4. General criticism of Germaine Greer.

• Students should read Germaine Greer is burning all her bridges. List the criticisms contained in this, and any other ones that they might have about The Female Eunuch (along with wider readings).

Ways of reading the text

Rachel Buchanan asks the provocative question, ‘What happens if you read The Female Eunuch not for evidence of feminism but for evidence of Shakespeare?’ Germaine Greer’s career began at Cambridge with a doctoral thesis entitled, ‘The Ethic of Love and Marriage in Shakespeare’s Early Comedies’ and several other writers including Donald McManus have linked large parts of The Female Eunuch (especially the chapter titled ‘The Middle-Class Myth of Love and Marriage’) to Shakespeare’s own writing which (also) favoured tough women.

McManus, writing about Greer states, ‘Although it escaped a lot of attention in the media frenzy that followed the release of The Female Eunuch, Greer included quite a bit of Shakespeare analysis in that book. She recycles some of the key ideas from her doctoral thesis in the chapter titled “The Middle-Class Myth of Love and Marriage”’. This chapter argues that the concepts of love and marriage were developed and adapted over several centuries into a dysfunctional myth system that frustrated the desires and aspirations of both husbands and wives in the modern era.

Buchanan quotes Cunningham who claims that ‘… in The Female Eunuch  Shakespeare is mentioned probably more frequently than any other male except Freud and is unromantic in his view of marriage: his practical view is summarised approvingly: “He recognised it as a difficult state of life, requiring discipline, sexual energy, mutual respect and great forbearance: he knew there were no easy answers to marital problems, and that infatuation was no basis for continued cohabitation”.’

Synthesising task

Germaine Greer has been a vociferous commentator on women’s issues and popular culture for nearly fifty years. She has incurred some strident backlashes including from other feminists, women who don’t identify as feminists, men and the transvestite movement.

Task

Students are to watch two YouTube videos that present male concerns: ‘Discrimination against men is rampant’ and ‘The Greatest Truthful Documentary on Feminism Ever Made’ about feminism and then using either these or taking on another perspective from the above Critical perspectives (after doing further research), they are to make a case as to how the feminist movement in the West, spearheaded by the likes of Germaine Greer, has damaged a basic human right that they support. This could be done in a variety of ways:

• a letter to an editor
• an editorial
• a soap box speech
• a YouTube clip similar to the ones watched.

(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN066)   (ACEEN067)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN076)   (ACEEN077)   (ACEEN078)   (ACEEN079)

Rich assessment tasks

There are multiple choices in both the receptive and the productive assessment tasks: teachers may choose according to particular interests that developed during the preceding unit, the gender composition of class or their own preferences.

Receptive mode

1) TED Talks presentation

Women’s Issues Now and Then: Are we Heading in the Right Direction? (Or students may use the title from the previous section of the unit, or create a new one). Students are to write the speech drawing on their TED Talks notes earlier in the unit, or creating a different scenario altogether. After writing their speech, students need to deliver it in a TED Talks scenario, preferably in front of a camera.
(ACEEN060)   (ACEEN061)   (ACEEN064)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)

2) Letter

As a radical Muslim human rights worker in Afghanistan or Pakistan, write a letter to Germaine Greer about her views on women’s rights, espoused within The Female Eunuch and beyond, pointing out the obvious bias towards the rich West. Highlight the key issues which impact women in your country and also indicate where the two of you could find common ground.
(ACEEN068)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)   (ACEEN077)

3) Panel discussion (as in a Q&A ABC panel)

Students may negotiate the topic with their teacher. They need to refer to The Female Eunuch but could go well beyond the text with an issue or concept or basic human rights concern that affects their own society. They could build on their own previous panel work on the relative value of women’s work.
(ACEEN064)   (ACEEN065)   (ACEEN067)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)

4) Feature article

As a young Australian journalist, writing for an Australian newspaper, write a feature article about the pros and cons of growing up against a background of Germaine Greer’s influence and impact on society. How has this helped or hindered the female cause, in your eyes?
(ACEEN063)   (ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)

5) Editorial/Opinion column/Analytical essay

Topic: Equal Opportunity Feminism has almost been achieved in the West. Could one say the same thing about Liberation Feminism?
(ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN073)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)

Productive mode

1) Letter

An agreement has recently been drawn up in the UN, empowering women of sub-Saharan Africa by promoting poverty reduction and encouraging gender equality programs. Pretend you are Germaine Greer and write an open letter to the organisers of this agreement outlining which issues you think are the most important to be legislated for, and why.
(ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)

2) Sitcom script

Germaine Greer has been labelled a ‘Utopian Feminist’. Students should watch a couple of episodes of the Australian sitcom: Utopia. Create a script for the ‘Nation Builders’ in which women’s rights are to be the focus of their attention.
(ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN074)   (ACEEN075)

3) Debate

Students could do this in pairs, as in pre-election debates between the incumbent leader and the leader of the opposition. The debate is to be between Germaine Greer and a principal speaker representing the male backlash against feminism such as Donald Trump or Norman Mailer. It would be wise to limit the number of issues to be debated.
(ACEEN069)   (ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN072)

4) Open task – Discussion paper

Germaine Greer throws down the gauntlet: ‘What will you do?’ is how The Female Eunuch ends. Students are to prepare a discussion paper to be presented at an International Women’s Day forum concerning the rights of women in Australia today. In their discussion papers they are to identify a topic of concern and suggest some ways of rectifying the situation.
(ACEEN070)   (ACEEN071)   (ACEEN074)