I read this book in a French paperback book published in 1973, with a very small font, almost no margins, 450 pages long, no preface, and the most horrible bookcover in the world! How and why did
I get this book? I can’t remember. What I do know is that I should have read it when I was young, it would have changed my vision of women, my vision of myself.
Today, after having read George Sand, Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, and so many other great women authors, Germaine Greer's book has reinforced the observations I have already made about
the status of women, those of our mothers and grandmothers, or at least mines.
It is a very well researched and thoughtful book that I recommend to both women and men, although I do not agree with the author on topics that do not concern women directly, such as marijuana
and communism.
This book is not a pamphlet against men, it is the author's claim for women’s right to exist. Of course, it released in 1970 and fortunately many things have changed since then, with regard to
the lives of women, children and their education. But there is still a lot to do, hence the interest of reading this book.
In fact, equality of rights, especially in Western countries, is real. What remains to be done is to "correct perspectives distorted by our prejudices about femininity, sexuality, love and
society," Greer says. This is what George Sand wrote in Indiana: "It remains to struggle against opinion; for it is opinion that delays or prepares social improvements."
(Let me remind you that I read this book in French and couldn’t find The original Englsih version, so Greer’s quotes are my personnal translation… far from being the best one !)
Greer therefore believes that "women, by freeing themselves, will also liberate their oppressors." (which means man or rather some men). "Men have reason to believe that as the sole holders of
the universal sexual energy and protectors of women and children, they have undertaken the impossible, especially today when their creative genius has produced nuclear weapons." But, adds Greer,
men are willing to share responsibility and are looking for a more satisfying role. But do women want to share, in the same way as men, the direction of a world that men have pushed to political,
economic and ecological chaos?
What is certain is that women will have to invent their own way of life, will have to experience freedom, and "freedom frightens us." But "women will not seek to eliminate all systems in favour
of their own. However diverse their solutions may be, they will not necessarily be irreconcilable because women will not be tyrannical."
Germaine Greer has divided her book into five parts: Body, Soul, Love, Hatred and Revolution, themselves divided into chapters, each on a specific theme.
The Body: "Every time we reduce the female body to an aesthetic object, with no other function than to please, we damage its physical integrity and the physiological balance of the woman. »
In Chapter 6, The Matrix, Germaine Greer adopts very clear and unexpected positions, that may have shocked and may still shock, which, personally, have disgusted me a little, but which have the
interest of the audacity, the excess of the author who wants to make women and men react. She concludes: "Menstruation does not make us crazy or disabled, but we would gladly do without
it."
Chapter 7, The Stereotype, is best summed up in this quote by Mary Wollstonecraft: "The mind of the woman, which has been taught since childhood that beauty is a woman's sceptre, conforms to the
body and, wandering in its golden cage, it seeks only to adorn its prison. »
What is remarkable about this book is the way Greer deconstructs and analyses the behaviours of women who have not freed themselves and men who are not feminists. That is very true and I have
seen in these types of women: my mother, my grandmother and, I must admit, a little bit of myself when I was lost between the education I had received, the attack I had suffered and who I was
deep inside me and that I was hiding for obscure reasons at the time.
I liked Chapter 8, Energy. "Energy is the driving force of every human being. The efforts we make do not dissipate it but maintain it because it has its source in the psyche. It is perverted by
obstacles and repression." When a woman's energy is destructive (most often to herself, but also to her husband or children), it is because "this destructiveness is only creativity turned against
herself as a result of constant frustration."
In chapter 9, The Baby, Greer, talks about Maria Montessori and it's exciting. Then the next chapter deals with the differentiated education given to girls and boys. I have a son and a daughter
myself. I think (I hope) I raised them both the same way. They are now 18 and 20 years old, and I think I have succeeded. My daughter is no more afraid than my son of the outside world and she
feels as free to be who she is as her brother. If they differ completely, it is only because of their characters!
At this point in my review, I realize that I have put marks on one page out of two of the book! So, if you want to know more, you'll have to read the book yourself! 😊
What I can still tell you is that, if some things are dated, some are still very present in our society ; that there is a chapter about the horrors suffered by women on the part of some men, I
would rather say: monsters, that I could only fly over so much it is raw and unbearable.
Pros, in addition to all I've already written:
Greer condemns consumerism, she doesn’t admit that a woman has to transform herself into an ideal and unrealizable beauty that is not herself.
Cons:
Greer thinks family is not a good thing. IMO, it's a generality. Some people oppress and tear themselves apart in the family, others find love, support and fulfillment in it.
Greer recommends marijuana use! I don’t. I believe that, like alcohol, you must know how to use it with GREAT MODERATION. Or not using marijuana at all… If one needs to escape reality, a good
book is better !
Greer, unless I have not understood the meaning of her sentences, disapproves of homosexuals and transsexuals. There is neither to approve nor disapprove, each nature is part of nature.
Greer also thinks communism is a solution. I think communism is a failure and some countries have already proved it! While everyone must have the same rights, we are not equal in nature: some are
more hardworking, smarter, more creative, more relentless. The results of our lives conducted so differently cannot be the same and it would be unfair to ask the one who cut his wood all summer
to share his wood, when winter comes, with the one who spent his summer sleeping on the beach.
Greer also disapproves of romance novels and their Princes Charming. I understand her reasoning: these novels make women believe in the myth of the ideal man, of the unique love, of marriage as a
condition for a dream life. Yes, I suppose so. But if we go beyond that, romance novels are necessary for any "normal" life made of doubts, routine, unsatisfactory work, chores, misfortunes. Most
women who read a book whose lover is a charming, caring, even romantic man do not despise their husband. Everyone needs to dream. Some of a wonderful lover, others that they are invincible
heroes. It does not matter what form the dream takes, as long as the dream makes it possible to bear the reality that often lacks flowers and courage.
I know nothing about Germaine Greer except this book I just read. I wouldn't judge her by what she wrote 49 years ago and I wouldn’t dare to judge her at all! Twice in the book, Germaine Greer
briefly mentions her childhood, which was not a path paved with rose petals. So, one can only admire the path she has traveled in thought. If humanity progresses at a snail's pace, human beings,
during their lives, can change and evolve radically. Isn't that wonderful?