The Female Eunuch

“Every human body has its optimum weight and contour, which only health and efficiency can establish. Whenever we treat women’s bodies as aesthetic objects without function we deform them and their owners. Whether the curves imposed are the ebullient arabesques of the tit-queen or the attenuated coils of art-nouveau they are deformations of the dynamic, individual body, and limitations of the possibilities of being female.”

This quote illustrates that until women can freely choose how they present their bodies to the world without emphasis on arbitrary aesthetics, there is no equality between the sexes because there is no room for individual expression. Imposed beauty standards force women to conform to expectations that are misaligned with living a healthy life.

“The implication that there is a statistically ideal fuck which will always result in satisfaction if the right procedures are followed is depressing and misleading. There is no substitute for excitement: not all the massage in the world will ensure satisfaction, for it is a matter of psycho-sexual release. Real gratification is not enshrined in a tiny cluster of nerves but in the sexual involvement of the whole person.”

By advocating against establishing a prescriptive method by which orgasm is reached during sex, Greer advocates for sexual situations that allow everyone involved to be synthesized as an autonomous person. This idea illustrates an important aspect of the reclamation of the female body: To normalize clitoral orgasm benefits women’s sexual expression, but to focus solely on the clitoris as the means for reaching orgasm does not offer freedom; instead, women become regulated by their ability to reach orgasm via clitoral stimulation.

“Women still buy sanitary towels with enormous discretion, and carry their handbags to the loo when they only need to carry a napkin. They still recoil at the idea of intercourse during menstruation, and feel that the blood they shed is of a special kind […]. If you think you are emancipated, you might consider the idea of tasting your menstrual blood—if it makes you sick, you’ve a long way to go, baby.”

This quote illustrates Greer’s radical views with her suggestion of tasting one’s own menstrual blood. Her recommendation might shock readers, but it also subverts expectations about acceptable behavior. She is not necessarily advocating for the consumption of menstrual blood, but rather she is encouraging women to push back against imposed social norms as she directly addresses readers through the second-person pronoun “you” in the final phrases.