(Some readers may find the content of this story upsetting.)

Germaine Greer thinks the punishment for rape should be lowered to an 'R' tattoo on the rapist's hand or 200 hours community service. The feminist academic has said that she doesn't believe rape is a "violent" crime and that in order to be believed, women should support the lowering of the penalty associated with it. She also argued that a man "can't kill you with his penis." Speaking at the Hay literary festival, Greer said that the legal system couldn't "cope" with rape charges because rape always comes down the issue of consent. She said:

“Most rape is just lazy, just careless, insensitive. Every time a man rolls over on his exhausted wife and insists on enjoying his conjugal rights he is raping her. It will never end up in a court of law. “Instead of thinking of rape as a spectacularly violent crime, and some rapes are, think about it as non-consensual… that is bad sex. Sex where there is no communication, no tenderness, no mention of love.”

The Australian writer went on to argue that in order for rape to be taken seriously by the legal system, women should accept lowering the punishment. She claimed that if "our accusation is to stand as evidence, then we do have to reduce the tariff for rape."

“You might want to believe that the penis is a lethal weapon and that all women live in fear of that lethal weapon, well that’s bullshit. "It’s not true. We don’t live in terror of the penis (…) A man can’t kill you with his penis.”

She also said that in cases where a rape is "violent", a longer trial and harsher sentence should be given. This isn't the first time that Greer's arguments concerning feminism and sexuality have caused controversy. In 2015, she said that transgender women are "not women" and that they do not "look like, sound like, or behave like women." She also believes that people have "no right" to stop female genital mutilation (FGM) from happening in African countries and compared the process to tattooing. Greer's new book On Rape will be released this year.