Responding to "Beyond God the Father" by Mary Daly

In the section of Beyond God the Father assigned in my class, Mary Daly argues forcefully that Christianity is a patriarchal religion that has reinforced the oppression of women by placing the blame for sin on woman and making her out to be weak and vulnerable. She claims that women must break out of the societal restrictions that have resulted from the Judeo-Christian worldview and effect change by operating on the borders of patriarchal entities. She says that by doing this, women will be able to unify their divided selves, stop being complicit in their own oppression, and ultimately help men as well to reach a new consciousness that transcends gender identity.

Daly points very powerfully to the insidious ways in which women have been oppressed and been conditioned to reinforce that oppression to themselves and each other. She points out that the ways men have limited the female identity and failed to consider female freedom as important as male freedom have dehumanized both women and men. I found these points striking and compelling.

But I still have several questions. What about differing interpretations of the Fall, such as the on offered by Pope John Paul II in The Theology of the Body? His interpretation suggests that the message of the Fall, rightly understood, does not condone the oppression of women, but instead predicts and condemns it. How is Daly so sure that a Judeo-Christian understanding is the real culprit and not human nature, which twists Christian stories to it's own ends? Also, why is sexism more fundamental than racism? Can they not both be seen as ultimately manifestations of the same inner instinct, namely the instinct to subjugate and objectify that which is other? And as far as the conflict she points out between black liberation and women's liberation, why must one supercede the other? Indeed, how can there be hope for a solution if we are all still clamoring for our own rights? It seems to me that our only hope lies in the possibility of considering others better than ourselves, so that we are all clamoring for each other's rights. And finally, do men not face a unique oppression "as men" since they are forced by societal conditioning to participate in a process that dehumanizes them as well as those they oppress? I would suggest that getting back men's humanity is important enough to warrant an equal place for men in this movement. But how can we get either back if it must be either men or women who figure it out and teach the other? Maybe women alone are just as ill-equipped to solve this problem as men alone and the only solution lies in truly working together and putting each "other" before ourselves.