Germaine Greer | The Cambridge Union

[@Rossion64]

I think Germaine, contrary to being an exponent of dangerous ideas, remains one of the few vocal academics who advocates the only safe and humane ways to reorganize society. She is the antithesis of the popular right-wing intellectual cynic.

[@evelynbaron2004]

lots of big empty words popular right-wing intellectual cynic is alphabet soup to me. She's been on the planet a long time, has thought long and hard about issues, deserves to be heard; left right what good does this kind of categorization do ultimately? She said a lot of things that made a lot of people uncomfortable, that much is clear. Hope when I reach her age I have that kind of clear head and nuanced thinking and sheer bravery to speak out against any strong tide that sweeps people along and prevents them from thinking for themselves. The audience behaved disgracefully.

[@nickhumphrey4833]

I think Germaine Greer is brilliant, I went to see her talk when I wasn't old enough to appreciate her. Now I do

[@evelynbaron2004]

I watch both the Cambridge and Oxford Union addresses as a matter of course and have done over the years, sometimes wondering why. I urge anyone put off by the beginning to either fast forward or stick it out because during the last part I regained interest and respect for the audience members who spoke. I would like to remind younger women; I'm 64, that women like Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer were in vulnerable positions that they transcended; quoting Jackson Browne, you had to suffer; you had to fight, but you keep on smiling so clear and so bright …. they fought for things we take for granted and you do a disservice to yourselves collectively to discount these essential voices, in the same way that one can forget about Martin Luther King etc. History doesn't begin or end with us but we are all responsible for how we choose to contribute our hearts and minds.

[@richardeasther2569]

She is a world treasure ,listen to her please

[@edwardrussell7168]

Glad she is exposing the hell in which most women live on this planet...

[@Page-Hendryx]

You're being sarcastic...right?

[@ashleighwatson501]

The young woman thinking she can tutor Germaine Greer on the distinction between sex and gender, by conflating sex and gender. Then projects blame onto her for the hurt feelings of trans women, just because GG centres natal/biological females in her feminism. What a joke.

[@jacpratt8608]

not funny. Getting worse.

[@wombat6177]

Yep getting worse

[@johnurquhart4614]

Pretty humourless bunch, these Cambridge students. Greer had me chuckling in the first minutes. Not a peep in the chamber. Her wit and humour have always marked her out as a feminist a cut above the rest.

[@tenaciousduk6587]

Wow, GG anticipated the pandemic. I know scientists knew it was likely, but it’s interesting to hear her say it. I found the whole thing thought provoking. Thank you for sharing this.

[@heidibabb1793]

I thought Cambridge students were meant to be top of the crop and mega smart! All I heard was nonsense about trans people and how offended they were about Germaines opinions. Constant bombardment on this topic which became tedious. Germaine is a powerhouse of thought and I love listening to her views and observations which are gold...

[@slavicadamjanovic9535]

Wow. Dr Greer spoke about women’s issues and the first question is about transphobia. What do they teach at Cambridge?

[@utradayebhagwandeen7222]

Germaine Feet is one of the BEST person who can influence the System to Get Rid of Crap ideology n focusing on moving forward with Germaine Greer. Only ONE Germaine Greer we have make good use of HER NOW. People of the WORLD watching Get Germain Greer on BOARD NOW. Namaste ji

[@gretalukoseviciute2058]

Thank you, Germaine.

[@jacpratt8608]

1.20 applause for the applause. Go Germaine. Never apologize. Keep on keeping on, there's a lot of us with you.

[@SimonMclennan]

Didn’t hear many intelligent or insightful questions from the students. Sad really.

[@Jgrayski]

DePaul Women’s and Gender Studies Department (possibly shielded by the Catholic authorities at the school that generally preclude public opinion and prohibit unions) still teaches Germaine Greer and the Female Eunuch is required reading, I believe, for all WMS students. Greer is not popular with the transgender group of students who try to force their discourse into university bylaws, but I always politely dismissed their authoritarian push for triumphalism and instead refocus on a personalized approach that Greer discusses here...we have to talk about hard topics and she is one feminist that I refuse to leave out of the conversation.

[@WendyKeenan]

There is no sound on this video though it appears there has previously been as given by people who’ve made comments. Any ideas what may be causing this and ways to find the original with sound?

[@evelynbaron2004]

For me it lasted 2 minutes, fast forwarded and all was well; not aware of any fundamental issues except amateur recording; an issue definitely worth addressing. I was profoundly disappointed with the audience so perhaps you didn't miss much.

[@allotrope2978]

The front and centre audio channels are missing but the side channels are there. Try a different set of speakers maybe.

[@lynnebarnes5645]

I can hear it with the ear phones on.

[@robzrob]

Always fascinating.

