Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian, dead at 81

[Are_grits_groceries]

Mary Daly, radical feminist theologian and a mother of modern feminist theology, died Jan. 3 at the age of 81. She was one of the most influential voices of the radical feminist movement through the later 20th century.

Daly taught courses in theology, feminist ethics and patriarchy at Boston College for 33 years. Her first book, "The Church and the Second Sex," published in 1968, got her fired, briefly, from her teaching position there, but as a result of support from the (then all-male) student body and the general public, she was ultimately granted tenure.
<snip>
Studying archetypal forms and prepatriarchal religion convinced Daly that church doctrine consisted of a series of significant "reversals." She explained these to NCR writer Jeanette Batz in 1996:

•the Trinity, from the triple goddess once celebrated worldwide;
•the virgin birth, from the parthenogenesis that once begat divine daughters;
•Adam giving birth to Eve.
Women operating on patriarchy's boundaries, she once wrote, can spiral into freedom by renaming and reclaiming an ancient woman-centered reality that was stolen and eradicated by patriarchy.
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She took great delight in castigating the "eight deadly sins of the fathers": processions, professions, possession, aggression, obsession, assimilation, elimination and fragmentation. "Laugh out loud," she urged, "at their pompous penile processions."
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More about her: http://ncronline.org/news/women/mary-daly-radical-feminist-theologian-dead-81

"8 deadly sins of the fathers"-Heh! I'll bet she gave people agita until her last breath. I doubt she'll want to RIP.

[Delphinus]

1. I am sure

I've read something by her - can't recall what at the moment. I'm glad she lived the life she did.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. There are some people who

I never know about until it's too late. It's great to realize that they were out and about raising hell.

[omega minimo]

10. .

[zazen]

3. I found her analysis of common patriarchal elements across religions very helpful

Think it was in Gyn/Ecology? I'll go dust it off momentarily.

Amazing to see the transformation from her first, much more soft-spoken work and where she ended up. I personally never took to goddess-centered perspectives, given that I think they recapitulated the objectification of the divine in simply another human form, but I'm glad someone was out there making those radical critiques day after day. She paved the way for a lot of scholars of women and religion, who were comparatively seen as more middle of the road as the result of her work.

RIP, Ms. Daly.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. I didn't necessarily agree with all of

what I read in this one article. However as you said, by breaking new ground, she made it easier for others to follow part of the way and then break their own, or she could have been an inspiration to break new ground.

[omega minimo]

5. She was her own woman.

That's inspiration right there.

[Delphinus]

7. Too true!

:hi:

[omega minimo]

9. Harpy New Year

:bounce: :hi:

[omega minimo]

8. "they recapitulated the objectification of the divine in simply another human form"

It sounds like you mean that "goddess-centered perspectives" did they when observed currently. Do you view the herstory that she documented differently? The ancient origins were not "recapitulat(ing) the objectification of the divine in simply another human form" or .......?

[omega minimo]

6. Words -- and wordplay -- matter

Here's to ya, Harpy!! :toast:

[BigBluenoser]

11. My wife is a feminist academic and has tons of such books

lining our library. I've read a bunch of them and Mary Daly's are the ones I like best. She had a great style when it came to writing and an absolute certainty that leaped off the page and grabbed you. So much better than the po-po/po-mo/po-co/po-st writers.

Goodbye Mary Daly!

[omega minimo]

12. !

:toast:

[Brickbat]

13. I'm sorry to see she has died. I loved "Gyn/Ecology," even if there was much I disagreed with.

[proteus_lives]

14. Didn't care for men or trans-people.

She got in trouble for refusing to teach male students and kicking them out of her classes.

[Ignis]

15. She was a powerful writer.

I was saddened when she became more exclusionary, but I was still delighted to have read her books.

