portrait Germaine Greer (MA '63, DLitt '05)
She was a formidable student who became one of the
Western world's most influential contemporary thinkers.
Claire O'Rourke profiles Germaine Greer.
G
ermaine Greer has never been one to mince television program Big Brother last year before abruptly quitting,
words. Journalist and author Mungo reportedly criticising the show's bullying of her fellow celebrity
MacCallum says many anecdotes that spring housemates. Other high-profile clashes with the media abound.
from her time at the University of Sydney in Greer made a spirited contribution to campus life at the
the early 1960s are unprintable, but there is University of Sydney, where she graduated with a Master of Arts
one he recalls with particular fondness. degree in 1963 and was a tutor in the department of English.
A philosophical discussion between the She had a good singing voice and performed in student revues
members of the anarchistic Sydney Push was abruptly interrupted and other productions, playing the lead role in Bertold Brecht's
by the then postgraduate student and tutor. “God doesn't exist, Mother Courage and Her Children. She dressed in second-hand
and if he did he'd be a fascist ----,” Greer said. That was it - end clothes from the op shops along King Street, Newtown, and did
of conversation. a bit of journalism on the side.
MacCallum says Greer was a significant figure on campus, She was described by fellow students and friends as a striking
“an ornament to the idea of students being ratbags”. character who made life more interesting on and off campus.
“In the early 1960s, although a lot of people were quite Her contemporaries include humourist Clive James, art critic
liberated … women were still generally hangers on to the male Robert Hughes, journalist, author and scriptwriter Bob Ellis and
stars,” he says. the founder of the Bell Shakespeare Company, John Bell.
“Germaine burst on the scene in a spectacular way, partly Was she terribly intimidating? Les Murray, poet and former
because she was the only one there who was extraordinarily student, was not game to take her on. “[Greer was] a woman so
confident and outspoken.” formidable and interested in winning every conversation - not
Well-known feminist and self-described ratbag Eva Cox had just every argument but every conversation,” he says. “She was
dropped out of the University of Sydney by the time Greer terrifying … I don't think I was the only one who stayed away
arrived but came to know her through the “non-utopian from such a formidable character.”
anarchists” that formed the Sydney Push. High Court Judge Michael Kirby, who was the University's
Cox describes Greer as a flamboyant, upfront and often Student Representative Council president in 1961-62, says
infuriating character. “She certainly stood out, even in those Greer “realised early in her life that ideas are the most powerful
days,” she says. A testament to Greer's anarchist background, engines of change and she has always been a person of ideas,”
Cox says of Greer's academic work, is her skill at identifying he says.
problems but not often solutions to those problems. “There are too many boring people around - and she's not
“[Greer's book] The Female Eunuch was a major achievement one of them.”
and it really sort of established a lot of feminist thinking,” she says. The last word, of course, goes to Professor Greer, whose long
Greer has written at least a dozen texts since The Female career of rigorous scholarship and candour was recognised by
Eunuch. She has considered a range of issues, including the the University in November last year when it awarded her the
commercialisation of sexuality, fertility and family in Sex and degree Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.
Destiny: the Politics of Human Fertility (1984), her relationship Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Professor Greer
with her father in Daddy, We Hardly Knew You (1989) and urged graduates not to lose the intellectual rigour they had
menopause in The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause been exposed to in their three, four or more years at the
(1993). Her scholarship in art history and English literature has University. She called for them to stay with the “fellowship” that
also produced work on Shakespeare and, in 1979, The Obstacle is the academic body.
Race: the Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. Recently “And it's not a one-way traffic - it's not that you're expending
she has moved further afield to concentrate on Australian all this energy and getting nothing back, because every time you
indigenous rights and the aesthetic appeal of the male form. strengthen your mind you achieve a little bit more freedom,”
Defying what would be expected of an erudite university she said. “Freedom only exists in so far as you are prepared to
academic, she appeared in the British version of the reality exercise it.”