Marilyn Frye followed up on The Politics of Reality with this book. It is full of the philosophical clarity and ease of reading that makes her both a feminist icon and a well respected philosopher.

I'm a student at Michigan State University, Professor Frye's current appointment. The good doctor commands quite the following of radical feminists here (and I do not use that term disapprovingly...these feminists I speak of are self-described). Unfortunately, Professor Frye's arguments are a bit difficult to swallow. While her use of analogy is quite impressive (the cage, for example), there is no real development of what she means by "groups" that are capable of being oppressed. The concept of the double bind, for example, could easily apply to feminine men (even heterosexual feminine men), as a friend of mine was quick to point out. They are a group of men targeted as men to serve the aims of masculine men...it is their sex and their unwillingness (or perhaps even inability) to live up to a set of social demands that results in their poor treatment at the hands of sexist hierarchies. I am certain that Doctor Frye would reply that their suffering is still aimed at what the oppressors believe to be some higher good for the feminine men in question, but this is not very compelling. The same could be said of the male expectation of women or minorities. In other words, they are oppressed as men, as particular kinds of men, for the benefit not of men as a sex or social group, but for masculine men as a particular and exclusive category. Any male is well aware of the pressure to conform to a certain set of traits identified as 'masculine,' regardless of their own desire to conform as such. A young man crying is the ultimate sin, and he is immediately attacked for the expression of this weakness. He is not aware that he is being groomed for a patriarchy, that one day he will rise in the ranks and dominate women. He is simply hurt, but this is not the condition that Frye finds repulsive; she is simply concerned with his anatomy. Ultimately, her emphasis on groups (as is the case with much of the more radical, 'campus' left, unfortunately) will not allow her to approach such cases individually.

This is one of the clearest, most carefully argued explorations of feminist themes I have encountered. Indeed, It is one of the most accessible works of philosophy around, period. I use it in my intro to phil classes and in intro to gender studies. Read it--it's very good.

I think what the last reviewer didn't understand is that no men are oppressed on the basis of their maleness, therefore they are not oppressed as men. They can be oppressed by homophobia which sees femininity in a man as a weakness, they can be oppressed by class, race, religion, etc...but not on the basis of being a man.

Oppression happens to individuals, but not individually. People who belong to certain groups can be oppressed as a result of their group membership or perceived group membership, but there is a difference between oppression and suffering.

That said, this book is brilliant and heavily cited in works by other genius thinkers and in my own personal life.

People are always condemning the Dalyites for their "separatism," but my feeling is that they couldn't be separate enough. Well, maybe on Neptune. The far side.

Sarah Hoagland and Marilyn Frye's new anthology, Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly is a self-proclaimed "open-ended journey" into Daly's philosophy and the very patriarchal canon she resists. Like some of the earlier Re-reading the Canon volumes, which situate women thinkers into a canon crafted to exclude them, this volume (with purposeful irony) places Daly "into the very canon which she herself has argued is a branch of patriarchal religion grounded in the dismemberment of the Goddess, and which her work is dedicated to undermining by means of animating women's possibilities."(2) In the same breath this collection places Daly in a rapidly emerging feminist canon that continues to distance itself from the radical feminism of the 1960s-70s. Viewing Radical Feminism as framework in progress, and not as an eight year experiment that ultimately failed, reveals uncharted territories and new possibilities for projects grounded in Daly's work. This collection takes the first steps into this newly imagined territory. Whether Daly's work changed/saved your life-- or, like me, you never read her closely because the word on the academic streets was that she had nothing serious to offer-this volume will forever change the way you think about one of the most prolific feminist writers of our time. For Daly scholars this anthology is filled with suggestions for new research projects. Daly skeptics will find unexpected interest in the daring and creative applications of her ideas to third wave feminist conversations. In any case, the collection brings together enough innovative re-readings of Daly's work to safely predict a renewed interest in her systematic philosophy, if not a renaissance in Daly scholarship. Dr. Alison Bailey Illinois State University