[Morning Dew]

16. She was bigoted against Trans people.

Also in Gyn/Ecology, Daly asserted her negative view of transsexual people, whom she referred to as "Frankensteinian." She labels transsexualism a "male problem" and claims that post-operative transsexuals exist in a "contrived and artifactual condition." Daly was also the dissertation advisor to Janice whose dissertation, published in 1979 as The Transsexual Empire, is critical of "transsexualism."

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Mary_Daly


Any good she may have done is undercut (for me) by her trans bigotry.

[NoSheep]

23. I'm sorry to hear that this was hurtful to you. I understand this in a different way.

I don't know this writer very well but I have studied many feminist writers and the terms used suggest something a little more nuanced than what I'm gathering from the discussion here.

I read this as a way of saying MALE culture, in its worst manifestation, must identify, or "contrive" something that is (what THEY consider)NOT normal..(I don't like this word) as being a "condition" rather than something society should consider "normal" or as I would put it...society should consider it none of their business!

If you think about it, trans-sexuality as well as all other perceived deviant(ugh)forms of sexuality ARE an artiFACTUAL condition. VERY IMPORTANT - NOT artificial but artifactual...therefore, created by society. An artifact of culture. Any term that attempts to re-define a human as anything other than human is an artifact of culture. Now...she could have been a complete asshole, but that is my reading of this.

YOU and I are human. Period. The dominant male cultural paradigm seeks to define us as other if we are anything BUT what it defines itself to be (its own artifact). The terms they label us with are "artifactual".

Now...if she meant something different, then she was fucking wrong. What do you think? Are you getting what I mean?

[Morning Dew]

27. Thanks, that is an interesting take on it.

I don't want to piss on the OP's thread, but I think Daly went so far her in thinking that she went out the other side and no longer really regarded half the human population as human.

I'm not a fan, though I think she did some good for a while.

[Are_grits_groceries]

28. I understand that she

might have become too radical for some. However, she did clear a long trail that others could stop on or journey off of at some point. I have read authors that began to lose me after a while. I still gave creedence to their earlier work even though I could no longer follow them.

I don't think you pissed on my OP. You had a perfectly reasonable reaction IMHO.

[Morning Dew]

29. Thanks. I was trying to be a little sensitive to the feelings of others.

She was a groundbreaker and I respect that.

[Mari333]

17. knr

[niyad]

18. k and r--thank you so much for posting this--I nearly missed it.

she was one amazing and intelligent person--I shall miss her.

By the way, have you read the "wickedary: webster's first new intergalactic wickedary of the english language"? if you haven't, RUN, do not walk, to obtain a copy.

In this radical classic, Mary Daly has journeyed through the far reaches of the English language, and beyond, to conjure this delicious web of words. Wickedary sheds a whole new light on the meaning of words (and the meaning of meaning) as it mercilessly exposes the patriarchal house of cards that has become common language usage. Just pull on one and the whole thing comes tumbling down. This is a hilarious, fascinating and essential tool for women word weavers-the real definition of a "Webster" -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Ilene Rosoff --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



From the Publisher
Mary Daly's brilliant, wild, and humor-filled weave of words, which frees the English language from its patriarchal and confining patterns by weaving a fascinating, feminist, linguistic revolution. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Mary Daly does it again! She manages to skewer dead and dying institutions in remarkably few words. For example: "bubble n: an artificial total environment which distances, destroys and replaces the physical/spiritual Elemental world; an Eye-sore/I-sore. Examples: disneyworld; the bible." Lest you think this is all negative, delight in "Be-Witching: leaping/hopping/flying inspired by Lust for Metamorphosis...the exercise of Labrys-like powers." Nice pictures, too. A must-have for the Feminist who needs a chuckle or a good quote from time to time. Definitely a keeper!

.. . .

http://www.amazon.com/Websters-Intergalactic-Wickedary-English-Language/dp/070434114X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262756559&sr=1-1

[NoSheep]

19. I honored her today by reminding some of the men I know who AMAZINGLY

continue to take advantage of their position, that they are really just slime in the way of ALL people, women and men.
Edited to add:

all of those who define themselves...transgender included. But I just don't like these terms. PEOPLE. THAT is what we are. We use these terms because these are the ones we are "allowed" to use to define ourselves. They are limiting. I say these definitions are inadequate to define humanity in all its varieties.

