The Madwoman's Underclothes

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Greer finds it ironic that The Female Eunuch hoisted her reputation as an architect of the permissive society. In essays reprinted here from London's underground journal Oz and other magazines, she argues that the relaxation of sexual taboos was not even a reform, let alone a revolution, but a return to narcissism and overemphasis on self-gratification. She also knocks self-appointed feminists for mimicking male patterns of dominance. Greer's writings on legalizing pot, rock groupies, vaginal deodorant and premenstrual stress may have helped blaze a trail, but they now look dated. Her occasional pieces for the Sunday Times, Esquire, Spectator and other publications are still fresh, whether she is discussing care of the dying or men's belief that women desire rape. Most rewarding are her political essays on Ethiopia's famine, sexual politics in Castro's Cuba and the hopelessness of Brazil's explosive slums. (September 30)

Library Journal

Greer is known for The Female Eunuch (1969), one of the germinal works of second-wave feminism, and The Obstacle Race (1979), a pioneering study of women artists. This collection of reviews, columns, and articles shows Greer's range and independent mind. She is acidly critical of all party lines, as she writes on topics from rock to Ethiopian resettlement and advertising to abortion. As the chronological arrangement reveals, 1968 already seems like ancient history. Although some of the pieces are narrowly specific to British counterculture and legal issues, the articles on Norman Mailer, the Playboy piece that defines seduction as ``petty rape,'' and the recent articles on Cuba and Ethiopia are essential reading. Sally Mitchell, English Dept., Temple Univ., Philadelphia