dazuk

Prime Minister John Howard says Germaine Greer's descriptions of Australia as suburban are pathetic and condescending. But not everyone agrees.

Academic Dr Greer, who left Australia for Britain in 1964, criticised her homeland in an article for The Australian newspaper last week.

Mr Howard said he had read the article and "thought it was hopelessly out of touch".

"I thought it was pathetic, I really did, and so condescending," he told the Nine network.

"What she basically says is that the average Australian is too stupid to think about anything that's the least bit philosophical or important."

"I thought that was a particularly patronising, condescending, dare I say elitist article."

Mr Howard said Dr Greer had spent too long away from Australia, which was "anything but the way she described it".

But Herald columnist Padraic P McGuinness says the controversial academic and writer "her unusual mix of high intelligence, wit, scholarly learning and sheer silliness - not to mention beauty, since she remains a remarkably handsome woman - will continue to play a useful role in making the smug and thoughtless think".

bondipom

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5E7583,00.html

This article is an excellent insight into the turmoil the expatriate Greer causes down here.

Maybe she is a troll.

Megalania

Now all you pattsies: look and learn - pasted in full so you can improve your rantation:

Susan Mitchell: If we pay any attention to her, Germaine's the winner

January 27, 2004
OH how we squealed and ranted and raged against her. Like the proverbial stuck pigs. Germaine Greer, professional provocateur, ideological bomb thrower, maestro of the eye-grabbing headline, won again. We fell for it. She must be sitting in her garden, squawking with all her geese at the gullibility of all the television, radio and print commentariat who attacked her recent spray on Australia in this newspaper last Thursday. That one post-menopausal expatriate woman can create such a stir in her home country is truly astounding. What power she has.

She should have been chosen as Australian of the Year. For what? Because she is the quintessential Aussie stirrer. She'd rather have a fight than a feed. Or at least start one. She's the original leg-puller. And we get sucked in every time.

Her method is so transparent. Look at her targets.

She started with the fact that all the best and brightest Australians leave the country. So what? We know that. Why wouldn't they want to be bigger fish in a bigger pond? So would most of us if given the chance. What she was really needling was our insecurity, the fear that to stay here is to choose to be second rate. If we were really over the old cultural cringe, we wouldn't care what she or the rest of the world thought. Do you think the French care that the rest of the world thinks they are rude? Do the Italians care that the rest of the world thinks they are cowards? Do the Poms care that we think they are a nation of whingers? Of course not; because they have confidence in who they are.

Then she attacked us for being drearily suburban and all living in a version of Ramsay Street. So what? We clearly like it or we wouldn't do it. We like it so much, we have made a fabulously funny television series out of it, sending ourselves up. Kath and Kim couldn't give a toss what Germaine whatshername thought about them. She said all the streets looked the same, all the houses looked the same. So what? Ramsay Street, Coronation Street, Fountain Gate - we love them all.

She says the Brits get higher wages. It's true. But we have our own notion of being "effluent".

She says she was bored from the time she was 12. Why do we care? The rule is if you're bored, then do what the birds do: flock off. She did and we still care about what she thinks. How insecure is that?

Then she attacks one of our beloved icons - the Holden car. There's plenty more material where that came from. How about claiming that the Sydney Opera House is one of the ugliest buildings in the world? That would really get us going. Or that Vegemite dulls the brain? Or meat pies give you early Alzheimer's.

Then she said all we care about is sport, that we would rather talk about it than discuss a book. It's true, we made a cricketer Australian of the Year, but name me a Western country that isn't exactly the same. She admits she hates sport because she was no good at it. So tell someone who cares.

The picture she has presented so far is of a sport-obsessed suburban nation. Why should we froth at the mouth over that? Unless, of course, we are desperate to be thought of as a sophisticated urban intellectual cauldron? Whose approval are we seeking? Is that a tiny chip on your shoulder or just jumbo dandruff?

And then, of course, a quick thrust at our Achilles heel - the Aborigines. Having already taken us for a huge ride by suggesting that she never enters the country without being welcomed by her adopted tribe (the Aborigines just laughed), she now asserts that Aborigines could teach us how to "make living in Oz emotionally and intellectually satisfying". Of course, they have no problems of their own to solve. Tell that to Noel Pearson.

And then, finally (she must have been shrieking with glee as she wrote the words), she attacked us for being too relaxed. Now that really is below the belt. Why else do all those tourists come here? If we are at the arse-end of the world, if we are the sphincter of the global beast, then surely it's essential we are not uptight.

Doesn't she know we elected our Prime Minister because he promised to make us "relaxed and comfortable"?

If we really want to attack her, the only answer is to ignore her.

Fuzzyness

what a cracking repost to the original article.

OzTennis

The GG article appeared in The Times a few weeks before the Australian. I read it and had similar thoughts to Susan Mitchell's riposte!

OzTennis