The Female Eunuch

The stereotype of a woman dictates who she should be and how she should act, rendering her an object because she is acted upon rather than an actor in her own life. The stereotype of womanhood, which Greer refers to also as “the Eternal Feminine” and “the Sexual Object” (67), is the unilateral role a woman should fulfill according to traditional expectations. Under this construct, beauty is a ubiquitous aspect of womanhood and is a subconscious burden that objectifies women. The woman-as-object is infantilized because she has no agency and ostracized from her own sexual identity through repression. Greer offers April Ashley as an example that the female stereotype is a learned construct that women implement upon themselves because Ashley, a transgender woman, enforces these constructs on herself as she transitions to living her life openly as a woman.

The common notion of femininity as synonymous with attributes of gentleness, softness, or subservience is a falsehood that reflects only the man’s desired image of a woman. This idea of femininity is entirely unrelated to a woman’s actual lived experience, and it neglects to acknowledge the diversity of these experiences. Society teaches girls to ignore their own curiosities (whether about their bodies, potential interests, or educational pursuits) from an early age, rendering them servile. It is during this oppressive stage of early education that a girl loses her ability to understand and access her own “energies,” a term Greer uses to describe abstract motivations and ability to fulfil desires. This stifling of energy ultimately metaphorically castrates women, rendering them “female eunuchs” who have been psychologically removed from their sexuality.

The castration and oppression of women begin at birth through indoctrination into gender roles. This indoctrination teaches girls to be “feminine” (or to embody characteristics traditionally associated with women) through formal and informal education, isolation, and ultimately indulgence in fantasy as their only way of exploring the unknown. This is in stark contrast to the indoctrination of boys, who at the same age are generally encouraged to be loud, curious, and fearless, whereas girls are taught to be quiet, docile, and servile. This education prepares girls for infantilization for the rest of their lives, and it strips many girls of their voices, rendering them unable to speak up for themselves when they need to.

Many girls push back against and are often aware of their indoctrination, especially as it relates to their (forced) relinquishment of freedom and creativity. The education system heavily reinforces gender roles because it treats children in increasingly different manners as they advance to higher levels of schooling. This system teaches girls to progressively stifle creativity but teaches boys to cultivate their creativity. Societal norms also discourage girls from loving one another or themselves, as these traits illustrate desire for self-discovery. Under sexist structures, a girl has no need to discover herself because these structures have already decided her sexuality and potential for her. This chapter introduces the idea that girls and women are aware of their disadvantaged position, further illustrating the cruel nature of prejudice and discrimination.

When a girl reaches puberty, she faces two options: to “arrive at the feminine posture of passivity and sexlessness” (96), accepting her role as eunuch and object, or reject the paradigm and become an outcast. This dilemma renders puberty more difficult for girls than boys because it defines a girl’s pubescent experience by her capitulation rather than by physiological changes. The internalization of shame (as in the case of menstruation) and objectification (as in the case of developing breasts) defines pubescent physiological changes for girls. Puberty has become synonymous with the acceptance of gender roles, and social norms arbitrarily correlate both physiological and psychological changes that occur during puberty to these gender roles.

Women who reach adulthood without capitulating to their role as inferior to men are unhappy because they are aware of the discrimination they face but remain unable to change their situation. It is at this point that psychology enters the process of forcing women to fulfill the female stereotype: Addressing the mental strain of a woman who is out of sync with the demands of a patriarchal world acts as a facade for further indoctrination perpetuated by sexist psychological practices. Greer disputes the validity of psychoanalytic assessment of women because the entire theory presumes sexist gender roles are natural. She encourages the reader to question the validity of Freudian concepts, like penis envy, the concept that a girl’s psychological development is defined by her lack of a penis. Greer subverts the idea of penis envy by suggesting that the opposite situation (men are inherently lacking because they do not have a uterus or vagina) could be stated as easily and offers an equally reductive understanding of sex and gender.

There is no scientific proof that there is a difference between the cognitive abilities of men and women. Sexist social structures stifle a girl’s intellect and creativity, which is then used to corroborate her alleged inferiority. Greer argues that a girl or woman can achieve intellectual or creative greatness only as long “as she escapes or rejects her conditioning” because girls are covertly conditioned not to achieve excellence (116). The cyclical nature between conditioning and the results of conditioning acting as false proof has provided many scholars with fake evidence to illustrate that women are lesser than men, which in turn widens the gap between men and women because women now must prove their validity against these false claims.

This chapter debates and subverts Otto Weininger’s Sex and Character, which states that possession of inherently male (active and productive) or female (inactive or servile) characteristics determines one’s gender. Greer employs the term “womanpower” to describe how subverting Weininger’s female characteristics can render them positive traits. For example, Weininger claims that a woman’s thoughts and feelings align, whereas a man’s thoughts are distinct from his feelings, and Greer argues that thoughts that align with feelings more accurately express the self. Greer’s analysis of Weininger’s work questions why his female traits are inherently bad and illustrates the futility of establishing a false dichotomy. The polarization between men and women that upholds sexist systems limits both sexes. For women, the limitation is obvious: They do not have power over their own lives. For men, it is more complex: Men uphold systems that limit women and, in doing so, deny themselves access to “feminine” actions, such as displaying emotions outwardly, thus limiting themselves.

Women are underpaid and underrepresented in the workplace. Legal changes cannot entirely compensate for this disparity. For example, a law may formally allow women to do a certain job, allowing her to apply for the position, but informal exclusions proliferated in the workplace deny her application’s acceptance. In the few female-dominated industries (Greer names only teaching and nursing), women allow others to take advantage of them and often fail to advocate for themselves. Exceptions to this system exist, but in one form or another, patriarchal structures exploit women’s work for the gratification of men. Housewives who raise children and maintain the home are not paid for this work and are viewed as dependent on their husbands despite their providing essential work. No matter the essentialness or quality of a woman’s work, she must always work harder than her male counterparts to receive less pay and less distinction.