Anyone want a signed copy of "The Female Eunuch"?
You want a copy of "The Female Eunuch"?
The Female Eunuch? Germaine I must ask you first of all What do you mean?
It's impossible to castrate a woman, at least as far as the definition is concerned in a dictionary.
It's only impossible to castrate a woman because it is assumed that she has no sex from the outset,
because she is assumed to be a castrated thing from the outset.
I mean, I did not castrate women,
Freud did. But I just take issue with Freud on that basic thing.
'Cause I say that just as a bullock does not know what it is like to be a bull,
and does not know what he is missing,
so women who live in the normal circumstances in our society
don't know what it is like to be really female,
and really human, and really in control of all their potential.
There is an element of hatred and rejection in men's relationships to women.
which women are unfortunately unaware of at their peril.
If you think that Norman Mailer's statement when he said when a man makes love to a woman
he empties al his bad and al his good into her,
this is the spittoon theory of womanhood.
Sexual politics has something to do with the act of fucking,
being to the advantage of the one who fucks,
and with disadvantage for the one who is fucked.
And the one who is fucked, be it male, or female, or a goat, or a pig, or a stone,
is always characterized as female and inferior
The Town Hall Debate where Germain Greer went toe-to-toe with Norman Mailer,
who was at the peak of his his fame at that time,
was one of the great moments in the history of women,
the defiance, the glamour, the power, the intellect, the style...
and not only she was very, very sexy, she was obviously the most intelligent person at the table.
She just ripped everybody to bits, she was just ravishing!
Here was this powerful, sexy woman who had it all,
and she could be anything she wanted to be.
One last question Norman?
Okay, Anatole Broyard will give the final question.
Now I would like to ask Gemaine Greer, as having a peculiar aptitude for this question,
to describe perhaps in the form of a one-act play:
What would it be like to be a woman 
and to have the initiation and consummation of a sexual contact
so that now we can get down to the particulars of the evening.
What would it be like after liberation, ideally?
Why do you ask this question?
Because I don't find it anywhere in the literature, I don't...
Why do you expect to find it anywhere in the literature?
Norman describes the state of affairs that exist, namely where he is at.
You ask me to describe a state of affairs that does not exist,
a perfectly unreasonable demand.
What make you suppose that liberation has happened?
Well, I tried to make my question non-polemical, I like to say..
Bull, you did.
Well, alright, perhaps I did not succeed. 
I really don't know what women are asking for.
Now suppose I want to give it to them?
Listen, you may  as well relax, because whatever it is they are asking for
honey, it is not for you!
Norman, you want to give the closing?
Yah, alright, listen, thank you all for an incredible evening.
I also like to thank the four women who contributed nine-tenth to the discussion.
It was worth being on this panel with you...
April 30, 1971; Town Hall New York
