Germaine Greer on trans women: I could call myself a Cocker Spaniel
Germaine Greer has continued to defend her anti-trans comments, insisting she could “call herself a Cocker Spaniel” but wouldn’t be accepted as one.
Speaking to the Victoria Derbyshire Show recently, feminist author Germaine Greer claimed: “Just because you lop off your d**k and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a f***ing woman.
“I’ve asked my doctor to give me long ears and liver spots and I’m going to wear a brown coat but that doesn’t turn me into a f***ing cocker spaniel.
“A man who gets his d**k chopped off is actually inflicting an extraordinary act of violence on himself.”
She repeated her comments on Newsnight this week – after a ‘review of the year’ clip marked the landmark moment that Caitlyn Jenner came out.
Repeating her previous comments, she said: “Are we really interested in Caitlyn Jenner, honestly?
“You know, I don’t mind her calling herself a woman. I could call myself a Cocker Spaniel. I don’t think Cocker Spaniels would accept me if I did.
“The interesting thing about this is for indigenous people for example, you can get to choose who belongs to your group. I wanted to be a Jew from the time I was born, but I couldn’t be a Jew.”
However, the feminist author added that she does believe in rights for people who are born intersex – not decisively male or female.
She said: “I’m very interested in intersex. Far from being transphobic, I actually think intersex is an important state of life and should be allowed to exist.
“But what do we do with intersex children? We operate on them as newborns and give them what we think are appropriate genitalia.”
It is the latest in the string of comments Greer has made about gender identity – despite insisting the issue is not important to her.
She claimed earlier this month: “There are men who have been married and who have had children and who believe they’ve been women all along.
“I don’t believe them. Sorry, you can hold a knife to my throat. I don’t believe you.”
