>I'm a fang-and-claw feminist, but Mary Daly disturbs me
>in ways I can't completely put my finger on. Perhaps
>it's only that, to me, she seems to have always gone
>out of her way to be self-congratulatorily obscure and
>annoying. [sigh] Suspicious besom that I am, I
>always have to wonder, with Berne, whether her
>inapproachability is a mask for banality. Regardless,
>I have a tough time mustering the energy to speak
>supportively of her. And I feel rotten about that.
Who's Berne? A lot of feminists are really down on Daly, and there are some good reasons for that, I think. In alot of ways, the theoretical world has passed her by, and she's a bit of a dinosaur with all of that essentializing. I agree, too, that her prose style is somewhat difficult/annoying. But I don't think that her inapproachability is "a mask for banality" (as I would think for, say, Lacan).
I wonder if part of the problem is that she is engaged in a different conversation than the one many of her readers assume she is taking part in. If read only as feminist theory, she is appalling, one of the few people writing today who is more of a relic than, say, Andrea Dworkin. But her conversation is not with (secular) feminist theorists for the most part, it is with Catholic theologians. She is arguing against the transcendent, omnipotent etc etc male god of the church, its notions about sin, about bodies, about pleasure, about suffering, the role of women. And if one isn't conversant in that vocabulary, she's going to come off as a complete nut. She published *Beyond God the Father* and *The Church and the Second Sex* over 20 years ago, and in so doing, she pretty much started the feminist theological conversation, at least the scholarly one.
When I was reading Daly years ago, it was in the company of a number of women who were working on their M Div degrees (masters of divinity--they were all going to be ordained ministers or nuns). Her work really resonated with them--they *loved* her. I think that's her audience. The strange thing about Daly is that she is so well known--there are certainly many feminist theologians (if you want to red her as such) and ecofeminists (if you want to read her as such) who's work is more accessible, worldly, and sophisticated.
When the whole BC/Daly thing began, I was really anti-Daly. I've since reconsidered. What they've done to her over the last 20 (at least) years is an absolute outrage. For those who aren't familiar, Daly holds doctorates in theology and philosophy from Fribourg. She's published six books, is internationally known and (yes) respected. She's also still an *associate* professor. That's criminal. The church has really fucked her.
Enrique wrote:
>>Oooh! Oooh! Can you post some choice cuts? This could be fu-un!>>
If you want to read her just so you can laugh at her and feel superior, I should think you could go through the trouble of getting her stuff out of the library yourself.
best, frances