Germaine Greer, in The Female Eunuch, or in articles she wrote at the time it was published, issued a call to middle aged women who weren't experiencing the full joy of life to leave their husbands and strike out on their own. When I read this current quote in the link you provided, "no sex is better than bad sex," it struck me as a rerun of her earlier position, which was essentially that these older women should rest assured that they could make it on their own, that the world needed their love and warmth, and it was somehow ignominious for them to stay, for security, with the husbands of their youth.
The thing is, these are ideological slogans, and they don't necessarily stand the test of reality. I thought that at the time, and still do.
No one could argue with either notion, the "don't settle for security, take on the world with gusto, it is waiting for you!" one, or today's, "no sex is better than bad sex one."
But people not situated in life as Greer is apply these slogans to their lives in what turn out to be destructive ways. Most of the women who heeded her advice did not have PhD's and professorships and book contracts and lecture tours. They had, maybe, typing skills. And the world isn't waiting with quite as open arms for the average 45 or 50 year old who, feeling bored and ignited by a romanticized image of an exciting future, flees the security of the nest she built over 20 or 30 years, as it is for Germaine. And soon enough, she's on her feet for 9 hours a day thinking about her ex-husband and children in Cancun while her ankles swell.
I saw this happen, you may guess.
And of course no one would claim that bad sex is better than no sex (wait! I might, actually, if such a dreadful choice were the one I had to make, lol!-- but no one ELSE would, presumably!), but what accompaniments are there to the bad sex and no sex categories that might make a choice between these two more fully informed? An ideologue doesn't care, she likes her ringing slogans.
How about good sex instead of no sex? I feel as though Greer looks at whatever she's doing in her own life, and elevates it to a universal injunction.
It's not as irresponsible as Timothy Leary's recommendation to drop acid and drop out, but it reminds me of it. |
