Gyn/Ecology by Mary Daly

In both these books Mary Daly presents analytical and theoretical critiques of men’s domination of women. She has little concern for the immediate material conditions and struggle of women against male oppression. Her way forward is not through political struggle. It is metaphysical, an inner voyage. Her writings are inspirational: she sees feminism as a way of thinking. In Gyn/Ecology she demonstrates how women can transcend patriarchal culture by rejecting its language and assumptions and learning to love ourselves and one another. In Pure Lust she takes this further, warning against falling into assimilation and tokenism and being hoodwinked into “male ordered” “plastic feminism”. A criticism sometimes used of Mary Daly is that her writing style is elitist and unreadable: constant word play and extensive terminological definition are not immediately accessible on cursory reading, but its depth and richness as it becomes more familiar make the effort to understand it worthwhile.