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| Photo by Oliver Pain |
“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
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