Mary Daly
Religious Studies: OCR A Level, topic 3.10.2
Mary Daly: Beliefs About God and Rape
Mary Daly was a radical American feminist theologian.
The 'unholy trinity'
- Daly argued that the idea of a patriarchal, fatherly God is the foundation of a sexist culture of unfair criticism and violence towards women and an unholy trinity of rape, genocide and war.
- Daly suggested that the 'unholy trinity' of rape, genocide and war naturally exist in a world in which 'phallocentric power' is celebrated.
Beliefs about God
- Daly believed that Christianity had failed and that God should be castrated because Christianity has reinforced rather than opposed male superiority, as can be seen in many Bible passages.
Identify systemic acts of rape
- Daly did not view rape only in theoretical terms.
- She identified systematic acts of physical violence towards women: rape, genital mutilation, foot binding, widow burning and hysterectomy.
Link: rape and war
- Daly argued there is a connection between the mentality of rape and the phenomenon of war.
- Daly pointed to the link between rape and war in the Bible, where Moses is enraged after a campaign against Midian because the commanders had spared the lives of all women: “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.” (Numbers 31:17-18)
Mary Daly: Beliefs About Genocide, War and Spirituality
Mary Daly was a radical American feminist theologian.
Beliefs about genocide
- Genocide is the killing of a large group of people. Examples of genocide:
- During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were executed.
- In Rwanda, there was a mass genocide in the 90s.
- Daly believes that the current hierarchical structures place men over women in the same way that genocide sets one group over another.
Beliefs about war
- Daly argues that war is an inevitable result of the male-dominated politics of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- The horrors of war are associated with manly and adventurous virtues - men doing courageous and powerful acts of violence to defeat the enemy.
- The language of violence is hidden by technical language; phrases like ‘collateral damage’ used to cover up the fact that the lives of innocent people are expendable.
Female need for liberation
- War is defended by what Daly calls a ‘phallic morality’ and a ‘phallic mentality’.
- She argues that women need to seek liberation from this moral hypocrisy.
Overturning maleness of God
- Daly believes that the maleness of God needs to be overturned.
- Traditional holy places were built and managed by men. For this reason, they should not be used anymore.
Return to pagan nature religions
- Daly recommends a return to ancient pagan nature religions which centred on the female and Mother Nature as the essence of true spirituality.
- These kinds of religion (which Christianity replaced in many cultures) had female deities as their centre.
- Daly wants a return to these ancient Goddess/Mother Nature religions since she believes that it is not enough for men and women to be equal. Men must learn to be silent and listen to women.
Test yourself on Mary Daly
What is the definition of genocide?
What did Daly believe about war?
Why should traditional holy places NOT be used anymore, according to Daly?