Stranger rape is just ‘bloody bad luck’, says Greer
GERMAINE Greer has courted controversy once again after claiming that being raped by a stranger was just ‘bloody bad luck’.
The feminist writer said constant ‘unconsiderate’ sex with a partner can be worse than rape by a stranger as it forces women to reassess their whole life.
Miss Greer, who was raped as a teenager, was speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme as part of a round of publicity for her essay On Rape, which has sparked controversy.
Likening rape by a stranger to the impact of being run over by a bus, the 79-year-old said: ‘I think it’s important that we don’t diminish the effect of constant unconsiderate use of a woman’s body by the man who she loves.
‘In some ways it is worse to be abused and treated without consideration by the people who are at the centre of your life; stranger rape is bloody bad luck, for sure.
‘But it’s like being run down by a bus. You don’t have to internal- ise it and look at the structure of your whole life from that point of view. It is way out there in left field.’
Miss Greer said she would like to see the law changed so that women are a formal party in any court case relating to their rape or sexual assault.
She said current laws mean that when women make complaints, their assaults are treated as alleged offences against the state, with the victim playing the role of a witness or a piece of evidence.
She said: ‘The woman who complains of rape is herself not party to the action. She is a piece of evidence and she will be examined to find out if the claims she is making that the offence has occurred are true.’
She added: ‘The better way would be to begin again to look at it from a woman’s point of view, rather than the point of view of the patriarchate.
‘When you go to the police, you are asking the state to clean up an offence against itself, whereas if we were in Belgium you would be a party to the action as the victim and you would have a voice in court.’
‘Like being run down by a bus’