Robert, i find find your story and questions intrigueing - and have
reflected on them along withthe comments of Katherine Brown's, Kathie
Goff's, Judy's, Nate's, Paul's, Mike's, Eugene's and Jay's contributions
to this discussion.
i find my self return to Karen Gallas's work "Sometimes I can be
anything: power, gender and identity in a primary classroom". in this
research on first and second graders, she quickly notes the multiple
practices of classroom domination practiced by boys - privileged,
middleclass, white boys - who gain domination through various public
disruptions. it is Gallas' theory that these boys are practicing ways of
asserting dominance that is appreciated by other privileged boys within
the classroom. she ironically labels these boys "bad boys", for indeed,
within the culture of elementary school teachers this is a common label
for such boys.
my guess is that Daly has had to deal with the bad boys of our culture -
their methodical disruptions intended to discredit partial truths that
may in fact conflict with their Truths. Daly's book Gyn-Ecology is
certainly such an effort, i believe. and perhaps she learned that the
price is to big to pay, having to deal with the bad boys.
Paul mentioned the case of Brown vs. Board of education - and while
laws legitimizing segregation were certainly struck down, other unexpected
consequences occured - the high rate of black students relegated to
special education classes, tracked into low skill remediation classes, and
high rates of suspensions and explusions. some black have lamented the
passing of all black schools, noting that while those schools did suffer
from a lack of resources, at least the life story of the children was
honored. Ogbu's work demonstrating the demoralizing effects of belonging
to a despised class of people within systems controlled by
self-privileging groups certainly gives one pause to consider that laws
espousing equality don't always lead to equality. in truth, many blacks
did not benefit from the ruling that desegrated schools.
just as all women have not benefited from the title ix laws - and i
think that Daly recognizes this truth, and so did attempt to provide a
safe place for women. and men who understand the value of a safe place
for women would not attempt to invade that place, is my guess.
and i'm reminded on Antigone - yes, this is getting long, Robert -
but Antigone made a choice, whether to follow the laws of man, Creon, and
not honor her dead brother, or whether her obligation as a sister (Women's
Ways of Knowing, and the primary importance of relationships rather than
universal law), and family meant that she did in fact have to honor her
dead brother. and in the play, the dead brother is in fact honored twice,
only the first time no one knows who did it - perhaps Antigone went back
and made sure that her display of filial honoring was indeed public - and
hence she was buried alive.
and i think the story of Mary Daly is too a tragedy - perhaps not on
the scale of Antigone - but certainly a tragedy - as mary bryson
pointed out, was the intention of the university to support Daly and help
her work out this difficulty, or was it to confront her with an either /
or choice and the Law? Daly knows, as many of us do, the importance for
women to have a safe place away from bad boys - and sometimes that means
that even we good boys can't play.
susan krieger faced similar difficulties when she refused to allow a man
to change the course requirements for her women's studies class - and
she wasn't tenured. she received scant support from Stanford.
well, as Eugene would say - just my thoughts, what do you think?
phillip
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