Germaine Greer accuses Caitlyn Jenner of ‘wanting Kardashian limelight’
The feminist has accused the TV star of stealing the limelight from other female members of the Kardashian family.
In comments likely to further alienate campaigners who object to the writer and commentator’s views about trans people, Germaine Greer has lashed out at the former Olympian.
Greer made the comments whilst discussing Jenner being tipped for Glamour magazine’s Woman of the Year award – which she blamed on “misogyny”.
“I think misogyny plays a really big part in all of this, that a man who goes to these lengths to become a woman will be a better woman than someone who is just born a woman,” she said.
She goes on to say that Jenner’s transition was nothing more than a “desperate attempt” to steal attention away from the other females in her infamous family – including ex-wife Kris and step-daughter Kim Kardashian.
“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 added, snapping her fingers.
Greer was speaking after it emerged that an online petition had been launched seeking to prevent her giving a lecture at Cardiff University.
Greer caused controversy in January this year at a talk in Cambridge University, when she said that trans women will never be women because they do not know what it’s like to have a “big, hairy, smelly vagina”.
At the time of writing, nearly 2000 people had signed the petition calling for Cardiff University not to host the lecture.
The petition states that “Greer has demonstrated time and time again her misogynistic views towards trans women, including continually misgendering trans women and denying the existence of transphobia altogether”.
However, rather than apologise for any offence she may have caused to the trans community, Greer recently defended her earlier comments.
“I was going to talk about women and power, because I think there is a lot of triumphalist [sic] talk that masks the real historic situation,” she told BBC News.
She has previously exhibited transphobic comments in both 2009 and 1999, claiming: “No so-called sex-change has ever begged for a uterus-and-ovaries transplant; if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were made mandatory for wannabe women they would disappear overnight.”
