Greer, Germaine (1939—)
Australian feminism scholar, political activist, and journalist. She became a household name with the international bestseller The Female Eunuch (1970), a vanguard text in Second Wave feminism. Greer argued that culture has separated women from their libido, their desire, and their sexuality, thus rendering them virtual eunuchs. Her larger quarrel is that this separation of women from their libido is in effect a separation of them from their capacity to act, and as such it is politically stifling. If feminism is to achieve its goals, she argues, and actually liberate women from the confining strictures of patriarchy then it needs to put women back in touch with their sexuality. To do this, Greer argued, women should give up celibacy, monogamy, even the nuclear family. Not surprisingly, Greer’s theses were regarded as provocative and her work drew considerable criticism as well as lavish praise. Following the success of this book, Greer has maintained a high-profile existence championing the cause of feminism, not always in a way that is greeted with widespread agreement, but rarely if ever in a way that doesn’t provoke thought and comment. She has published several books since, but none as successful as her first.