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Germaine Greer on Duchess of Cambridge with 'b*****d of a job': 'It's not that she has to be a womb, but a mother'

'Kate is not even allowed to decorate her own houses. Even the wives of the American presidents get to do that,' the Australian feminist continued

Jenn Selby
Tuesday 30 September 2014 10:22 BST
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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge holds Prince George of Cambridge as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge looks on whilst meeting a Bilby called George at Taronga Zoo in Sydney
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge holds Prince George of Cambridge as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge looks on whilst meeting a Bilby called George at Taronga Zoo in Sydney (Jackson/Getty Images)

The Duchess of Cambridge is “too thin” and should stop being “a womb” for the royal family, famed feminist Germaine Greer has said.

In typically controversial fashion, the Australian academic dismissed the royal’s decision to expand her family with a second baby because she suffers from hyperemesis gravidarum (acute morning sickness), and isn’t physically strong enough to be “made” to go through pregnancy again.

“The girl is too thin!” she exclaimed to Newsweek Europe. “[Kate] is vomiting her guts up and shouldn’t have been made to go through all this again so soon.

“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.’”

She went on to add that the Duchess, 32, has a “b*****d of a job” because she had effectively been “put in charge of William”.

“Kate is not even allowed to decorate her own houses. Even the wives of the American presidents get to do that.

Germaine Greer became a household name with the publication of ‘The Female Eunuch' (Getty)

“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.”

Furthermore, Greer claimed that with the her 2:1 degree in Art History from St Andrews University, the Duchess was more intelligent than most of the royal family, but is “made to appear absolutely anodyne”.

Greer, a prominent women’s rights activist, journalist and academic was made famous for writing the 1970 book The Female Eunuch, which promoted the freedom of women to determine their own values.

She also wrote Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility (1984); The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991) and The Whole Woman (1999).

She once defined her goal as 'women's liberation' as distinct from 'equality with men' and aims to promote the freedom of women to define their own values and determine their own fate.

The Duchess was recently forced to pull out of a string of public appearances – including in Malta – while she received medical treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum at Kensington Palace.

Her pregnancy was announced prematurely on 8 September due to the illness, the symptoms of which include severe dehydration, malnutrition and intractable nausea.

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