Germaine Greer's Criticism Of Kate Middleton Needs To Be Taken With A Pinch Of Salt

Woe betide the woman who criticises the Duchess of Cambridge.

Its seems marrying into the royal family instantly begets you the support of the nation, pretty much regardless of how you fill the role.

Germaine Greer is the latest to put forward her tuppence-worth on the subject, and despite being an outspoken commentator and republican, who famously encourages women to find and fulfil their potential in a world they're all too-often reduced to clothes horses or sex symbols, we seem surprised that she thinks Kate Middleton could do more with her position than look pretty and produce heirs.

If you actually read Greer's comments, from her interview with Newsweek, it's obvious she's not being critical of the Duchess herself, but instead opening a wider debate on the role of one of the most powerful women in the UK, within the royal family.

Who Would Be Kate?

Greer was commenting after a survey, also in Newsweek, discovered most women in the UK would not want to be Kate, suggesting that while we might not call Kate a 'womb', we would agree she does have 'a b*****d of a job'.

Greer explained she feels the Duchess has been ‘made to appear ­absolutely anodyne’, saying: “Kate is not even allowed to decorate her own houses. Even the wives of the American presidents get to do that.

“The whole thing is a mad anachronism. The ‘firm’ tell us that the first born will now become monarch regardless of sex. Well, big ******* deal!

“She [Kate] cannot do or say anything spontaneous. She has learned what she has to do and say and how to do and say it in the approved way. Spontaneity will get her in trouble.”

Who Can Criticise A Duchess?

The media coverage of Greer's comments and the outrage they've caused is a case of willful misunderstanding, by both writers and readers.

Like Hilary Mantel before her, any attempt to start a sensible discourse on why we treat Kate Middleton as little more than a pretty face, healthy womb and clothes horse, is shut down.

Don't be mean to Kate, she's our favourite princess.

Greer's status as 'controversial feminist' is trotted out negatively in most headlines, just at a time when, with the help of other influential women such as Emma Watson, we're starting to create a wider understanding of what 'feminism' really means - equality, not man-hating.

Instead of thinking about the comments, the discussion is framed as two women pitted against each other, the 'raving feminist' Greer on one side making hurtful comments about the 'pretty princess' on the other. It's simplistic and insulting, and not just to the two women involved.

Greer, author of 1970s feminist tome The Female Eunuch, has always pushed women to break out of the expectations and pressures put upon them by both sexes in the male-dominated world we have grown up in.

So when she suggests that Kate is the cleverest royal of the lot and has had her spontaneity and personal interests (she graduated with a degree in the History of Art but we have rarely seen her indulge in visits to art galleries) quashed, she's denigrating the royal family for training all of the personality out of her, and our culture for reducing her to a mannequin.

Too Personal?

Greer does get personal at one point, straying into territory most of the media avoids - Kate's extreme slimness. And unfortunately this threatens to overshadow her broader comments.

There seems to be a collusion of silence around Kate's weight, though it's undeniable she's lost a significant amount of weight during her rise to Duchess. But perhaps there should be. When famous women's bodies are more or less public property; viewed, described and criticised for our pleasure, how thin the Duchess of Cambridge is, is her own business.

Greer said: “The girl is too thin! [Kate] is vomiting her guts up and shouldn’t have been made to go through all this again so soon."

But rather than say Kate shouldn't have any more children (another wilful misunderstanding), she suggests that because of the extreme difficulties she's had during her two pregnancies, Kate shouldn't be forced by the royal machine to have more.

“It’s not so much that she has to be a womb, but she has to be a mother. I would hope after this one she says, ‘That’s it. No more’.”

Whether it's the pressure for more heirs or the couple's genuine desire to have a big family that has seen Kate pregnant again so soon, no one could begrudge Kate a little time off childbearing after this latest addition is born.

Ultimately Greer seems to be saying that yes, Kate is doing her job well enough. She's pretty, aspirational and pleasant, doesn't put a foot wrong and has taken to being a royal well.

But with her intelligence, determination and power she could do an awful lot more. Only time will tell if she'll manage it.

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