Feminist Germaine Greer has responded angrily to ongoing criticism of her belief that transgender women are not real women.
In a statement given to the VictoriaLIVE show on BBC Two, the veteran feminist campaigner issued her strongest criticism yet of the trans lobby:
“Just because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a f**cking 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 won’t turn me into a f**cking cocker spaniel.
“I do understand that some people are born intersex and they deserve support in coming to terms with their gender but it’s not the same thing. A man who gets his dick chopped off is actually inflicting an extraordinary act of violence on himself.”
The controversy started when students at Cardiff University launched a petition to ban Ms. Greer from speaking at an event called ‘Women & Power: The Lessons Of The 20th Century’ due to her “misogynistic views towards trans women, including continually misgendering trans women and denying the existence of transphobia altogether.”
Greer then appeared on BBC Newsnight to say she was “not about to walk on eggshells”, adding:
“Apparently people have decided that because I don’t think that post-operative transgender men are women, I’m not to be allowed to talk.”
“I’m not saying that people should not be allowed to go through that procedure, what I’m saying is it doesn’t make them a woman. It happens to be an opinion, it’s not a prohibition.”
When asked what she thought about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner winning Glamour‘s Woman of the Year award, Ms. Greer accused the magazine of misogyny and said that Mr./Ms. Jenner only wanted to undergo a sex change operation for attention.
“It seems to me that what was going on there was that he/she wanted the limelight that the other, female, members of the family were enjoying and has conquered it, just like that,” she said.
Germaine Greer was one of the leading figures in the original feminist movement in the 1960s, achieving fame with her book The Female Eunuch, but in recent years has fallen foul of the cultural left thanks to her comments on transsexuals.
She has now cancelled her appearance at Cardiff University, saying: “Bugger it. It’s not that interesting or rewarding.”