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Even as, over time, the women’s movement broadened
and became less radical, less ferocious, [Mary] Daly continued
to pace the boundaries, her rage unquenched. She referred to
herself as “post-Christian” and as a “radical lesbian
feminist.” At speaking engagements, she refused to take
questions from men, saying it was important for them to
understand what it feels like to be voiceless and ignored.
“There are and will be those who think I have gone
overboard,” she wrote in “Outercourse,” her 1992
autobiography. “Let them rest assured that this assessment
is correct, probably beyond their wildest imaginations, and
that I will continue to do so.” She was forced to retire
from Boston College after, in 1998, a male student threatened
to sue over her exclusionary policies, accusing her — with
no lost irony — of sexism. It was another victory for the
cockocracy, but it gave Daly, at age 70, a new wave of
international publicity, a new platform from which to nag at
the snools. “What they hate about my classes,” she said at
the time, “is they teach women not to be afraid.”
--
Sara Corbett
,
New York
Times Magazine
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