Steve Irwin attacked by Greer
September 5th 2006 12:06
Steve Irwin attacked by Greer
Steve Irwin was a hero to a generation of animal lovers and naturalists alike. Suddenly with the flick of a stingray tail his mortality was brought home to all. The outpouring of shock and grief rivals the death of Lady Diana. All over the world people have a need to express their sense of personal loss for a person that few had met face to face but many believed they knew. Reading the hundreds of comments on the BBC web site I came to see one word repeatedly used to describe this man: Legend. The validity of such a title will be tested in the fullness of time.
At a time of grief it is prudent to offer words of comfort to the bereaved and to reflect upon the good that the person has done. However for someone like the expatriate Australian academic and writer Germaine Greer this should not happen. Within hours of his death she declared that the “The animal world has taken revenge on self-deluded animal tormentor Steve Irwin.” She then says that she has ‘…not much sympathy’ for him if he was grappling with a stingray.
It begs the question of what people will write about Germaine Greer after she has passed. Will she be looked on favourably because of her writings early in her career; or will she been seen as a spiteful old hack who will attack anyones reputation to get noticed by the worlds media?
With regards to Steve Irwin it is a safe bet that Greer’s comments will be seen as an unnessary comment, at the wrong time.
Steve Irwin was a hero to a generation of animal lovers and naturalists alike. Suddenly with the flick of a stingray tail his mortality was brought home to all. The outpouring of shock and grief rivals the death of Lady Diana. All over the world people have a need to express their sense of personal loss for a person that few had met face to face but many believed they knew. Reading the hundreds of comments on the BBC web site I came to see one word repeatedly used to describe this man: Legend. The validity of such a title will be tested in the fullness of time.
At a time of grief it is prudent to offer words of comfort to the bereaved and to reflect upon the good that the person has done. However for someone like the expatriate Australian academic and writer Germaine Greer this should not happen. Within hours of his death she declared that the “The animal world has taken revenge on self-deluded animal tormentor Steve Irwin.” She then says that she has ‘…not much sympathy’ for him if he was grappling with a stingray.
It begs the question of what people will write about Germaine Greer after she has passed. Will she be looked on favourably because of her writings early in her career; or will she been seen as a spiteful old hack who will attack anyones reputation to get noticed by the worlds media?
With regards to Steve Irwin it is a safe bet that Greer’s comments will be seen as an unnessary comment, at the wrong time.
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Comment by Smiley Eyes
Comment by spain01
Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.
Australians have a poor tradition with eulogies and think that you should only say good things about
people which is a litte more than pathetic of us isn't it.
Comment by Justin
Cinematrix
Reflexively however, it is she who looks like the tormentor with a complete lack of decency, etiquette and respect in a time like this. What an uninformed attention whore. Hopefully the greedy protege's of her feminist leaning will likewise slander her for public attnetion soon after Greer's own death.
Comment by Ragin Cajun
Observer's Post
Death By Myopia
Comment by hyperapathy
The Soundtrack
We all know only the good die young, so I guess this gutless old hag is going to be around for a while.
Comment by m*STAR
Question : Everything
I know the timing for her comments were innapropriate, and some of her views very radical - but she does raise some valid points about 'animal personal space'.
I saw her appearance on 'A Current Affair' last night(Aussie show on Channel 9) and she was very steadfast at the beginning. She did lose it a little towards the end, but I think she is one of those perrenial fence sitters. I do admire the fact that she refuses to be carried over to any side by emotion - but I'm a not a big fan of the brashness or timing of the collumn she wrote on the incident.
In hindsight, I must agree somewhat with her point. I do admire Steve the 'croc hunter' and his efforts for animal conservation. But what is true, is that he did meddle with animals in their own territory. If you put yourself in the animal's shoes, then I doubt very much if you would like some guy teasing you, hovering in your space, jumping on you or wrestling you every now and then without consent. It was a fine line that Steve was trodding on, and had he survived the fatal attack by the stingray - I would very much doubt that public opinion on the incident would be so one-sided. There would have been attacks made on his closeness to the animals surely.
But alas he did pass away, and what Stevo also provided was an insight and greater understanding into the endangered animals of this world. It was always going to be a give and take issue. Steve the 'family man'/'person' was an entirely different story - he was incomparable. The nicest man on TV.
I think that is why the public remains in an uproar over Greer's comments - they are associating the comments with Steve the 'person'.
Regardless, she should have known better than to publish them now.
m*STAR
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Comment by Justin
Cinematrix
The reality is from his actions he brought a lot of awareness and minimised the fear many have of human-animal relations to respect them not just fear them.
Comment by Anonymous
Germ-aine
Comment by JR95
As for his antics, I've cringed at some of them. I have also cringed at some of my own antics. Thats because I'm a human being and if you were one you would be cringing now about the bullshit you have spoken about an Australian legend.
