Melissa Fulton

“The seduction of women - including feminists - into confusion by Dionysian boundary violation happens under a variety of circumstances. A comment element seems to be an invitation to "freedom". The feminine Dionysian male guru or therapist invites women to spiritual or sexual liberation, at the cost of loss of Self in male-dicated behavior. Male propagation of the idea that men, too are feminine - particularly through feminine behavior by males - distracts attention from the fact that femininity is a man-made construct, having essentially nothing to do with femaleness.”
― Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism

“Since patriarchy is the perpetual poorhouse in which women are stored/restored, afflicted with poverty of spirit, imagination, intellect, passion, physical vigor, as well as economic poverty, it is clear - and clearer than ever - that we have basically Nothing to loose.”
― Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation

“The very word philosophy terrifies many women. In Quintessence I strive to exorcise this patriarchally embedded fear that undermines our intelligence and passion. We were all philosophers when we were five years old. Re-Calling our connections with nature at that age, many women can Re-member our sense of wonder and our urgent need to know. We were always asking “Why?” This state of mind can be called Wonderlust—meaning a strong and unconquerable longing for Elemental adventure and knowledge.

What happened to our Wonderlust? Our visions, dreams, and far-out questions have been stunted by phallocratic society and its institutions. When we come into contact with our own deep and passionate intellectuality, we become intolerably threatening to the patriarchy. This is why there is an overwhelming taboo against women becoming philosophers, that is, seekers of wisdom on our own terms/turf.

Philosophy—of our own kind, for our own kind—is a source of wholeness and power that rightfully belongs to women. Breaking the patriarchal taboo against it—against us—we break out of the state of deception. Moreover, we open gateway after gateway into our own Other-world, our Homeland. From this perspective we can See, Name, and Act to end the atrocities perpetrated against ourSelves and all the Biophilic beings.”
― Mary Daly, Quintessence...Realizing the Archaic Future: A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto

“We are aware that the gods of patriarchy are pale derivatives and reversals of ancient yet always Present Goddess(es). We suspect that phallocentric writers and artists who have even a glimmer of insight are sometimes made uncomfortable by their own state of deception. Those who have any awareness of the heinous crime of reversal which is patriarchy must be in a state of deep conflict and fear of...Her.”
― Mary Daly, Quintessence...Realizing the Archaic Future: A Radical Elemental Feminist Manifesto