Author Germaine Greer has been criticised for comments she has made while speaking at the Cambridge Union.
The Cambridge Student has reported that when asked about her previous public comments on transgender women that had been viewed as transphobic, the author said;
“I didn’t know there was such a thing [as transphobia]. Arachnaphobia, yes. Transphobia, no.”
When answering questions from the audience Greer said she felt that the surgery involved in transitioning gender was “unethical” because they “remove healthy tissue and create lifelong dependence on medicine”.
Greer said she hoped that there will be less emphasis on surgery in the future, and more opportunities for individuals to exist within their own sexualities and orientations.
Greer reportedly went on to suggest that trans women are not women because they do not know what it is like “to have a big, hairy, smelly vagina”.
In 2009 the writer published a column in which she wrote that trans women “seem to us ghastly parodies”. Greer also said the idea of being trans was a “delusion”. Previously in her book ‘The Whole Woman”, which was published in 1999, Greer described trans women as “men who believe that they are women and have had themselves castrated”.
LGBTIQ student groups at Cambridge University have called for a ban on guests with a history of hate speech. The LGBTIQ+ campaign has vowed not to hold events at The Student Union in the future.
OIP Staff
