Some Germane Thoughts On Germaine

This blog intends to be a Big Brother-free zone. I watch my fair share of rubbish on television but I can usually justify it on the grounds that it is either entertaining or has some kind of 'sub-text' that reveals something interesting or useful. For me, BB has neither of these justifications.

I mention it today only because it has now sought to lure a different type of viewer by including Germaine Greer. Sure enough, the 'quality' papers have been spewing out articles about her, mostly focusing on why she's doing it. The money, obviously. Her late signing for the programme suggests she only agreed when the bucks got big enough. I don't criticise her for that. None of us can say with certainty what we would refuse to do if the reward were big enough.

My problem with Germaine is that, like many politicians, she has an opinion on everything and is not just just a 'rent-a-quote' but a 'rent-an-intellectual'. But because she so often shoots from the hip her arguments are intellectual mutton dressed up as lamb. (I was going to say a bit like the lady herself, but let's not get personal).
She has written contemptuously about male-to-female transexuals, calling them "men masquerading as women" and "a gross parody of my sex", showing a complete failure to understand the nature of the condition. In this, she is no different than most of the population. The difference is that this is someone who is supposed to be highly intelligent and something of an expert on the subject of sexuality. It was the cruel and insulting nature of that particular rant that so annoyed me. Being a transexual makes being gay seem like a picnic. I once got to know a male-to-female transexual and, as I often told her, she was the bravest person I knew.

Germaine is now making a television programme which attacks those who oppose fox hunting. Apparently, one of her arguments is that factory farming is far more cruel. Few anti-hunters would disagree with that but that in itself does not justify fox hunting. There's also one important ethical distinction. People don't gather round the chicken coops or in the abbatoirs dressed in red coats, drinking sherry, and calling it a sport or a social occasion.

Amazingly, however much she spouts intellectually worthless bigotry, like the worst kind of London cabbie shouting over his shoulder, the liberal chattering classes still regard Germaine as 'one of us'.
Nice work if you can get it.
And a nice trick if you can pull it off.