Transphobe Germaine Greer defends Harvey Weinstein in vicious attack against #MeToo movement
(Kane Hibberd/Getty Images)
Famous transphobic feminist Germaine Greer has defended men accused of sexual assault in an attack on the #MeToo movement.
Talking to Australian media, Greer rebuked women who have come forward in light of the sexual abuse scandals which have emerged since the revelation of Harvey Weinstein’s misconduct last year.
Kevin Spacey, Aziz Ansari and many others have all also been outed as alleged sexual abusers.
But Greer said that the women should have come forward in the moment, adding that many of the survivors were not actually sexually assaulted because their definition of consent was wrong.
“I want, I’ve always wanted, to see women react immediately,” she said. “I want women to react here and now. I want the woman on a train who feels a man’s hand where it shouldn’t be … to be able to say quite clearly, ‘Stop.’ ”
Greer, who was talking after winning the Australian of the Year in the UK award, went on to claim that in the past, women had always “outwitted” sexual assaulters.
She said: “In the old days, there were movies – the Carry On comedies, for example – which always had a man leering after women.
Over 50 people accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for National Geographic)
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“And the women always outwitted him – he was a fool.
“We weren’t afraid of him and we weren’t afraid to slap him down.”
She said it wasn’t quite the same in Weinstein’s case, but went on to defend the disgraced producer.
“What makes it different is when the man has economic power, as Harvey Weinstein has,” she said.
“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 now to start whingeing about that.”
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Greer went on to claim that rape should no longer be prosecuted as a crime or else we would have to deal with trials like the infamous OJ Simpson case “all over again”.
“My feeling is we ditch rape altogether [as a crime] because it’s hopeless.
“I have seen the police working up a rape case trying desperately hard to build it up so it will stand up in court – and wasting their time.
“The burden of proof is too high and that’s because the tariff is too onerous. Rape is a daily crime, it’s not spectacular. What we need is a coherent law of sexual assault.
“It’s going to be the OJ Simpson trial all over again in spades, it will go on and on, and it will pit woman against woman. And I’m really concerned that the women who have given testimony now will be taken to pieces.
Director Woody Allen’s daughter accused him of sexual abuse when she was seven (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“Because power is power, ultimately, and the people protesting are people who don’t have the power,” she added.
The noted feminist author has come under scrutiny a number of times for her extreme views about trans people, famously claiming: “Just because you lop off your d**k and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a f***ing woman”.
This is just one of many claims that Greer has made, with other choice comments and ideas including her belief that trans women should not marry other women because it isn’t “fair”.
She also said that the trans identity meant that she could “call herself a Cocker Spaniel”, and that she would not recognise trans women as women or trans men as men even if “a knife was held to her throat”.
