Some years ago I saw Germaine Greer striding along round some university campus near Leeds, and it immediately struck me how she was even as barrel-chested round the mid-riff as science presenter Adam Hart-Davis.
I say this because Germaine came to mind to me the other day as I was in Borders riffling accidentally through her latest book, Going On About Shakespeare. Typical excerpt: “Who knows what Shakespeare was thinking as he chose the tainted quill for his next play. His wife didn’t. For it turns out she wasn’t even his wife, but his sister. His sister didn’t know. His wife might have. We don’t know. Did Shakespeare even exist? I don’t know. What is the significance of all this? I don’t know.”
Oh Germaine, I thought, you are wittering on. One can only assume she put her own money into it. Note to other authors, such as Richard Dawkins – never wilfully skidally all over your own demographic.
Germaine would say that her only topic of conversation in life lies in the field of feminism, which was an angle she discovered in her early twenties, and later managed to spin out into a book called the Female Eunuch. Typical extract: “Ah it is a terrible life, Mary, to be sure, to be sure.”
But in the absence of Germaine, who is to take up the mantle of talking non-stop about feminism? Not her offspring, nor any of her relations, who have reportedly not expressed an interest in getting involved. We cannot rely on Adam Hart-Davis to interject either, as his relationship to Germaine is defined only by my observation that he is barrel-chested also. The potential decline of talking non-stop about feminism is therefore a serious issue worse than racism, as there are more people in the world you could be anti-feminist against, than you could be racist against.
So let us beware, believe and be coming up with a succession plan for Germaine, an important task that I would potentially prioritise over sorting nuclear fusion. There was a lady on TV on Friday I saw that might do, but I didn’t catch her details. Do get in touch if you think you can identify her.
