Irwin portrait looks unmanly: Greer
Tuesday Feb 20 16:00 AEDT
By Shaun Davies
ninemsn


Germaine Greer has renewed her attack on dead naturalist Steve Irwin, reiterating her belief that he abused animals and calling his portrait in the National Portrait Gallery "not altogether manly".

In a new opinion piece for UK newspaper The Guardian, Greer also says she has received death threats and has had two dead rabbits thrown at her house since her controverial Irwin comments.

She also complains Australia is "morphing into California" and is "losing its respect for honesty and directness".




Despite receiving widespread condemnation after her previous attack on Irwin, Greer does not take a backward step in her latest piece.

"It is my judgement that Irwin made a habit of, and a fortune by, intruding upon the steadily diminishing space available to wild creatures, and that his intention was to demonstrate his power over them," she writes.

She defends herself against criticism of her views, saying that many Australians secretly agree with her assessment of Irwin's legacy.

"The premier of Queensland weighed in, announcing that he would treble my taxes, if he could, which gave new heart to those who thought I should be fed to the crocodiles," Greer writes.

"Lately someone has been throwing food at the windows of my house in England, mostly eggs, sometimes jam doughnuts, once corned beef hash and shaved ham, and, this weekend, two dead rabbits."

A portrait of Irwin recently replaced one of Greer in Australia's National Portrait Gallery, bringing the controversy back to public attention.

Greer says it is "disgraceful" that the gallery has taken six months to display a portrait of Steve Irwin, who is a "most famous Australian".

But her generosity about the portrait stops there: ". . . his lime-green shirt is undone to the fourth button, and pulled open to display his bosom in a manner not altogether manly," she writes. She also refers to Irwin's "simpering".

Greer caused an international uproar when she wrote a column in the same newspaper shortly after Irwin's death, saying the animal world had taken its revenge on the "self-deluded animal tormentor".

In a subsequent interview with the Nine Network's A Current Affair, Greer went on to say she thought the public outpouring of grief for Irwin was "embarrassing".

Greer complains about the interview in her new piece for The Guardian, saying it was unfairly edited.

Steve Irwin died in September last year after a stingray put its barb through his heart.