Re: de-tenuring of Mary Daly (fwd)

[Andrew Wayne Austin <aaustin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What about the notion that because of the patriarchy women need a safe
space to discuss the problems they face as women. The same is true for
creating a safe space for blacks to discuss their problems. Would it be
appropriate to exclude whites from a class that dealt with white
supremacy? I believe it would be appropriate. Analogously, there should be
safe spaces for working class people to be able to discuss the capitalist
system without capitalists or their ideologues interfering. The oppressed
and the oppressors do not stand on equal ground, therefore their practices
that secure safe spaces are not equally exclusive, or, more accurately,
are not exclusive in the same way or are not exclusive at all. I think
that the man who wanted to attend the classes and did not accept Daly's
offer to instruct him separately was wrong to sue. We should recognize
that right wing organizations often put white males up to these ploys to
destroy safe spaces for women, blacks, and other oppressed minorities.
And, if this man was not put up to this, he must suffer from a profound
ignorance about gender issues. I am not a fan of Daly, but I believe it is
entirely proper for her to conduct a class with no men.

Andy

On Mon, 2 Aug 1999 xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>
>as a marxist, i am amazed by daly's exclusionary feminism. i really do not
>know which organization sued her, and i am not interested in this at this
>point, but it is everbody's right to have access to education, whether
>men or women. there is no reason that men shoud _not_ take a gender
>course. i am not giving my support to daly's metaphysical elitism.
>regardless of the policy directed at her, her action can not be
>justified.
>
>Xxxx Xxxxxx
>phd student
>SUNY/Albany
>dept of pol.scie
>
><Mary Daly, pioneering feminist theorist and theologian and author of the
>>groundbreaking book _Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism_,
>>has,
>>in effect, been "de-tenured" at Boston College.  According to an
>>editorial
>>in the most recent issue of The Nation ( Laura Flanders, "Feminist
>>De-tenured," July 26/August 6, 1999 issue, pp. 5-6), Daly has been
>>teaching
>>a course at BC, Introduction to Feminist Ethics, for the past 25 years to
>>women only, in order to promote a safe space to discuss such issues as
>>violence against women.  A male student who wished to register for the
>>course and who ignored Daly's offer to teach him outside the women's
>>class
>>(something she has done for the past dozen years) threatened, with the
>>backing of the Center for Individual Rights, an organization that led
>>attacks on affirmative action at the universities of Texas and Michigan,
>>to
>>sue BC under Title IX antidiscrimination provisions.
>
>>The intimidation worked and BC canceled Daly's courses for the upcoming
>>academic year.  BC claims that Daly resigned voluntarily, a claim she
>>denies, and is no longer a faculty member.  They have also denied her
>>access
>>to the university's grievance procedure.  Daly is fighting Boston
>>College's
>>actions and has filed complaints of breach-of-contract and violation of
>>tenure rights.
>
>>Daly is a scholar who put feminist theology and feminist ethics on the
>>academic and political map and deserves the support of all who care about
>>women's studies in the academy, about academic freedom, and about
>>protecting
>>the real purposes of Title IX.
>
>The Mary Daly Defense Fund can be reached at:
>P.O. Box 381176
>Cambridge, MA 02238-1176
>mdalyfund@xxxxxxx
>
>Letters to Boston College in defense of Mary Daly can be sent to:
>Pres. William P. Leahy, SJ
>Boston College
>Botolph House
>Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3934
>
>If you do write a letter, please forward a copy to the Defense Fund as well.
>Please pass this message on to others.
>
>
>Jane Rothstein,
>Ph.D. Candidate
>Department of History and
>Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
>New York University
>jr231@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>