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Feminism and "The Female Eunuch"
Reed, Evelyn
http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed-evelyn/1971/female-eunuch.htmPublisher: Marxists.org Year Published: 1971 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX22817 A review of the book Germaine Greer's book "The Female Eunuch." Originally published in International Socialist Review. Abstract: -- Excerpt: Although the word "eunuch" is defined as "a castrated male person," Greer claims that it is the woman who is castrated. Frigidity in women, unconnected with any frigidity or impotence in men, lies at the bottom of the joyless sexual relations between the sexes today. "Cherchez la femme" is the expression commonly used in the search for a female scapegoat. Now this feminist from England proceeds along a similar line. Sex for many has become a sorry business," says Greer, a fact few will dispute. It is also no secret - even without the use of electronic devices in laboratory experiments to demonstrate it - that the most "enfeebled" sex relations occur in the "ideal marriage," where it is "dull sex for dull people." However, according to Greer the situation is scarcely better outside the bonds of holy wedlock. Although today "more girls permit more (joyless) liberties" than ever before, they seem to be getting as little satisfaction out of it as the married women. Thus, she complains, not only homosexuality but "group sex, criminal sex, child violation, bondage and discipline" are flourishing apace. But "simple sexual energy," presumably meaning heterosexual sex, is badly deteriorated. Subject Headings |