[@robzrob]

Almost 2 minutes before anything happened. LOOK. This is 2016, we've all got a lot of information to get through. If you want your stuff to be listened to, you have GOT to edit it better. (You're not the only culprit, btw.)

[@AN-fb3kq]

robzrob 0

[@evelynbaron2004]

whom are you addressing certainly not Germaine Greer who arrived and spoke in good faith. The audience was infantile and pathetic.

[@sarahfort3184]

Refreshing fierce intelligence and soul. What a Woman!

[@myhounddog]

Germaine Greer is a hero to all Women!

[@slavicadamjanovic9535]

Wow. Dr Greer spend hours talking about issues women face and this unintelligent being asks her about transphobia .

[@MusicloverLiz]

There's no audio

[@georgiemerry8929]

I love her so much

[@lillithremedy]

What's up with the audio?

[@cherberg32]

***** cannot hear it on my computer...I SURELY HOPE THIS NOT NOPLATFORMING

[@evelynbaron2004]

Fast forward 2 min and all is well; if you lasted this long you would have realized that, the least of the problems encountered with a brave woman with nuanced ideas ganged up on deliberately by members of the audience. Shameful behaviour beneath contempt.

[@MM-yi9zn]

Woke is so yesterday . Enough of this “ feeling” culture with zero facts & zero science!

[@hello-mynameis]

i ❤️ the Goddess Germaine

[@markscott2908]

The sound is faulty on this

[@AliHussain-fz7pd]

The photo was owned by the late Felix Dennis.

[@francieleone]

No sound

[@hybridmongrel]

Ha, I think KZbin has knobbledctge sound!!

[@evelynbaron2004]

I linked this address to a friend before I watched it myself and yes I stuck it out and there were intelligent voices in the wilderness but this was a gang of young wolves trying to pull down a stag. Ashamed of all that participated in that. I did my undergraduate work in Cambridge before studying on the continent; my parents are European, I was born in Canada, my upbringing was privileged and going to a girls' school delayed the mess that hormones engender so was good at chess and debating and the swim team etc. without self consciousness. And girls are just as bad as boys; the transition to adulthood is fraught no question. The arc of my personal history meant giving up a lot of ideas of privilege best thing that ever happened to me. It raises the question I still ask myself; value of a gap year. If it means removing someone from their accustomed environment so they are in a better position to make better choices, on the basis of this disgraceful video I would say, 75% of you needed to go away and grow up.

[@jacpratt8608]

need a gap decade. at least. a gap rest of life?

[@BALBIRSINGH-qf5ft]

Germaine Greer is thinker s writer.

[@raymondsinclair4]

1:26 she was bang on about covid five years before

[@borredDead]

1:00:21 Trans women absolutely want a womb and female reproductive parts. The communities I've been apart of always bring up the latest advances toward being able to give birth as a trans woman.

[@jondhoe6875]

+borredDead It will never happen and SHOULD not. We already have too many.

[@poxylandgamesers959]

Cloning? Are we watching Junior the movie

[@ericme4767]

borrodDead, I agree with you that the quality of the talk went down as she talked about the trans community. How can transpeople be disproportionatly targeted for violent crime and there not be transphobia? How can she say they want to act feminin like their being bullied so much for who they are is a choice? How can she, on the one hand say transwomen are not real women because being a real woman is hard yet precisely claim transitioning is so unadvisable because it's hard? We get it Germain, life is hard. How can she say trans people, as a whole, are deleuded like she knows them. Deleuded people believe one thing regardless of the evidence proving otherwise. Trans women know they have or had a penis. But there is no proof against the fact that their gender contradicting their sex is a deleusion, much less reason to insinuate such a thing. Plus, who said she has to agree that the trans community are sane and female when all she was asked to do was explain why she believed such a thing, before she started playing the victim on the bases that women born with penus' need permition to be what they are from those born without?

[@lynnebarnes5645]

@@ericme4767 you will just have to get over the fact that she has no interest in the tiny% of men who want to cut their cocks off and put lipstick on. In the big picture it us of minuscule importance.

[@myknittingblog]

@@ericme4767 I think it's not about what you say, I think it's about how many men that transition into being women take on this parody of being feminine that is basically what women who are "castrated" are doing too. She refers to the infantile submissive behaviour of overt femininity as a kind of castration of women. So she is referring to that too. It's not about saying they can't transition. She also says there can be alternatives to having these irreversible operations followed by years of taking heavy hormones and medication. She doesn't hate trans people. You need to listen to her without emotion and take it in as logic.

[@nonenone5413]

1:26:32 Greer PREDICTED COVID-19!

[@stephensharp3033]

She is doing an anthology of invertebrate poems.

[@salvatoreshiggerino6810]

1:17:50 topkek at the guy white knighting for the transvestites

[@francieleone]

❤️

[@borredDead]

1:01:35 What is she doing right now?