That doesn't mean I would disrespect another who defines herself that way...it is just that for me, the definition isn't necessary, and like the deceased, I feel it is a social construct...LITERALLY, the TERM...not the reality.

I'm about sick of being called a woman, even though I bear all outside appearances of being so. Who comes up with these words?

Finally, I'd just like to add, I DO understand how necessary it is to define ourselves in the socio/political struggle to be perceived and actualized as equals and we thereby must label ourselves. I'd like to suggest that whatever it was Mary Daly had to say, we should be informed by her discussion of these labels. They are artifacts. Nothing more. We, however, may be infinite. I've known a few infinite folks in my time; some of them quite dead from the pain of not fitting into some jerk's idea of "normal".

[travelingtypist]

20. K&R

Loved her earlier stuff, am not smart enough to understand or follow some of her more radical stuff that I didn't understand her language, not for lack of trying. I'm grateful for her contribution, though, her certitude.

RIP Ms. Daly.

[liberal_at_heart]

21. Wow. Good for her taking on the church and trying to reform it from the inside

[struggle4progress]

22. No Man's Land: An interview with Mary Daly by Susan Bridle (WIE Fall–Winter 1999)

... Daly, who holds six graduate degrees, including three doctorates in religion, theology and philosophy ... No stranger to controversy throughout her illustrious career, Daly is making headlines this year because Boston College .. is demanding that she begin to admit male students into her classroom — or retire ...

... I was naïve enough to think, when I first approached Daly for an interview, that she would be eager to have a platform to express her views in a respected spiritual magazine dedicating an issue to the subject of gender. I couldn't chave been more misguided. When she saw the word "enlightenment" on the cover of the sample issue I'd sent her—and even worse, when she saw a photograph of the Dalai Lama — she immediately pegged the publication as a cog in the machine of patriarchy and wanted nothing to do with us ...

WIE: In your latest book, Quintessence, you describe a utopian society of the future, on a continent populated entirely by women, where procreation occurs through parthenogenesis, without the participation of men. What is your vision for a postpatriarchal world? Is it similar to what you described in the book?

MD: You can read Quintessence and you can get a sense of it. It's a description of an alternative future. It's there partly as a device and partly because it's a dream. There could be many alternative futures, but some of the elements are constant: that it would be women only; that it would be women generating the energy throughout the universe; that much of the contamination, both physical and mental, has been dealt with ...

http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j16/daly.asp?page=1

[struggle4progress]

24. The Church and the Second Sex (Mary Daly | Beacon Press | 1985)

... "In the New Testament it is significant that the statements which reflect the antifeminism of the times are never those of Christ. There is no recorded speech of Jesus concerning women 'as such.' What is very striking is his behavior toward them. In the passages describing the relationship of Jesus with various women, one characteristic stands out starkly: they emerge as persons, for they are treated as persons, often in such contrast with prevailing custom as to astonish onlookers. " <page 79> ...

"The contemporary social inferiority of women was, indeed, reflected in the New Testament. Although the seeds of emancipation were present in the Christian message, their full implications were not evident to the first century authors. The most strikingly antifeminist passages are, of course, in the Pauline texts, which are all too familiar to Catholic, who have heard them cited approvingly ad nauseam. We now know it is important to understand that Paul was greatly preoccupied with order in society and in Christian assemblies in particular. In modern parlance, it seemed necessary to sustain a good 'image' of the Church. Thus it appeared to him an important consideration that women should not have too predominant a place in Christian assemblies, that they should not 'speak' too much or unveil their heads. This would have caused a scandal and ridicule of the new sect, which already had to face accusations of immorality and effeminacy. In ancient Corinth, as one scholar has pointed out, for a woman to go unveiled would be to behave like a prostitute. Paul was concerned with protecting the new Church against scandal. Thus he repeatedly insisted upon 'correct' sexual behavior, including the subjection of wives at meetings. Once this is understood, it becomes evident that it is a perversion to use Pauline texts, which should be interpreted within their own social context, to support the claim that even today, in a totally different society, women should be subject." < page 80> ...

