"Out-of-touch Greer strikes again"
A review of Daily Telegraph by Sue Bailey - Wednesday 25th of August 2010
As an Australian currently living in Australia I would like to comment on statements that Germaine Greer allegedly made in the Daily Telegraph regarding the recent Australian general, and on Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, leaders of the conservative and labor parties respectively.
Dr Greer is an ex-patriot Australian who has not lived here for forty years. Despite being out of touch with contemporary Australian culture and attitudes she still manages to make vitriolic comments about Australia when issues of interest arise, which are published solely because she is a well-known Australian.
Despite her protests there was no media interest in the fact that Ms Gillard is a single, childless athiest. There was certainly little, if any interest in her partner and I was not aware of any critical comments levelled against him despite following the election closely. Nor was there any interest in the fact that the leader of the Greens, Dr Bob Brown is a homosexual, or that Mr Abbott is a married, Catholic family man. Such things may have been of immense interest to a more parochial public when Germaine was living here but the electorate is more sophisticated and has been concerned solely with issues and policy. Consequently it is ironic that the academic has focused on effemoral issues, such as media profiles. We are more sohisticated. In fact we elected a Koori, a Muslim and several women, who were not subject to any particular media interest. One of our ministers, Penny Wong is a gay Asian but this has never been of public interest. This broad array of religious and sexual persuasions is simply representative of Australia today and Dr Greer is obviously painfully unaware of this.
Dr Greer was influential on my own political development when younger but I urge you not to publish her opinions simply because she is a famous Australian. They are outdated, unnecessarily hostile, largely irrelevant and, I'm sorry to say, bitchy. You can do better.
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