16 comments

ActualWendyDecember 28, 2024(Edited December 28, 2024)

It’s not a book to be raced through. She uses old words in new ways. When I read it I feel my mind turning inside out.

When I finished it the first time. I felt compelled to read the last chapter out loud like an invocation, a benediction, a consecration of myself that has lasted until this very day.

cuttothechaiseDecember 28, 2024

Chills. Thank you for taking me back to the experience of first discovering, and slowly pouring over this book... the baptism of myself, by myself. Dear Mary my shepherd!

LapisLazuliDecember 28, 2024

I love this suggestion and have this book but haven't read it yet. Perhaps I will make that my 2025 reading goal, along with reading Intercourse by Dworkin.

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 28, 2024

Woah. 😮

iza888December 28, 2024

I was gifted this book for Christmas too!! Really looking forward to reading it and would love to discuss with people here

mildchaosDecember 28, 2024

Maybe we should start a book club

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 28, 2024

I’ll be down to do a book club of this book after I complete reading Beyond the Periphery of the Skin. I’m in charge of that book club in the Book Circle right now.

assigned_terf_at_birthDecember 28, 2024

Someone must really love you.

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 28, 2024

It was Radical Ramblings on YouTube that posted a quote from this book that made me want to read it! I asked my sister to buy this book for me. I don’t think she had ever heard of Gyn/Ecology or Mary Daly before.

TheChaliceIsMightierDecember 27, 2024

Sweet! Post your thoughts about it as you go or a review when you're done!

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 27, 2024

I’ll try to! I still need to get caught back up on the third lecture from Beyond the Periphery of the Skin. On Monday I need to make the discussion post for that section of the book for the book club.

TheChaliceIsMightierDecember 27, 2024

I'll have to remember to bring the book on my travels so I can participate!

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 27, 2024

Yes, definitely! The more women who participate, the better and the more we will learn! :D

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 27, 2024

I got this book for Christmas from my sister. I’ve never read it, but I hear it is a good read from radical feminists online. For the women who have read this book or any other of Mary Daly’s works, is there anything I need to read before hand in preparation for this book? What did y’all think of this book? Any sections or quotes that really resonated with you? Any thing you learned that you want to share here?

mathloverDecember 27, 2024

Take your time with it. Really. Don't be in a hurry. Read short chunks at a time, and read them over when you need to absorb and think about what you've just read.

My favorite passage in the book is: "Thus women continue to be intimidated by the label anti-male. Some feel a false need to draw distinctions, for example: “I am anti-patriarchal but not anti-male.” 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. The primary resistance to consciousness of this reality is precisely described in Sisterhood Is Powerful: “Thinking that our man is the exception, and, therefore, we are the exception among women.” 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. The use of the label is an indication of intellectual and moral limitations. Despite all the evidence that women are attacked as projections of The Enemy, the accusers ask sardonically; “Do you really think that men are the enemy?” This deception/reversal is so deep that 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."

CompassionateGoddess [OP]December 28, 2024

Powerful quote. Thanks for sharing! I will definitely take my time with this book and read chunks at a time and not all at once. Thanks for sharing that tip!