A Yoga What?
hagalicious
In a particular woodland located in the fairyland of the feminine archetype, there lives the hag, the spinster, and the crone…
Every once in a while, someone asks me about my YogaHag moniker. The storybook definition has a hag traditionally defined as someone who is an ugly + old woman. As we are also aware, it used as a derogatory insult toward said women and old women in particular, as in “you old hag.” I adopted the hag-moniker in my early 20s specifically as “The Hag,” but my similarly embellished license plate drew questions (always from a guy) at the gas pump regarding whether or not I was a Merle Haggard fan. (I am not). After enough of that, I slapped the word Yoga in front of it and created YogaHag.
‘God’s plan’ is often a front for men’s plans and a cover for inadequacy, ignorance, and evil.
I first came across this hag-concept by reading the feminist theologian Mary Daly - the most underrated feminist in twentieth century history. Her surname is pronounced “daily,” not “dally,” as in “dillydally.” Even though she has often been written about, there isn’t a website dedicated to her. When you Google Mary Daly, the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Mary C. Daly comes up. You must search Mary Daly feminist. Or Mary Daly radical lesbian feminist, as she described herself.
Women have had the power of naming stolen from us.
The first book I read by Mary Daly was Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. That was when I decided to name myself after one of the archetypes in this turn-the-patriarchal-language-on-its-head trinity concept of the Hag, Spinster, and Crone. The male equivalent to the Spinster is - a bachelor? The male equivalent to the Crone is - the wizard? But there is no male equivalent to the Hag. An ugly man is just an ugly man, and an old man just an old man.
Courage to be is the key to the revolutionary power of the feminist revolution.
Our library system here in Omaha has zero Mary Daly titles. (Can you help with that, Lisa?) So, I put in a request for Gyn/Ecology.
Mary Daly was a professor at the Jesuit-run Boston College from 1967 to 1999, teaching courses in feminist ethics, theology, and patriarchy. Her first book, The Church and the Second Sex, was published in 1968. Although considered radical at the time, she is quoted as saying it was the least radical of her books. Being specifically focused on what she considered to be oppression against women by the Catholic Church, she was fired from Boston College in 1969 due to the controversy it brought. But that controversy made her globally famous, so they rehired her.
In a 2001 article from the September/October issue of Philosophy Now, Mary Daly is asked to describe (by a male interviewer) her definition of “Radical Feminism.” She replies that she has given several definitions in her books and says: “First of all the word ‘radical’ means ‘going to the roots’. It is derived from the Latin radix, meaning root. Radical Feminism goes to the root of oppression and the way out. And I define it as a way of be-ing characterized by (a) an Awesome and Ecstatic sense of Otherness from patriarchal norms and values (b) conscious awareness of the sadosociety’s sanctions against Radical Feminists (c) moral outrage on behalf of women as women (d) commitment to the cause of women that persists, even against the current, when feminism is no longer ‘popular’; in other words, constancy.”
I love her brilliant feminist play on the patriarchal English language. Spellcheck, however, does not.
Even though she was under tenure at the time, she was permanently fired from Boston College in 1999 due to a discrimination claim against the college by two male students because she wouldn’t allow men into her advanced Women’s Studies classes. (How would you describe the definition of “whiny little bitch?”) She argued that their presence inhibited open class discussion, but she did allow male students into her introductory (to Women’s Studies) classes and privately tutored those who wanted to take advanced classes.
She documented her account of the events of her firing from Boston College in her 2006 book, Amazon Grace: Recalling the Courage to Sin Big.
Mary Daly died on January 3rd, 2010, in Gardner, Massachusetts.
In Memoriam: Mary Daly - by Francis X. Clooney from America the Jesuit Review
More on Mary Daly here.
Books
1966: Natural Knowledge of God in the Philosophy of Jacques Maritan
1968: The Church and the Second Sex: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation
1973: Beyond God the Father
1975: Rape Culture, a screenplay with Emily Culpeper
1978: Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism
1984: Pure Lust: Elemental Philosophy
1987: Webster’s First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language with Jane Caputi (This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is very difficult to find, now.)
1992: Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage: Containing Recollections from My Logbook as a Radical Feminist Philosopher
1998: Quintessence: Realizing the Outrageous, Contagious Courage of Women
2006: Amazon Grace: Re-calling the Courage to Sin Big (Very rare book)
Spotify Playlist: Woman
Blessings & Love,
