The Female Eunuch has been reprinted 36 times or thereabouts since 1970-
Quoting Elizabeth Wurtzel in her essay The New C Word , on The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, " I've always had this positively sexy view of the movement. For me feminism is about feeling great, looking good, getting the run of one's own life, having your needs and wants and wishes fulfilled." In contrast also writing today, in her book "Feminism a Very Short Introduction" Margaret Walters surveys women in their early twenties, some university educated, others working and when asked "whether they considered themselves feminists or indeed had any interest in feminism most of them replied, flatly no. That it belonged to academia, to fundamentalists and was in short no longer relevant to their generation"
Reading the Female Eunuch for the first time now, in 2008, I was struck first of all by the energy and passion of Germaine Greer, then I felt some of her ideas had dated. Then I realised shamefully that I was a beneficiary of the battles of feminists to give me some of the freedoms Germaine Greer was desperate for me to have. I had NEVER felt that I only existed to be the wife of someone or the daughter of someone else. I had only ever thought I was a person in my own right. I also realised that the work I produced so freely was chock full of imagery which could not have been meaningful fifty years earlier and has meaning now for audiences because of the forty odd years of change wraught on by behalf. My own work has been called 'brave'. ...and it is a slight compliment when compared with women who have struggles for such basic rights as education for women, and which we see lacking in some countries today.
Germaine Greer MUST be read for anyone to understand the journey women have taken for us to be so much freer today. Of especial interest to artists are the early chapters where the author attempts to debunk specialists who try to make an undue emphasis on the physicality of men and women as a basis for difference in treatment, in terms of work, pay, education and opportunity. Her work on the stereotype (p63-72) and the woman as an object of male fantasy (p213-221) is colourful and compelling.
Bobby Baker the performance artist describes the need to be passionate about what one wants to say, Germaine Greer is passionate, essentially she wants to communicate to everyone and not just to academics and to extremists. We have to reflect on how we think today as we make work. Our aim MUST be to challenge or else what is the point? Elizabeth Wurzel takes a turned-in selfish attitude to feminism in her essay, which does not adequately take into account the breadth and sense of social relevence of Germaine Greer. In our own work are we doing what we do for the audience or for ourselves?
As artists we have the power to define ourselves and our work through the unique languages of our puppetry- Margaret Walters ends her book with a prophetic point that a refreshed and enlivened feminism will come not from academia but from the real world with new issues and a new language. We are now concerned with feminism AND post colonial and queer theatre- which already hints at fascinating new hybrids.
Bibliography:
Greer G. (1970) The Female Eunuch. (reprinted 2006) Harper CollinsPublishers. London
Walters M(2005) Feminism A Very Short Introduction.Oxford University Press. Oxford
Wurzel E. (2006) The New C-Word Harper CollinsPublishers .London
Quoting Elizabeth Wurtzel in her essay The New C Word , on The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, " I've always had this positively sexy view of the movement. For me feminism is about feeling great, looking good, getting the run of one's own life, having your needs and wants and wishes fulfilled." In contrast also writing today, in her book "Feminism a Very Short Introduction" Margaret Walters surveys women in their early twenties, some university educated, others working and when asked "whether they considered themselves feminists or indeed had any interest in feminism most of them replied, flatly no. That it belonged to academia, to fundamentalists and was in short no longer relevant to their generation"
Reading the Female Eunuch for the first time now, in 2008, I was struck first of all by the energy and passion of Germaine Greer, then I felt some of her ideas had dated. Then I realised shamefully that I was a beneficiary of the battles of feminists to give me some of the freedoms Germaine Greer was desperate for me to have. I had NEVER felt that I only existed to be the wife of someone or the daughter of someone else. I had only ever thought I was a person in my own right. I also realised that the work I produced so freely was chock full of imagery which could not have been meaningful fifty years earlier and has meaning now for audiences because of the forty odd years of change wraught on by behalf. My own work has been called 'brave'. ...and it is a slight compliment when compared with women who have struggles for such basic rights as education for women, and which we see lacking in some countries today.
Germaine Greer MUST be read for anyone to understand the journey women have taken for us to be so much freer today. Of especial interest to artists are the early chapters where the author attempts to debunk specialists who try to make an undue emphasis on the physicality of men and women as a basis for difference in treatment, in terms of work, pay, education and opportunity. Her work on the stereotype (p63-72) and the woman as an object of male fantasy (p213-221) is colourful and compelling.
Bobby Baker the performance artist describes the need to be passionate about what one wants to say, Germaine Greer is passionate, essentially she wants to communicate to everyone and not just to academics and to extremists. We have to reflect on how we think today as we make work. Our aim MUST be to challenge or else what is the point? Elizabeth Wurzel takes a turned-in selfish attitude to feminism in her essay, which does not adequately take into account the breadth and sense of social relevence of Germaine Greer. In our own work are we doing what we do for the audience or for ourselves?
As artists we have the power to define ourselves and our work through the unique languages of our puppetry- Margaret Walters ends her book with a prophetic point that a refreshed and enlivened feminism will come not from academia but from the real world with new issues and a new language. We are now concerned with feminism AND post colonial and queer theatre- which already hints at fascinating new hybrids.
Bibliography:
Greer G. (1970) The Female Eunuch. (reprinted 2006) Harper CollinsPublishers. London
Walters M(2005) Feminism A Very Short Introduction.Oxford University Press. Oxford
Wurzel E. (2006) The New C-Word Harper CollinsPublishers .London
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