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Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism

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I'm a man, which I think matters on this topic. I read this book when it was originally published back in the 80's, and it blew me away. I do not believe that Mary hates men. She certainly hates the world that men have built. Her analysis of the language men have constructed to understand that world is absolutely brilliant---you have to consider that she has, other than that tendentious language itself, no other tool with which to describe the language's inherent violence. We live entirely within a media-constructed world that is loaded with value, very much angled to exclude and diminish (to put it mildly) women, people of color, non-heteros, non-academic thinkers, etc. The shock some people experience on reading this work is basically caused by Mary's unwavering determination to hold even the most mundane and seemingly value-free details of this constructed world up to her merciless view.

Goddess, I love this book! Hateful? Racist? I think not. Angry? Unladylike? Absolutely! Mary Daly begins by challenging language which keeps us oppressed as women. It was the work of women that gave a name to the experiences so many of us share, but could not speak at one time: rape, battering, incest. There were no words, once, for what was considered, "a woman's lot in life." These things still happen, but at least now they can be spoken, at least now they can be challenged, at least now there may be hope. The title 'Gyn/Ecology,' according to the Introduction, is a way of wrenching back some wordpower. It is men, after all, who up until now have always had the power of naming, often naming something the opposite of what it really is (i.e. Military Intelligence, Peacekeeper, sanitary napkin). This book is primarily concerned with the mind/spirit/body pollution inflicted through patriarchal myth and language on all levels.

The fact that most gynecologists are males, says Daly, is in itself a collosal comment on our society. It is a symptom and example of male control over women and over language, and a clue to the extent of this control. Add to this the fact that self-appointed soul doctors, mind doctors, and body doctors who "specialize" in women are perpetrators of iatrogenic disease (the first time I had ever heard of such a thing, and have since come to specialize in its research).

"The courage to be logical -- the courage to name -- would require that we admit to ourselves that males and males only are the originators, planners, controllers, and legitimators of patriarchy. Patriarchy is the homeland of males; it is Father Land; and men are its agents. It is in the interest of men (as men in patriarchy perceive their interest) and in a superficial but Self-destructive way, of many women, to hide this fact, especially from themselves."

How anyone can call Dr. Daly racist for dis-covering the historical roots of American Gynecology balanced on the backs of experimentation on black female slaves by J. Marion Sims, "moving spirit" behind the founding of the Women's Hospital in New York, is beyond me.

Dr. Daly weaves her understanding of our oppression as women within and around her understanding of Chinese footbinding, Indian Suttee, clitoridectomy, and the witchburnings in the Middle Ages. Violence against women continues to be endemic, systemic, entrenched in our society, and its roots grow deep. Dr. Daly dis-covers and names those roots, and for many, this is a painful exercise that requires the work of thinking, something that is more and more dis-couraged in a society that prefers to do your thinking for you.

From the back cover: "Mary Daly is a Revolting Hag who holds doctorates in theology and philosophy from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. An associate professor of theology at Boston College, this Spinster spins and weaves cosmic tapestries in her own time/space. She is the author of 'Beyond God the Father' and 'The Church and the Second Sex.'"

Dr. Daly is intelligent, a delight to read, and has earned her stripes. Her willingness to speak truth to power has cost her dearly, and has earned my respect. The violence she is not afraid to name threatens the very existence of life on this planet. If you want to be part of making a difference, read this book.

As a man who has met and spoken at length to Mary Daly, I can definitively say that she does not hate men (as this seems to be the topic of discussion in these reviews). Her anger in this book is valid and purposeful. The anger is present to energize people for change. The statement that this book is racist seems incredible to me. The cultural realativist "trump card" of tradition cannot be extended to practices that directly harm people. Condemming genital mutilation and footbinding on the same grounds as the American medical establisment (the grounds that they cripple, kill and disable women) seems less racist than assuming these practices are "primitive" and thereby sacred. Daly is not an imperialist, she speaks for the unification of women (and those men willing) across all superficial borders to break the bonds of patriarchy. This is an angry book, but is enjoyable and, at times astounding, nonetheless. Daly is disgusted by the patriarchal world that has been created by men and with the complicity of women, but you should be too. Things don't seem so bad here in the US (if you are happy with $.75 to the dollar), but the picture overseas is entirely different. Across all cultures (yes even our own) rape and spousal abuse are incredibly prevelant, affecting up to 85% of women in some countries. Feminism is as needed now as it ever was, and the assumption that it only applies to "developed" cultures allows governments to block and qualify international legislation such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This book is a direct challenge to this cultural realativism.

This is probably the most accessible book Mary Daly has written in the 30+ years she has been exploring & indicting patriarchal institutions & "morals". Unlike "Pure Lust", which was difficult to understand w/o a background in philosophy & theology, "Gyn/Ecology" explores the methods that have been used to keep women bound, showing a relationship btwn such seemingly disparate phenomena as Nazism & gynecology, witch-burnings & Chinese footbinding. The historical facts are well-researched & supported thru direct quotations from men who have perpetrated & defended the torture & killing of women in the name of "culture". Daly strongly refutes the argument that one society cannot judge the practices of another, proclaiming that the lives of women take precedence over such constructs as culture. This book touched me, angered me, inspired me...

