Civil War on the Left, Part 15

While the ruckus over Jon Chait’s critique of PC grinds on (he’s getting a lot more blowback form the Left than from me), I note with amusement another act of Leftist cannibalism taking place over in the UK.

Germaine Greer, no longer germane?

Germaine Greer, no longer germane?

When I was coming of age back in the 1970s, one of the leading feminist intelletuals was Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch. I recall her appearing on Buckley’s Firing Line, and thinking the title of her most famous book was somehow fitting.

Turns out Greer is too old-timey for today’s identity politics Left. A group of students at Cambridge University are running the speaker disinvitation drill for Greer:

CUSU Women’s Officer Amelia Horgan posted the following statement on the Facebook event:

“The CUSU Women’s Campaign would like to express concern over the invitation of Germaine Greer …to speak at the Cambridge Union. Greer’s transphobia has been demonstrated not only in her writing, but also in her actions. In 1996 she publicly opposed the appointment of a trans woman academic to a position within Newnham college, outing her in the process. As such, Greer’s invitation to speak within our University community is all the more worrying – is institutional memory really so terrifyingly limited when it comes to bigotry?

Greer does not represent feminism, and she does not represent us.”

It’s fun watching these folks turn on each other. (Once again, if you have time to visit the link, you’ll see the comment thread is overwhelmingly negative toward the identity politics crowd.)

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