Germaine Greer Critical Essay | Critical Review by Anne Richardson Roiphe

Critical Review by Anne Richardson Roiphe

SOURCE: “Of Mothers and Sisters,” in The New Leader, May 17, 1971, pp. 8-10.

In the following review of The Female Eunuch, Roiphe objects to Greer's disavowal of motherhood, family, and monogamy.

Germaine Greer is a charming, spunky, honest woman; I admire her direct style, and enjoy her pleasure in words and ideas. She achieves a vital fusion of intellect and passion in her book that places it among the best of Feminist literature—neither a cold tract, cataloguing male abuses, nor a fervid call for revenge on mankind. Her energy, female energy, is strong and free and, like the center-forward on the field-hockey team, she urges us all on to victory. For Germaine Greer is a sexual person who has understood that the vagina is a source of pleasure and pride, and she wants her sisters to share her sensuality of body and spirit. She pushes them to renounce passivity,...
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