Barbara Kay has written what will likely be the most honest obituary for Mary Daly over at PJMedia. I didn’t even know Daly was dead, but in retrospect, I give a little sigh of relief. Thank God that’s over.
Back in college, I fancied myself a bit of a “feminist theologian.” Granted, my major was Music Ed, specializing in voice, but all my friends were Theology Majors and I read and wrote enough on the subject that one might be generous and say I had an unofficial Minor in the subject. [These friends are now working on Doctorates in Theology, so I bow to their greater learning as occasion warrants.] Feminist Theology was, looking back, the first step on a journey through a land of strange, twisted realities. In other writings of mine, I’ve referred to these areas of thought as The Wastelands. Yeah, and all that name implies . . . but all of that will be subjects for other posts.
What eventually drove me away from the “Feminist” lavel of any sort was the pervasive misandry exhibited in “feminist” writings, speech and behavior. While I myself was (and still am) for equality between women and men, I never believed that women were ever any better than men. In addition, I’m straight. I love men, not just in the sexual way, but also in all the platonic ways that our society either forgets or doesn’t believe in anymore.
Daly was a font of such ill-treatment of men, her sexist views trickling down to the layfolk in the form of words like “Patriarchy”, and “Goddess Spirituality.” Listen, I know from “Goddess Spirituality”– for a time, I lived it. It was usually shallow and self-serving, an excuse to stop striving, stop seeking to be better. Those who chased after depth couldn’t last long in such an environment. Sometimes they kept the image of “Goddess Spirituality” while finding tradition and, therefore, some depth– I call to mind M. Isadora Forrest, author of Isis Magic, who dealt with actual Egyptian beliefs regarding Isis, and for whom I still bear some respect. But even then, at what I consider the best of “Goddess Spirituality”, there is an ultimate stasis, a point beyond which the endless cycling cannot take you. You go full circle, and start over and over again, no change, no progress. Unless, of course, you are of the few self-driven seekers who will not accept such stasis. . .
Daly harmed not just men with her hatred, but women as well. Nothing good can come of dividing humanity one half against the other. Too many women followed Daly’s paths and still haven’t realized that there’s no there there. They use misandry as a crutch, a way to feel “empowered” by tearing down those who are the most fundamentally different than themselves. The woman who follows Daly never has to confront her own imperfections, the places where she lacks, and so never has the chance to improve herself.
I am glad I left such “Feminism” in the dust. It is a trap for the unwary seeker, the first of many through the Wastes, but one which a sad number still have not yet freed themselves of.
Perhaps, with the death of this hate-steeped woman, and the rise of a newer generation of women that do not share this hatred, we sill see an end to this faulty, stupid way of thinking and being.
American Slytherin 