BOOK: The Female Eunuch - Germaine Greer

Title: The Female Eunuch
Author: Germaine Greer
Genre: Essay (on feminism)
Publisher: Harper Perennial 1970
Pages: Paperback, 371
Language: English
Rating: 8/10

Summary: When Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch was first published it created a shock wave of recognition in women, one that could be felt around the world. It went on to become an international bestseller, and a landmark in the history of the women's movement. Positing that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation, Greer looks at the inherent and unalterable biological differences between men and women as well as at the profound psychological differences that result from social conditioning.

Review
I stole the summary, because I couldn't find the words myself. I had wanted to read this book ever since I read the follow up The Whole Woman. That book analyses the invasive ways in which the health industry persuades women into having their bodies and reproductive systems "managed" and it infuriated me. So I had high expectations for the book that made Germaine Greer famous; the one that inspired women to make themselves be heard.

The language was sometimes a little too scientific for me and the amount of data and subjects is overwhelming, but even if some parts went over my head, I did recognize most of the situations Greer uses as examples. I found it to be an intriguing document of its time. It didn't so much make me angry as sad, because I realized it's not even dated yet on a lot of subjects.
To recommend this book and show how relevant it still is, I copied part of the foreword Germaine Greer wrote for the 21st Anniversary Edition. She talks about how much we seem to have achieved in the past twenty-odd years: it's now possible for women to compete in sports, run businesses and talk openly about sex and more. So...
"What more could women want?
Freedom, that's what.
Freedom from being the thing looked at rather than the person looking back. Freedom from self-consciousness. Freedom from the duty of sexual stimulation of jaded male appetite, for which no breast ever bulges hard enough and no leg is ever long enough. Freedom from the uncomfortable clothes that must be worn to titillate.[...]
The freedom I pleaded for twenty years ago was freedom to be a person, with the dignity, integrity, nobility, passion, pride that constitute personhood. Freedom to run, shout, to talk loudly and sit with your knees apart. [...] Freedom to learn and freedom to teach. Freedom from fear, freedom from hunger, freedom of speech and freedom of belief. Most of the women in the world are still afraid, still hungry, still mute and loaded by religion with all kinds of fetters, masked, muzzled, mutilated and beaten. The Female Eunuch does not deal with poor women (for when I wrote it I did not know them) but with the women of the rich world, whose oppression is seen by poor women as freedom.
[...]
You can now see the female Eunuch the world over; all the time we thought we were driving her out of our minds and hearts she was spreading herself wherever blue jeans and Coca-Cola may go. Wherever you see nail varnish, lipstick, brassieres and high heels, the Eunuch has set up her camp. You can find her triumphant even under the veil."