http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/daly1.html

[struggle4progress]

25. Feminist interpretations of Mary Daly (Carol Anne Douglas | Off Our Backs | Dec 2000)

... Irish feminist Geraldine Moane tells how Daly's call to find our foremothers has inspired Irish women to look back to Celtic history, where women had a more powerful role, and to try to find ways to unite feminists across Catholic/Protestant and North/South lines ... Of course any book about Mary Daly is likely to look at Audre Lorde's "Open Letter to Mary Daly," which criticized Gyn/Ecology for portraying African, Chinese, and Indian women solely as victims, and Daly's lack of a direct response ... Amber L. Katherine .. writes that seeing sexism as the primary or original form of oppression prompted radical feminists such as Daly "to the conclusion that women's solidarity must be grounded in a woman-identified politic that condemned any identifications on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, or class" ...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200012/ai_n8906431/?tag=content;col1

[struggle4progress]

26. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation (Mary Daly | 1985)

Chapter 1. After the death of God the Father

... If God in "his" heaven is a father ruling "his" people. then it is in the "nature" of things and according to divine plan and the order of the universe that society be male-dominated ... Within this context a mystification of roles takes place: the husband dominating his wife represents God himself. What is happening, of course, is the familiar mechanism by which the images and values of a given society are projected into a realm of beliefs, which in turn justify the social infrastructure. The belief system becomes hardened and objectified, seeming to have an unchangeable independent existence and validity of its own. It resists social change which would rob it of its plausibility. Nevertheless, despite the vicious circle, change does occur in society, and ideologies die, though they die hard ...

At this point it is important to consider the objection that the liberation of women will only mean that new characters will assume the same old roles, but that nothing will change essentially in regard to structure, ideology, or values. This objection is often based upon the observation that the very few women in "masculine" occupations seem to behave very much as men do. This is really not to the point for it fails to recognize that the effect of tokenism is not to change stereotypes or social systems but to preserve these. What I am discussing here is an emergence of women such as has never taken place before It is naive to assume that the coming of women into equal power in society generally and in the. church in particular will simply mean uncritical acceptance i.e. of values formerly given priority by men. Rather, I suggest that it will be a catalyst for transformation of our culture.

The roles and structures of patriarchy have been developed and sustained in accordance with an artificial polarization of human qualities into the traditional sexual stereotypes. The image of the person in authority and the accepted understanding of "his" role have corresponded to the eternal masculine stereotype, which implies hyperrationality, "objectivity," aggressivity, the possession of dominating and manipulative attitudes toward persons and environment and the tendency to construct boundaries between the self (and those identified with the self) and "line other." The caricature of a human being which is represented by this stereotype depends for its existence upon the opposite caricature: the eternal feminine (hyper-emotional, passive, self-abasing etc.). By becoming whole persons women can generate a counterforce to the stereotype of the leader as they challenge the artificial polarization of human characteristics. There is no reason to assume that women who have the support of their sisters to criticize the masculine stereotype will simply adopt it as a model for themselves. More likely they will develop a wider range of qualities and skills in themselves and thereby encourage men to engage in a comparably liberating procedure (a phenomenon we are beginning to witness already in men's liberation groups). This becoming of whole human beings will affect the values of our society, for it will involve a change in the fabric of human consciousness.

Accordingly, it is reasonable to anticipate that this change will affect the symbols which reflect the values of our society, including religious symbols. Since some of these have functioned to justify oppression! women and men would do well to welcome this change. Religious symbols die when the cultural situation that supported them ceases to give them plausibility. This should pose no problem to authentic faith, which accepts the relativity of all symbols and recognizes that fixation upon any of them as absolute in itself is idolatrous ...

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/after/