Germaine Greer - Other Media

Other Media

In 1992 Greer wrote an article in The Guardian claiming that "men hate women" but that "women cannot hate men". Her comments came in for a great deal of criticism in following day's paper. Greer responded to Christine Wallace's biography, Germaine Greer: The Untamed Shrew (1997), by claiming that biographies of living persons are morbid and worthless, as they can only be incomplete. She said: "I don't write about any living women... because I think that's invidious; there is no point in limiting her by the achievements of the past because she's in a completely different situation, and I figure she can break the moulds and start again."

In 1998, Greer wrote the episode Make Love not War for the 1998 television documentary series Cold War. She sat for a nude photograph by the Australian photographer Polly Borland in 1999. The photo was part of an exhibition at the UK's National Portrait Gallery in 2000. It later appeared in a book entitled Polly Borland: Australians. Greer has made frequent appearances on the BBC's satirical television panel show Have I Got News for You, including one in the programme's very first series in 1990.

Greer was one of nine contestants in the 2005 series of Celebrity Big Brother. She had previously said that the show was "as civilised as looking through the keyhole in your teenager's bedroom door". She walked out of the show after five days inside the Big Brother house, citing the psychological cruelty and bullying of the show's producers, the dirt of the house, and the publicity-seeking behaviour of her fellow contestants. However since then she has appeared on spin-off shows Big Brother's Little Brother and Big Brother's Big Mouth. In 2006, Greer appeared twice in an episode of Steve Merchant' Extras playing herself. The play The Female of the Species (2006) by Joanna Murray-Smith is loosely based on events in Greer's life, the assault and false imprisonment in 2000, and uses Greer as "inspiration for a comic attack on strident feminism"; the main character's name in that play is Margot Mason. Greer regarded the play as an attack and stated that it was "threadbare".

In September 2006, Greer's column in The Guardian about the death of Australian Steve Irwin attracted much criticism and some support. Greer said that "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin". In an interview with the Nine Network's A Current Affair about her comments, Greer said, "I really found the whole Steve Irwin phenomenon embarrassing and I'm not the only person who did," and that she hoped that "exploitative nature documentaries" would now end. Also in 2006, she presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary on the life of American composer and rock guitarist Frank Zappa. She confirmed that she had been a friend of Zappa's since the early 1970s and that his orchestral work "G-Spot Tornado" would be played at her funeral.

In the 2008 Beeban Kidron film Hippie Hippie Shake, based on Richard Neville's memoir, Greer is depicted by Emma Booth. Greer has expressed her displeasure at being featured in the film.

In 1999 Greer's sequel to The Female Eunuch was published, The Whole Woman, based on her earlier work and reviving the debate with her usual authorial style. Greer argues that in spite of a widespread feeling of complacency, the "woman question" is far from answered.

In January 2011 Greer appeared on BBC mockumentary Come Fly With Me as herself.

On 14 March 2012, Greer was glitter bombed at a book signing at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand. A group known as the Queer Avengers was responsible. They were protesting Greer's views on transsexualism, which the group claims are transphobic.