Germaine Greer has criticised modern feminism as “ageist” and says that society has “no respect” for older women.
The 76-year-old academic and feminist was speaking as part of a panel discussion at Sydney Opera House to mark International Women’s Day reported Huffington Post.
Greer said that feminism focusses too much on the issues facing younger women who are in reproductive age and in relationships, according to the Guardian.
She also said that there are “heaps” more pressure on women to look a certain way than when she wrote ‘The Female Eunuch’, which was published in 1970. Kim Kardashian is “no help”, she added.
Ageing was also hot topic during the Woman of the World festival in London.
Speaking as part of a panel discussion called The Truth About Ageing, author Caroline Lodge said that older women are faced with the “brutal” combination of ageism and sexism combined.
Artist, curator and fashionista Sue Kreitzman dismissed the notion of ‘age-appropriate’ dressing.
Why, she asked, do women wrap ourselves in beige when we get older? Why make ourselves invisible women?
Kreitzman, who is known for her brightly-patterned outfits, asked why women insist on wrapping themselves in beige when they get older. It’s almost so as to make ourselves “invisible women”, she added.
But things are certainly starting to change. Earlier this year, major fashion houses announced older women as the face of their latest modelling campaigns.