Feminist writer denounces reality star, transgenders as women

October 27, 2015 12:04 AM

Germaine Greer, accused Caitlyn Jenner of “stealing the limelight” from the other women of the Kardashian clan.

Germaine Greer and Caitlyn Jenner

A feminist writer has denounced reality star and transgender, Caitlyn Jenner, and all transgender women, saying they are not women.

Read: Star ready to leave reality TV for good

Germaine Greer, the second-wave feminist best known for her 1970 book The Female Eunuch, accused Caitlyn Jenner of “stealing the limelight” from the other women of the Kardashian clan in an appearance on BBC2’s Newsnight.

During the interview, Greer said that “misogyny played a big part” in Glamourmagazine’s decision to award Jenner their woman of the year award.

She went on to defend previous statements in which she claimed that trans women were not “real women".

According to the Guardian:

“She also refused to back down from her position that transgender women, who have begun life as men before undergoing surgery and hormone treatment to become women, are ‘not women,’ saying they do not ‘look like, sound like or behave like women’.”

Greer’s statements prompted a petition circulated by Cardiff University students.

The petition, aimed at having Greer barred from giving a speech on campus, was started by Rachael Melhuish, women’s officer at the Cardiff University Students’ Union.

It claims that Greer has “demonstrated time and time again her misogynistic views towards trans women, including continually ‘misgendering’ trans women and denying the existence of transphobia altogether.”

By last Saturday, the petition had garnered more than 800 signatures.

In response to the petition, Greer told The Guardian:

“I don’t really know what I think of it. It strikes me as a bit of a put-up job really because I am not even going to talk about the issue that they are on about. What they are saying is that because I don’t think surgery will turn a man into a woman I should not be allowed to speak anywhere.”

Read: "I don't miss my old life" - Says transgender

Despite both controversy and petition, Cardiff University said that it would not cancel Greer’s speech.

“Our events include speakers with a range of views, all of which are rigorously challenged and debated,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to the New York Times.

This follows the official recognition granted by the courts to Caitlyn Jenner, recognising her as a woman.