TV host tells Greer: My sex abuse ordeal was not trivial
A TV presenter who was sexually abused as a teenager yesterday led a furious backlash against Germaine Greer’s claim that ‘rape is just bad sex’.
Charlie Webster, a Sky Sports presenter, slammed the feminist’s ‘ignorant and damaging’ comments on abuse.
Miss Webster told her 80,000 Twitter followers: ‘Rape is not trivial. Survivors, please know your feelings are real and validated. It causes deep psychological trauma.
‘The psychological impact is far worse than the physical and longer lasting, especially in children and those abused repeatedly.
‘I will also happily tell you, Germaine Greer, about how I was repeatedly sexually abused as a teenager and tell you all about what it did to me – and introduce you to some people, both female and male survivors, who will make you realise how ignorant and damaging your comments are.’
Miss Webster, 35, was responding to the Australian author’s claim that most rape did not involve injury and was ‘just lazy, just careless, just insensitive’.
Miss Greer, 79, also told the Hay Festival on Wednesday that rapists should receive community service rather than jail and poured scorn on the idea that victims could suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Her comments sparked outrage among women on Twitter, who said she was ‘utterly insensitive’ and had ‘lost her marbles’.
Author Jilly Cooper, 83, joined in the chorus of criticism, calling Miss Greer an ‘applause junkie’ who will ‘say something outrageous to get everybody going’.