Feminist Germaine Greer has made a career out of being controversial. In her 1970 bestseller The Female Eunuch, Greer argued that all men fundamentally hate women, that females in our culture are taught from a young age to loathe themselves and fear their sexuality, and that the nuclear family set-up is stifling to a woman's natural energies. More recently, Greer came under fire for saying of beloved Aussie naturalist Steve Irwin's death, "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin." Now, in a new essay in Weekend Australian Magazine, Greer has turned her poison pen on another revered figure - the late Princess Diana.
"Slow," "devious" and "disturbingly neurotic" are terms employed by Greer in characterizing the "real" Diana. Says Greer of Diana's intellectual limitations:
Of the four Spencer children, Diana was the slowest. Because of her slowness, she was easily found out in her preposterous fibs.
Greer claims Diana's childhood nickname was "Brian" - "after the dopey snail on The Magic Roundabout on children's TV." Lack of overall brain-power notwithstanding, the early Diana evinced a talent for using people - at one point enlisting a friend to write a nasty letter to her father's second wife, Lady Raine Spencer. Says Greer:
Apparently she didn't have the courage to write her own letter ... in adulthood Diana became more, rather than less devious.
Greer goes on to describe Diana as "foolhardy," both in her "orchestration of her public persona" and in her well-publicized "sexual adventures." She even suggests that Diana's reckless, manipulative nature had a hand in bringing about her untimely death, saying:
The saddest thought of all is that Diana's death may have resulted indirectly from another of her kack-handed manipulations; it is said that she only went to Paris with Dodi Fayed in order to make heart surgeon Hasnat Khan jealous.
Greer goes on to attack Diana's reputation as a style-maven:
Diana was never a fashion icon; she dressed to the same demotic standard of elegance as TV anchorwomen do, plus the inevitable hat. ... It is precisely because she was basically anonymous that Diana's public could so easily identify her.
Greer also goes after Diana's status as a noted, fearless humanitarian, accusing her of "rushing into too many situations in which genuine angels would have feared to tread," and saying of her:
Her habit of popping up in the midst of other people's life crises must have startled some of her victims.
In summation, Greer offers this:
Diana's legacy is no more than endless column inches of adulation and speculation.
And a corny Elton John tune, Germaine.
(by the way, does the line "Her habit of popping up in the midst of other people's life crises must have startled some of her victims" remind us of anyone else?)
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