Germaine Greer has criticised the Me Too movement, claiming women who “spread (their) legs” for Harvey Weinstein in exchange for film roles should stop “whingeing”.
The noted second wave feminist and author of The Female Eunuch said in the “old days”, using the Carry On films as an example, women used to “outwit” leering men.
“What makes it different is when the man has economic power, as Harvey Weinstein has,” she said, as she received an Australian Of The Year award in London.
“But if you spread your legs because he said ‘be nice to me and I’ll give you a job in a movie’ then I’m afraid that’s tantamount to consent, and it’s too late to start whingeing about that.”
People on Twitter have denounced her as “problematic” and questioned her feminist credentials.
She said in the interview, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, that she wanted women to be able to “react here and now” to inappropriate behaviour.
The 78-year-old also dismissed calls to end Woody Allen’s career given allegations made by his daughter Dylan Farrow that he assaulted her in 1992.
Woody Allen has always denied the claims.
Greer has expressed controversial opinions in the past (Geoff Caddick/PA)
But this is not the first time Greer, who once appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, has disappointed modern feminists.
Back in 1997, she objected to a transgender woman remaining a don at a women’s only Cambridge college, and has publicly argued against trans women’s validity as women ever since.
In 2015, after being no-platformed by students at Cardiff University because of her views, she told BBC’s Newsnight: “Apparently people have decided that because I don’t think that post-operative transgender men, ie M to F transgender people, are women, I’m not to be allowed to talk.”