Tue 5 Jan 2010 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Outspoken lesbian radical feminist Mary Daly has died after a long illness at her home in Massachusetts, aged 81. Mary Daly (1928-2010) One of the world's most influential feminist writers, Daly's studies into the negative portrayal of women in the philosophy of religion have provoked anger amongst theologians since the 1960s, and helped shape the feminist movement in the '70s and '80s. "I urge you to Sin," Daly once wrote, "but not against these itty-bitty religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism - or their secular derivatives, Marxism, Maoism, Freudianism and Jungianism - which are all derivatives of the big religion of patriarchy. Sin against the infrastructure itself!" She also sought to 'reclaim' derogatory words used against women such as 'hag' and 'witch', and was an activist against cruelty to animals. Daly became increasingly anti-patriarchy and in her later years had her tenure rights removed at Boston College after she refused to allow male students in her Women's Studies class. Daly's colleague Mary E. Hunt paid tribute to her today: "She always advised women to throw our lives as far as they would go. I can say without fear of exaggeration that she lived that way herself. May her spirit soar and her ideas endure."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 5th January 2010 - 1:39pm