Australian feminist pioneer Germaine Greer stunned members of Cambridge University’s student union on Monday (26 January) evening with a vitriolic anti-trans rant.

The renowned academic said she did not think there was such a thing as transphobia and sex reassignment surgery was ‘unethical.’

‘Women are 51% of the world’s population and [now I’ve been told] I’ve got to worry about transphobia,’ she said.

‘I didn’t know there was such a thing. Arachnaphobia, yes. Transphobia, no.’

Greer resigned as a lecturer at the university in 1996 after she unsuccessfully campaigned against the appointment of transsexual professor Rachel Padman as a fellow of Newnham College.

The author of The Female Eunuch said that one could not be a woman because you ‘want’ to be.

‘There’s a hardship about being a woman… I always wanted to be a Jew, but I can’t be,’ she said.

Greer called gender polarity ‘a delusion, it’s a form of body dysmorphia.’

She said sex reassignment surgery was ‘unethical’ because she said it ‘removes healthy tissue’ and created a lifelong dependence on medication.

Cambridge University’s LGBT+ Campaign boycotted the high-security event and held an alternative talk on trans feminism in protest.

Several campaign members handed out leaflets outside the union that read:

‘To invite Germaine Greer back to speak in Cambridge condones her transmisogynistic words and actions.

‘The campaign will no longer hold events at the union until such time as the union introduces a policy of not inviting those with a history of hate speech.’