Germaine Greer, one of the leading voices in the feminist movement, has riled many by claiming that punishment for rape should be reduced in law since it is mostly not a violent crime but a “lazy, careless and insensitive” act.

Greer, 79, whose most notable works include The Female Eunuch (1970), told the Hay Festival she wanted to turn the discourse about rape “upside down”, and wanted perpetrators to be punished by community service and perhaps an “R” tattoo on the hand, arm or cheek.

“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,” she was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Her comments at the festival in Wales sparked a welter of criticism, including from Conservative MP Priti Patel, who told the media: “These comments are an affront to the victims of appalling crimes such as rape. We should have zero tolerance of sexual violence.”

According to Greer, rape is rampant in society and the legal system cannot cope with it because it always comes down to the issue of consent, with the victims becoming little more than “bits of evidence”.

The academic said: “Most rapes don’t involve any injury whatsoever. We are told that it is a sexually violent crime, an expert like (filmmaker) Quentin Tarantino will tell us that when you use the word rape you’re talking about violence, a throwing them down… it is one of the most violent crimes in the world. Bull**** Tarantino.

“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.

Admitting that her comments would spark a furore, she went on: “It is moments like these, I can hear the feminists screaming at me, ‘you’re trivialising rape’…Love-making is not a matter of an organ, it is a matter of communication and somehow we’ve got to rescue it. It is in deep trouble…

“Women love men, more than they (men) love women. We are more aware of our men, more than they are aware of us. We are more easily pressured into pleasing them, or trying to please them. We tend to love our sons more than our daughters, we hope it doesn’t show, but it nearly always does.”