Reviews for Hadewijch and her sisters

The average rating for Hadewijch and her sisters based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-21 00:00:00 Keith Stewart This book really got me off my ass about feminism. it was the most extreme analysis I had ever read about the oppression of woman. It is this type of thinking that I think helped fuel the backlash against feminism. NOT because it was wrong ( though I think some things were exaggerated or not quite true) but because it so accurately reflect how deep the psychological underpinnings of patriarchy operate. And how most woman, who swear they are feminist are unaware of behaviors and attitudes that reflect patriarchal thinking and reinforce oppression it is very post modern in some ways, but very "modern" in others . She is NOT a relativist, and she looks at how language especially frames woman's ability to see their selves as less than fully human. Among other radical ideas, she proposed reinventing a feminist language that would undermine every element of patriarchy in relations between woman. She was very much for segregating men and woman NOT because of an innate hostility, but because woman NEED to develop their own culture based on strength and wisdom and love without the tainting influence of even the most well meaning men. While I think some for the particulars of her analysis are incomplete, the basic premise seems more important now than ever because so many woman THINK they understand feminism and believe they are liberated. It is almost taken as a given that if you are politically aware and are a lesbian involved in gender issues that you are ;liberated. Daly would both argue that there is much much more to being liberated than ones sexual orientation and political engagement.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-02-12 00:00:00 Pam Green I don't write a lot of reviews but upon reading some others here, I want to add my voice. I see a lot of people dismissing Mary Daly because they don't agree with her on one point or another. I find this somewhat tragic. She has written here a very important book for feminism that introduced me to some very clarifying concepts I had not previously encountered. She brings it all together so we can see the common ties between as disparate phenomena as FGM in Africa, foot-binding in China, witch burning in Europe, and others. Some of her writing is weird and very 1970s trippy to the modern eye, but sticking with it is worth any irritation that may occur. What I really want to say is that reading any author who was writing in the past, even the recent past, we are going to come up against some ideas that have changed since then and we may be tempted to dismiss the author as out of touch with (our current) reality. I feel this is much more prevalent with feminist writers than anyone else. Readers expect perfection from feminists past in ways they do not expect perfection from other philosophers. And to dismiss Mary Daly out of hand because you've heard that "the second wave is transphobic" is a real shame for young women. One of the biggest problems with feminism is that women of each new generation do not get the chance to discover and read the work that has already been done before and the wheel is constantly being reinvented. Now that we have the internet, there is no reason this situation needs to continue. We can access the work of feminists past any time we want to. A new way to prevent young women from reading the works of the authors of the "first and second wave" is to convince us that these authors are racist or transphobic or basic old biddies who shouldn't be taken seriously. This is tragic. So please, even if you read these texts and disagree with parts of them, think about the life work these women put into their writing, the bravery and courage it took to say these things in the cultural climate of their times, and maybe give them the benefit of the doubt we so readily give male authors of "the classics".