by Germaine Greer
Eligible men live in a sellers market, and they know how to exploit that fact: ineligible men are just that.What makes a man "ineligible" (invisible?) is never revealed, but Ms. Greer goes to great lengths to complain about how women become invisible. All I can say to Ms. Greer is, "Welcome to the club!"
Despite the title, most of the book is about the social and sexual mistreatment of older women, rather than menopause per se. Since men generally value youth when choosing a mate, just as women generally value status and security, older women are not treated well in the singles marketplace.
The solution used to be that people married young, and except in extraordinary circumstances, stayed that way for life. This provided men with companionship while they were struggling to earn a place in the world, and in turn protected women from abandonment when their sexual value declined with age.
Along comes feminism. Thanks to sexual liberation promoted by early feminists like Ms. Greer, men who have gained sexual power via success often use it to seduce young women and abandon their aging wives. Yet, for Ms. Greer to admit that monogamy exists to protect rather than oppress women would contradict everything she has ever stood (laid?) for, so she can't quite bring herself to say it (after all she doesn't want to sound like Phyllis Schlafly, does she?), but she comes close.
While observing two middle aged men in a restaurant at another table with two "sleek" and "expensive" young women, a friend complained to her; "It's bloody unfair. Those men can have their pick of women of any age. They can go on for years, and here we are, finished. They wouldn't even look at us." Like it's men's fault these young women choose the company of men who can afford them. (Evidently, the men weren't ditch diggers.)
Ms. Greer's moral indolence causes her to complain about the "invisibility" of older women while denying the sexual power, and, therefore, the responsibility of younger women. It's hypocrisy to blame men for the consequences of her own behavior and values: as if a youth wasted on commitment-phobic men like Mr. Beatty is not Germaine to the subject.
Ms. Greer is "outraged" at the injustices she observes. What she would say to a man who voices similar complaints, however, would hardly be printable. The real story here is that equality infuriates her.
The last chapters deal with how women can gain a new "sense of self" after the changes of mid-life. It is as if the author finally realizes that she'd better say some interesting and hopeful things to women who are concerned about aging. There are, as she says, compensations for what is lost. I only wish that Ms. Greer had been aware of the tragic consequences of her chosen values in time to spare herself and those she has influenced gallons of tears.