Charles's Reviews > The Female Eunuch

The problem with reading a book like this decades after it was written is you aren't a part of that time, and the Female Eunuch was very much a part of that time. Some of it still stands up, but other parts are the statements of a youthful movement, confident in the absolute correctness of its untested positions. Since Greer wrote this, parents have attempted to raise children in a neutral way and seen boys blowing up dolls and nursing fire trucks, suggesting things are a bit more complex than one might have thought.

Still, Greer's theory that women are forced into a self-perpetuating mold was a good one, and she makes a strong case that women's limitations are, to a great extent, man-made.

Unfortunately, Greer comes across as the stereotypical feminist, humorless, angry, elitis, and certain to a fault. She wants to upturn society, rewriting economics, marriage laws, and the very concept of love and affection (which she seems to either disbelieve in or disapprove of). She doesn't just hate the way women are treated in society; she hates society and the entire structure of humanity, and would, it seems, throw out every law and tradition in a second if she could.

And this, along with her tendency towards Freudian-style psychobabble (even though she criticizes Freud, the language is of Freud) and the pretentious language of the intellectual makes her increasingly annoying. Ultimately I gave up on the book, because I found it so unlikable.

It was the right book at the right time, and said a lot of things that needed saying. And perhaps only someone as arrogant as Greer could have said it. But it's not something I found enjoyable to read.