[@lynnebarnes5645]

Saving a rain Forest.

[@katkatkatkat463]

It makes no sense to me that she says "women weren't asked to accept transgender people. It wasn't even explained to them." Being a woman isn't some country club that trans people can apply to for membership. I don't expect someone to pop up and explain their existence to me so I can veto it. Literally what is she talking about.

[@jimmmmy41]

Is being a woman just a feeling? I feel I'm a woman so I am a woman? It seems like a great deal of male privilege being exercised that we must go along with his feelings, disregarding what actual woman feel about that.

[@katkatkatkat463]

There is a difference between gender as a social construction and the way we categorise sex organs in biological terms. Once upon a time Germaine herself was big on that distinction. The problem is that “actual women” (by which I assume you mean people born with female sex organs) are about half of humanity; diverse individuals with very different opinions. The discomfort or disgust of some of those individuals is not a verdict from the group, and should not be the basis of policy. I am not excessively interested in whether other people’s genitalia align with my assumptions based on their gender presentation. Suggesting trans people only “feel like a women” demonstrates that you’re being flippant, not that trans gender identity is arbitrary. Throwing out the male privilege card is a bad faith argument.

[@jimmmmy41]

Transsexual people should be protected and respected, but I don't think one gets to mess with other people's identities in the process of sorting out his or her own. Notice when women disagree with the new orthodoxy, they are dealt with in a misogynistic way. Look at the epithets JK Rowling has had thrown at her - pure misogyny. Meanwhile, the former Bruce Jenner is named Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine, with all the glammy goodies and size 17 JImmy Choos. It's nonsense. Adolescents, with underdeveloped prefrontal cortices are being experimented on, as if there is no such thing as unforeseen consequences. They are the thalidomide babies of this post-modern morass of nonsense.

[@myhounddog]

Your not old enough to understand. Message us when you turn 40.

[@lorasaltis4134]

@@katkatkatkat463 Male privilege is exactly the point here. This is a "debate" about men pushing in to women's spaces. The ultimate in male penetration. Only YES means YES. You don't just get to "identify" into a group that you do not belong to just because you think or wish you did. Only women are women.

[@jacpratt8608]

50m in questions start. First off here we go again. transphobia, and off it goes.

[@lizabethgussman3147]

Fix it!

[@ShaunaAllen-qn6lt]

She has done nothing to advance the lives of women. She is only an advocate for her own greviances. She has contempt for working class women and mothers. She must truly love the sound of her own voice. Without the attention the media gives Ms. Greer she would have no purpose

[@CelineOracle]

Contempt for working class women and mothers? Did you not hear her go over that case of the women with 8 children...surely a working class woman that was?

[@jammyn7368]

@@CelineOracle Perhaps she didn't watch? LOL. I agree: she showed great compassion for the poor woman and wondered why other feminists and female journalists didn't question the narrative pushed by the male dominated media during the trial.

[@DonSanchoPanza]

In my country we have a name for women such as Germaine Greer: Hell Sole. It is a sort of legend that hell, like a building, needs a foundation, a sole, a being incalculably evil necessary to hold the lesser evils, without which the hell crumbles.

[@lynnebarnes5645]

Get help.

[@jacpratt8608]

what country is this ingenious place?

[@ianwilliams6042]

31:10 Greer gets it completely wrong here about Shipman. Old women die all the time - not a damn thing you can do about it - so no-one thought anything odd about it at all.

[@bettybuccaneer]

+Ian Williams Ah shaddup.

[@allotrope2978]

Her point is that mot nearly enough attention is paid to the lives of old women, to the point that one man was able to kill 150 of them until he was caught.

[@lynnebarnes5645]

+ Ian Williams, you are a moron with no empathy, who hurt you when you were young?

[@jammyn7368]

If old men had died at the rate that these old women had, with the same doctor being at the scene for these deaths, someone would have questioned the deaths and perhaps spared the lives of countless others.

[@georgiemerry8929]

You are so deprived I feel so sorry for you

[@TheBoudicca3]

Just watched this. Germaine Greer as interesting as ever. Speaks for over an hour. Mentions a lot of very interesting points (not all I agree with because I would still need to think about them) and the audience - I would say, incredibly biased, stupid student audience, has not listened to ONE word; they. have sat there only with one intent, to condemn GG as a transphobe, to discuss transgender, which was not part of the lecture. This is the world we live in. This is what makes me think, no one deserves a university education. It's wasted on those idiots asking about trans issues which had not and was not part of Germaine Greer's talk. Shame on Cambridge students; go get a job and live in the real world.

[@Catarax28]

They probably earned some brownie points from their "community" for "sticking it to her" .. disgusting...