Page 60 - Cultural Studies Volume 11

54 CULTURAL STUDIES

Probably the most influential proponent of this position is Mary Daly (1978/
1984). In Gyn/Ecology Daly makes it clear that America—and perhaps the whole
world—is organized by a male supremacist conspiracy. She insists that being
logical ‘would require that we admit to ourselves that males and males only are
the originators, planners, controllers, and legitimators of patriarchy’ (1978/1984:
29). For Daly, ‘the fact is that we live in a profoundly anti-female society, a
misogynistic “civilization” in which men collectively victimize women’ (1978/
1984:29). No detail of social arrangement is accidental, as Daly goes on to
declare that ‘within this society it is men who rape, who sap women’s energy,
who deny economic and political power’. Patriarchy ‘appears to be
“everywhere”’: not only have ‘outer space and the future…been colonized’, but
patriarchal control ‘is also internalized, festering inside women’s heads, even
feminist heads’ (1978/1984:–1). In Gyn/Ecology, the conspiracy of male power
is total.
Daly repeatedly insists on the brutal facts of patriarchal power. She explicitly
counsels against collapsing a literal understanding of the male-supremacists’ plot
back into metaphorical talk of abstract forces:

women—even feminists—are intimidated into Self-deception, becoming
the only Self-described oppressed who are unable to name their oppressor,
referring instead to vague ‘forces’, ‘roles’, ‘stereotypes’, ‘constraints’,
‘attitudes’, ‘influences’. This list could go on. The point is that no agent is
named—only abstractions.
(1978/1984:29)

Despite Daly’s insistence on literal facts instead of abstractions, Gyn/Ecology is
often densely metaphorical. The book forms a remarkable attempt to escape
through linguistic creativity from what Daly considers to be the ‘mind-
poisoning’ of patriarchy, which has even infected the women’s movement. This
book,’ states Daly, ‘can be heard as a Requiem for that “women’s movement”,
which is male-designed, male-orchestrated, male-legitimated, male-assimilated’
(1978/1984:xvi). Daly endeavours to create not just a new form of woman-
centred politics, but a new form of feminist language which is not designed,
orchestrated or legitimated by men. Whereas earlier feminists like Friedan were
concerned to identify the problem with no name, Daly comes to see naming itself
as the problem. For Daly, then, what is significant is that women are ‘unable to
name their oppressor’ (1978/1984:29, emphasis added). The point is, Daly warns,
‘no agent is named’; and recognizing that patriarchy amounts to a conspiracy
requires not only ‘the courage to be logical’, but also ‘the courage to name’.
Literally naming the agents of patriarchy therefore becomes an important act in
itself.
The emphasis on finding the right words and naming things for what they are
is crucial to Daly’s project, for she portrays language itself as a patriarchal trap.
In addition to her use of the language of conspiracy, Daly turns her attention to