The Female Eunuch

I finished reading Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch last night and found I had forgotten how revolutionary the final chapter was. It advocates encouraging new ways of organising society such as co-operative buying of staple household items and not being brainwashed by brand appeal. She warns about the adverse effect of consumerism and suggests that if women really want to change their lives they should not be so influenced by the idea of having the latest appliance - just because it is the latest. She suggests farming out domestic tasks you hate doing to people who like doing them and sharing things like washing machines between households. In this way families will not be 'forced' to spend money they haven't got on things they probably don't need - though she does say a washing machine is necessary!

She points out that while the nuclear family with traditional roles suits a minority of women it forces many to spend most of their time undertaking repetitive and boring tasks. To share these out on a barter system would ease the burden for many people. She sees nothing wrong with paying someone to look after your children if they can do it better than you can. She argues that it is only with domestic tasks this is seen as unacceptable. If you needed legal advice you'd pay a solicitor so why not pay someone who enjoys spending all their time with kids to look after yours so that you can spend some time doing the things you do find satisfying and rewarding? Simple - but still revolutionary even 40 years later. I can see why this book caused such a stir at the time it was first published. I know it made me stop and think about things I'd always thought unchangeable.

Re-reading a classic

I am currently re-reading Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch. I first read it soon after it was published and was very impressed. I've read about 70 pages so far and many of the things she rails against are even worse now. The cult of the body beautiful for example and the emphasis on not having any body hair. Now this has extended to men which wasn't the case back in the 1970s. The book stands up well to re-reading and her writing style is always interesting.

For myself I am against hair removal and I always feel that it makes adults look like children. Adults have body hair and children don't. I know it's now pushed as being a hygiene issue but I've always believed that you just need to wash regularly and that natural smells are just that - natural smells. However I do think we need underarm deodorants - but that's as far as I go I'm afraid. As someone I once worked with commented on a colleague - 'She's got deodorants for places that I didn't even know I had.'