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Germaine Greer: ‘The Star Feminism Had to Have’, Unruliness, and Adaptable Celebrity

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Abstract

Germaine Greer is one of the West’s most iconic feminists, especially in terms of her enduring visibility. In this chapter, Taylor argues that throughout her public career Greer has exemplified—and indeed continues to exemplify—Kathleen Rowe’s figuration of the ‘unruly woman’, across various media platforms. Moreover, despite publicly expressing her ambivalence about celebrity, from the publication of The Female Eunuch to the present, Greer has herself put into practice a form of strategic media engagement to ensure feminism’s (and of course her own) visibility—to which this ‘unruly’ subjectivity has been pivotal. Taylor demonstrates how Greer has sustained the attention capital yielded by The Female Eunuch, adapting her celebrity feminism for new forms and new audiences, including British lifestyle and variety television.

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  1. Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Anthea Taylor

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Taylor, A. (2016). Germaine Greer: ‘The Star Feminism Had to Have’, Unruliness, and Adaptable Celebrity. In: Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-37334-2_5

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