Jordan? Please, Bring Back Greer

Having seen Katie Price speak at the Union a few days ago I became convinced of something I had long suspected.  The ex-model was relatively charming, self-deprecating and honest about her life, claiming ‘there is no such thing as can’t’.  She is a more complicated woman than she seems.  But she is in no way a Feminist.

What she is is an excellent Capitalist.  She has worked out how to extract the maximum profit from her body and her marital and family life, churning out books, perfumes and singles – doing everything she can to push the ‘brand’ of Katie Price.  And she is hugely successful at that.

Yet just because a woman is successful or high-profile does not make her a Feminist icon.  Katie Price has done nothing to improve the cause of her gender as a whole.  For her it is all about individual achievement, based purely on her own determination, not about fighting alongside her ‘sisters’ but pushing them, and anyone else who stands  in her way, aside.

In this way she is similar to that other, in my opinion,  spurious Feminist icon who everyone’s been discussing lately: Margaret  Thatcher.  She was another woman who,  while enormously successful, was so on a purely individual basis and once she got into power did bugger all to help other women follow her.

I think it’s a rather sad state of affairs when it is women like these who are held up as icons for other women to emulate.  For, in my opinion, feminism is about collective endeavor and cooperation, not about individual drive and competition.  Every woman should be a Feminist, and every man too, striving for absolute gender equality – not merely facilitating the rise of a few successful women.

So, all respect to Ms. Price for making so much money from big boobs and a dramatic marital life, but Feminist icon?  Give me Germaine Greer any day.

Read the full report on the Union Debate HERE.