my journey

Germaine Greer

~ tinaaltman ~ Leave a comment
Last month, I went to see Germaine Greer speak on her publication, “On Rape” by Melbourne University.  I call it a publication as its essay length.

Greer’s book “The Female Eunuch” was the first book I read on Feminism. Although its incredibly dated, at the time (I was just out of my teens) it was a revelation, even though I didn’t agree with all of it.

Over the years Greer’s stances and opinions on things have become more and more skewed from my personal philosophy on what Feminism is.  Therefore I have moved away from her work as I don’t see her as a role-model or person of excellence in the field even though she placed herself as a pioneer feminist during the second wave.   I personally don’t feel she’s an activist like one of my idols Gloria Steinem who I saw speak and inspired me very much.

Suffice to say the event put on by The School of Life didn’t inspire me and in fact left me thinking – wtf Germaine?!?!

From the outset Greer was vague, defensive and refused to answer questions purposefully derailing the conversation and changing the subject.

I couldn’t find a single element of her talk which I agreed with and I felt like the whole thing was created to draw controversy in order to get people to read her essay.  I would of appreciated it moreso, if I didn’t have to pay for a talk which was simply an advertisement for her essay.

Like the majority gathered there, I attended as a curiosity and was left laughing at her not with her and the most interesting aspect of the talk was when a small handful of protesters interrupted about 1/3 of the way through.

I won’t quote what stood out as inspiration because all that stood out is how NOT to be a feminist in my opinion. At least now I can say I have seen her speak.

My parting words on this is that I have moved past her work and will continue to focus on feminist writers who inspire and keep the movement progressing.

(C) T. Altman 2018

 

Wordfest 2018

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Rosalie Ham the author of The Dressmaker taught at *Wordfest2018.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend her creative writing workshop and sheepishly asked her to sign my book at the end of the class, which she was only too happy to do!  She commented it was lovely to sign a real life physical book and wished me luck with my writing.

I received some good productive tips to tighten my work and made a few new fellow writer friends .  Overall I am glad I attended it was one of the best workshops I have attended at a writing festival.

*WordFest is the annual literature festival of the Monash Public Library Service. The festival brings readers and writers together for a series of author talks, writing workshops and competitions.

 

 

Poem: Knowledge

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Personal Note: I was disappointed in the fact I noticed a spelling mistake, that the ink on this machine was very faint and that the machine mechanics were filthy and sticking as it needs a service. However, the person I wrote it for liked it for its imperfection when I offered to redo it. So here it is, made from a 1921 Underwood I was gifted and used for the first time this week.