GERMAINE GREER: "We are becoming a paedhdophillic culture and we have to resist.''

Pioneering feminist Germaine Greer has despaired at the growth of a "paedophillic culture" obsessed with celebrity, looks and sex.

Speaking to a packed Wellington Town Hall for the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival, Greer said the next generation was at real risk.



"They are besotted with celebrity culture, asking their parents for cosmetic surgery. It's a society where everyone has to be blond. There has been no other female stereotype more oppressed than this one."

Modern society was "in deep shit", with a younger generation "debauched by pornography".

"Just look at [model] Kate Moss, she's 45 but she looks like she's 12, yet we are all terrified of paedophilia. We are becoming a paedophillic culture and we have to resist, resist, resist."

In 1972, New Zealand authorities arrested Greer for swearing at a rally. Yesterday however, she described New Zealand as the smartest English-speaking country in the world. "But that doesn't mean you're that smart, so don't get carried away."

Women had a long way to go to be truly equal, she said. Women joining the military were entering a "psychotic community where they will be treated like the enemy because men don't want them there".

She brought up the case of an Australian cadet officer, secretly taped having sex at the army's top academy. The images were watched by six men in another room via Skype. "Liberty is only possible if people are not treated like commodities."

Did you see this event? Vote for your favourite festival show in the Readers' Choice Awards.