Another man Checking in. I first read Mary Daly in 1987. Gyn/Ecology is one of the most important books EVER writen, and Daly is a philosopher of the greatest depth fueled by Elemental Feminist Genius . I HAVE SPOKEN TO MARY DALY. She is the most life loving and wonderful person one can describe. Men have done and continue to do all of the things that she describes in Gyn/Ecology. Please, just read this book, as well as Her other books.I dont intend to write a wonderful review here the last 2 posts already did that. I want to tell men who are reading this = "BROTHERS, ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE, A REAL CHANGE!"

I first read Mary Daly;s works in the early 90's - I revisit regularly to maintain the perspective, so that I will not be sucked into the manufacture of consent for such belitteling and anti-woman activities such as "Hunting for Bambi" or believe that female genital mutilation is a "tradition" that must be preserved. If you care about the future - this book is an intellectual and spiritual watershed. Highly Reccommended.

Dr. Mary Daly is one of the most influential writers in my life. Gyn/Ecology is my alltime favorite of her books. She is not about manhating. She is about loving her fellow women and combatting anything which hurts them. She exposes the evils of female genital mutilation, footbinding and widow burning. She was far ahead of her time when she wrote against patriarchal medicines abuse of women. Her gynocentric vision of a future for our planet is really the only thing that will save our mother earth from patriarchal destruction.

Can you "handle the truth?" If so, read this book! Daly uncovers truths about the atrocities committed against women by men. Daly's piece will horrify, enrage, enlighten and empower any woman who is willing to "go there."

We used this book as a textbook in a class I took in Graduate school, and it made me think more than just about any other book I read in grad school. Intellectual, but not dry. It made me want to read all her other books; they're good too but this one is my favorite because it kind of functions like a textbook, not that it's dry but because it gives a kind of broad survey of history. It's a great exercise in learning to think outside the box.

Daly's work is indeed brilliant. She sees through to the core of this patriarchal world and her book is a merciless expose of the atrocities committed against women by men. Telling the truth about patriarchy requires the ugliness of men's evil deeds to be uncovered, like picking up a rock and seeing the squirming, slimy crawlies hiding underneath it; nevertheless she is not about hating men but about hating the world they have created (don't you?) and she is all about loving women.

I first read Daly's work decades ago and then somehow lost sight of it - yet, when re-reading this book, I could not understand why or how this had happened (but of course life happens). In "Gyn/Ecology" Mary Daly (RIP) explores the methods that have been used to keep women bound, showing a relationship between many seemingly disparate phenomena including Nazism/fascism, Indian suttee, Chinese footbinding, genital mutilation (Africa and Arab countries), European witchburnings and American Gynecology (modern medicine - with its chemical and surgical "cures" for the disease of femaleness - now being understood by many but Daly was far ahead of her time when this book was first published in 1978) - how all these evils are proof of the deep hatred of male for female.

Daly explains in each of these types of hate-cripplings & hate-killings how the basic elements were/are identical:
1. fixation on "purity";
2. erasing male responsibility (Chinese mothers broke and bound their daughter's feet and African/Arab mothers excise their daughters' genitals, etc. This is done to ensure daughters' respectability and marriagability but it creates hatred of mothers);
3. how the maiming/killing spreads from upper classes to lower, in pyramid fashion;
4. women used as token torturers (in modern medicine, the nurses and the few women doctors - again creating hatred of women);
5. obsessive and repetitive (reptilian) in a compulsively orderly manner, with a fixation on details, which serves to misfocus attention from the fact of phallocratic evil;
6. all of the horror and dissipation/misfocusing of energy quickly becomes accepted as normal and remains so for hundreds, often thousands, of years;
7. the sado-ritual becomes legitimized by researchers and "scholars" who write with indifference and detachment and who minimize the sadistic nature of these acts - the basic cultural assumptions which make the atrocious ritual possible and plausible remain unquestioned, and the practice itself is misnamed and isolated from other parallel symptoms of the planetary patriarchal practice of female maiming and massacre - erasing their significance.

Worldwide and for thousands of years, four methods have been essential for mystification in the games of the fathers: erasure of women (massacre of millions of women as witches has been massively erased in patriarchal scholarship), reversal (Adam gives birth to Eve, Zeus to Athena, in patriarchal myth), false polarization (male-defined "feminism" is set up against male-defined "sexism" in the patriarchal media), and divide and conquer (token women are trained to kill off feminists in patriarchal professions). Deeper and deeper layers of these demonic patterns are embedded in the cultures, implanted in our souls, and constitute mind-bindings comparable to the footbindings which mutilated millions of Chinese women for a thousand years.

From this book and also the second half of "The Great Cosmic Mother" (also a classic) I really felt deeply how all men need all women to be unhappy, that they need the energy sucked from women, who are the natural energy-creators - whilst denying what they are doing. As an earlier review confirms, "the historical facts are well-researched and supported thru direct quotations from men who have perpetrated and defended the torture & killing of women in the name of "culture". Daly strongly refutes the argument that one society cannot judge the practices of another, proclaiming that the lives of women take precedence over such constructs as culture."

One of the most important books ever written.