Dame Jenni: I understand Greer on rape
DAME Jenni Murray has revealed that she agrees with Germaine Greer that for some women rape is not “the worst thing in the world” – but said Greer’s other views on the subject were “profoundly dangerous”.
The Woman’s Hour presenter was raped at a student party in 1969, a “horrifying, humiliating and traumatic” experience that she remembers “with absolute clarity”.
Yet she expressed qualified support for Greer, who gave a provocative speech last week in which she said her own rape as an 18-yearold in Australia was not the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
Greer caused outrage by saying, in the same speech, that most rape was just “bad sex” and the appropriate punishment would be 200 hours of community service.
Dame Jenni said: “I had an understanding of what [Greer] meant when she said she had been able to get over her rape and get on with her life.
“Because I had been able to do the very same … Just like Germaine, I thought to myself: ‘You’ve been annoyed, not destroyed. Put it down to experience. Get on with life. Don’t be a victim. And never put yourself in such a weak position again.’
“I like to think in doing so that I took some of the power from the man in question and reclaimed it for myself by refusing to let my life be dominated by his abusive behaviour.”
But writing in The Daily Mail, she went on: “That said, it’s all very well for women like Germaine and me – tough, outspoken and open about the sexual experiences that we enjoyed in our youth – to look back on the one we did not consent to and say it was not the worst thing that happened to us. But I differ from Germaine on the following point: despite my own experience, I also believe that it is profoundly dangerous to diminish such a crime.”
Dame Jenni said rape was a violation “whether it’s perpetrated by a stranger, a husband, a friend or a colleague and whether there’s additional violence or not”, adding: “There is no shame in being destroyed by it.”
She said other “heartbreaking” events in her life, including losing her parents and undergoing a mastectomy and treatment for cancer, had been harder to bear than the rape.
She was a drama student in 1969 when she was raped by a professional actor with whom she was working on a production. At an after-show party, he attacked and raped her. She did not report it to the police, not understanding at the time that she was the victim of a crime.
Her attacker is now dead, and Dame Jenni said she would not name him because she did not want to upset his wife and children.
Where Greer believes sentencing for rape should be cut, Dame Jenni said that “a prison sentence should most definitely follow” a conviction.