the cartoon over on alas, a blog has resulted in some responses, and some blog posts across the blogosphere. in heart’s blog post, she states:
Mary Daly did not “compare transsexuals with Frankenstein.” This is a lie.
i quoted the now infamous passage from mary daly’s book in the comments to that thread in an attempt to understand how that passage could be interpreted differently. much of my comment was edited out as “snark”. perhaps in the future, when i post comments to blogs whose moderators are known to edit the comments, i should keep a copy of those comments.
in any event, here’s the passage in GYN/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Chapter One: Deadly Deception: Mystification Through Myth, pg 70 - 71 found here:
“Today the Frankenstein phenomenon is omnipresent not only in religious myth, but in its offspring, phallocratic technology. The insane desire for power, the madness of boundary violation, is the mark of necrophiliacs who sense the lack of soul/spirit/life-loving principle with themselves and therefore try to invade and kill off all spirit, substituting conglomerates of corpses. This necrophillic invasion/elimination takes a variety of forms. Transsexualism is an example of male surgical siring which invades the female world with substitutes.”
at first, my comment is dismissed as evidence of “male privilege”, because i sought clarification of how that passage might be interpreted differently. after, it was pointed out that “patriarchy/male heterosupremacy, in its mythology, religion, technology, institutions is possessed of what she calls the “Frankenstein phenomenon.” There is a *big difference*.” but doesn’t go on to review the difference.
people certainly have the right to express their thoughts and interpretations. i believe that if one makes an assertion however, one should be prepared to be called upon to qualify that assertion with more than just “read this other thread”, which may or may not actually answer with any qualifications. to call a different interpretation a “lie” is simply wrong, especially if one does not offer some kind of qualification. to me, that’s propaganda at best.
that said, there are some bloggers who have embraced the monstrous. and it’s been said about frankenstein’s monster:
As depicted by Shelley, the creature is a sensitive, emotional creature whose only aim is to share his life with another sentient being like himself. The novel portrays him as innately intelligent and literate…
i don’t know that i can count the number of times sensitive, emotional, intellegent people have been called monstrous, whether or not they’ve been stitched up and constructed by our culture.
edited to add:
yes, when we talk about “frankenstein”, we realize that there’s a “dr. frankenstein”, who was the doctor who created the “monster”, and the monster himself, who remains unnamed in the story. in the vernacular, the term “frankenstein” has come to be known as both entities, the doctor and the monster. a “frankenstein phenomenon” could be taken as meaning someone who creates some kind of artificial life, *or* the artificial life itself.
Gosh. I wonder if being severely edited for “snark” is the same thing as being silenced?
Comment by Veronica — July 27, 2007 @ 2:54 am
it’s all a power thing - only those with no power can be silenced. obviously, since i have male privilege, i can’t be silenced. now if i can only remember where i put that darn privilege…
Comment by nexyjo — July 27, 2007 @ 7:11 am
If i was snarky, i’d say you had that privilege surgically removed. But i try to not be too snarky so i won’t say that. =)
Seriously though, I’ve been referred to as a freak so often that I am one of the ones that embrace the term. If the ones that make the most noise are an indication of what society at large believes in, I don’t want to be a part of society at large. Underground is a nicer place to be. Cooler and out of direct sunlight is especially good in this extra hot summer we’re having.
Comment by Emily Grae — July 27, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
“… privilege surgically removed…”
now that’s funny! yeah, perhaps i left my privilege in montreal, along with my balls. nothing like leaving ones heart in san francisco, mind you.
Comment by nexy — July 27, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
oh, and sorry about the dual name thing - it seems i have a wordpress “nexyjo” login, and a “nexy” login. talk about a split personality. next thing you know, i’ll be talking to myself.
Comment by nexy — July 27, 2007 @ 11:02 pm
Shorter Heart: “Mary Daly wasn’t comparing transsexuals to Frankenstein — she was comparing transsexuals to Frankenstein’s monster!”
Well, gee, that certainly makes it all okay, then, doesn’t it? Nothing at all bigoted about that comparison.
There’s almost no point in doing a cartoon satirizing these people; the reality is so much more ridiculous than anything I could draw.
Comment by Ampersand — July 28, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
but wait, you can’t say she was comparing trans people to the monster either, because that’s plagiarism!
Comment by nexy — July 28, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
Not that it is by any means the thing that primarily bothers me about Heart, but the way in which she feels completely comfortable spewing bile and is utterly unwilling to openly engage with those her bile is splashed upon has always struck me as disingenuous and cowardly.
I mean, you either have the courage of your convictions or you don’t, you know?
Comment by Myca — July 28, 2007 @ 10:39 pm
which makes the comparison with fundamentalists all the more accurate. they too, refuse to engage with anyone who holds views different than their own.
Comment by nexy — July 29, 2007 @ 6:37 am
As Michael Franti sings in his song Stay Human - “All the freaky people make the beauty of the world”. Amen to that.
Comment by Michelle — July 30, 2007 @ 6:42 am