I never new who you were Greer but now I do.
Comment by raving ray
The Fmale Arsehole[/SIZE]
Comment by Smiley Eyes
"Germaine Greer is one of the world's foremost feminists. She became famous with her writing of the book, The Female Eunuch, which was recently rated as the second most important book of non-fiction ever written in Australia," describes the 'ThinkBomb' site
A quote from her book 'Female Eunuch' says it all...
"Women have very little idea of how much men hate them... The man regards her as a receptacle into which he has emptied his sperm, a kind of human spittoon" 279, 284."
I think there's a sad saga behind this iron-lady like look she portraits. Some scar inflicted by perhaps a male…. ?
Photographytips
Comment by Anonymous
If you ever listened to the man, he was not just a catchphrase, he was learned in the field of wildlife. He was not a gunho its a croc lets just leap on him gimic that Miss Greer is trying to paint. No. he was well educated in this regard. And it extended to animals beyond snakes and crocs.
Many of us love animals, we love our dogs, cats and dogs. He loved the snake, the croc and even the shark. He felt they were misunderstood and many were killed because of our irrational fear. He showed that they were not the man killers we like to paint them. They were not evil. Lets be honest thats the stigma associated with animals like these.
That's what made the man special. Anybody that met him in person liked him. If you watched Enough Rope interview you will find it hard to fault the man. Family and animals were his world, they were his deepest love.
In Steve's world man and creature could co exist.
Unfortunately for most of us we exist in this world where we continue to destroy their habitat at a vastly accelerated rate and see few people bucking the trend.
If Miss Greer is so staunch a defender of the animal
kingdom then let her be out there educating the world of their plight, spending her money on buying land to serve as conservation sanctuaries, and donate the rest of her life to this cause. Will she do it? Of course she won't and you know why? She is afraid, she hides behind her sheets of paper and done nothing to further aide her cause than to relax in comfort with her millions. Locked away from the world bitter about her alleged domination by men.
We do not see her out there helping abused women, spending money on hostels for these women, forming networks to help them. No no we only see her words. Yet the welfare of women is supposed to be her cause and her passion yet perhaps its just her perspective and she feels it beneath her to actually fight for it.
Steve will be known by his deeds not by his words alone. We farewell a man that lived by his principles. A man that spent everyday fighting for the rights for the creatures he loved. That is what made him rare and special. That is what we have lost. And we are all the poorer for it.
Comment by Jas
All Knowing Geek
Stories: Put Them in Your Brain
Food, Wine and Coffee
One Planet
Well done. You've articulated the nature of the man beautifully. Nicely written.
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
I saw a thing about this on TV last night with her commenting that he was exploiting the wildlife etc etc.....
Regardless of whether or not you agree with that comment, how does that stack up against exploiting the death of a man who obviously can't defend himself, to attract publicity for yourself, a may-as-well-be-dead old hag with nothing better to do with her time than be venomously offensive!
And SHE wants to talk exploitation!
Comment by Anonymous
- Dan
Comment by Brenda
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three
Comment by Koala
And it was VERY LOW of her to say what she said ESPECIALLY straight after Steve's death.
I for one, liked Steve ~ The Crocodile Hunter... i thought he taught a lot to many right around the globe.
I don't think anyone will ever be able to bring to us all...what Steve Irwin did.
I personally think that GREER seems to be an attention skeeking bitter woman... and i have NO RESPECT whatsoever for scum like her.
To be truthful, i have never heard of her until these comments she made about "Our Aussie STEVE IRWIN", and i hope that she goes and crawls back under the rock from where she came!
R.I.P Steve Irwin.... you will NEVER be forgotten for all of your hard work & passion for the Wildlife of the World... you truly are more then "one in a Million..."
My Prayers go out to the Irwin Family....
Steves' Dad, Terri, Bindi & Bob....
Comment by John S
I was a big fan of Steve's. I even wrote him a fan letter once. Yet it was obvious to see to anyone with eyes that Steve would often aggravate an animal in an attempt to please the cameras. It certainly doesn't make him a bad person and his good deeds far out-weighed his indiscretions but you only need to watch my hero Steve in action to see how often the animals, previously minding their own business, get upset.
I'm a big animal lover and people need to respect animals much more than they presently do. Even me. They're too easy to take advantage of.
I'll miss you big time Steve!
John S
Comment by Ahmed
techy.Bytes
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Qwerk
Cinema Three
It was a necessary evil I suppose to grab an animal to show it to people in an exciting way in the end.
His over the top personality seems to be a part of it, I doubt he's really like that off camera, probably just an act he put up so that he could get peoples attention...