Germaine Greer says 'most rape is just bad sex' and calls for punishment to be reduced

‘Most rape is just lazy, just careless, insensitive. Every time a man rolls over on his exhausted wife and insists on enjoying his conjugal rights he is raping her. It will never end up in a court of law’

Germaine Greer has claimed that some cases of rape should not be thought of as a “spectacularly violent crime”, but rather non consensual “bad sex”, as she called for a rethink on the way the crime is prosecuted.

Some instances were more likely to be “lazy, careless, or insensitive”, the prominent feminist, academic and author told an audience at the Hay literary festival, adding that the crime should be punished by 200 hours of community service and an “R” tattoo on the cheek.

“Most rapes don’t involve any injury whatsoever,” she said, adding: “Most rape is just lazy, just careless, insensitive. Every time a man rolls over on his exhausted wife and insists on enjoying his conjugal rights he is raping her. It will never end up in a court of law.”

Victims became little more than “bits of evidence”, she said.

“Instead of thinking of rape as a spectacularly violent crime and some rapes are, think about it as non consensual … that is bad sex,” she added. “Sex where there is no communication, no tenderness, no mention of love.”

Greer also questioned what she called the “official position”, that 70 per cent of rape victims suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder by comparison with 20 per cent of military veterans.

“At this point you think, what the hell are you saying?” she said. “That something that leaves no sign, no injury, nothing, is more damaging to women than seeing your best friend blown up by an IED is to a veteran?”

Arguing that society should stop “pathologising” rape and saying it destroys women’s lives, she said: “We haven’t been destroyed, we’ve been bloody annoyed, is what we’ve been.

“I reckon 200 hours of community service will do – would do me. I suggested a long time ago that maybe a little tattoo would be a good thing. Maybe an ‘R’ on your hand. I’d prefer it on your cheek.”

As an 18-year, she said she had been “violently raped” and “beaten half-unconscious” by a rugby player.

She did not report the crime to police and the man went on to rape again, she said. His second victim did not give evidence in court either, she added.

“Feminists would tear my head off for saying this,” said Greer, now 79, but “I wasn’t that angry ... I still don’t feel angry enough.”

She went on to suggest that the penalty for rape be lowered along with the burden of proof for securing a conviction.

“Why not believe the woman and lower the penalty?” she said.

Acknowledging the controversial nature of her thesis, she said: “It is moments like these, I can hear the feminists screaming at me, ‘you’re trivialising rape.’”

But she added: “You might want to believe that the penis is a lethal weapon and that all women live in fear of that lethal weapon, well that’s bullshit. It’s not true. We don’t live in terror of the penis … A man can’t kill you with his penis.”

In cases of evidently violent rape, however, she said courts should focus on the violence, which should attract longer sentences, rather than holding long trials where women are humiliated for protracted periods.

Greer’s book On Rape, which sets out her argument, will be published in September.