Gyn/ecology is the title for Mary Daly’s third book that is considered the most radical of all her publications. Daly characteristically redefined old words or coined new ones with the intention of undermining patriarchal attitudes. She creates such words because none are available in the ordinary language to help her relay the meaning of what she is trying to say.
For instance, the phrase gyn/ecology came to her when she thought of gynecology, which is the science intended to assist women with their reproductive health issues. To Daly, rather than helping women, gynecology harms them. As a result, she divides the world into two, gyn and ecology, and stresses on the latter to incorporate the idea of women’s participation in earthly matter-ecology (Gregory and Donna 318).
As a result, she uses the term as a new thinking pattern to attack the art of gynecology and generate different energy. Gyn/ecology is morally significant in that it is an anti-male postulation that Daly uses to outline the patriarchal oppressions women are subjected to. The cultures around the world have tricked women into participating in their oppression.
For instance, a Chinese woman committing to foot binding on the belief that it will make her look more appealing. Gyn/ecology demonstrates the universal nature of women’s oppression in a world dominated by men.
Daly also gave the term metaethics a different meaning. She uses the word as a subtitle in one of her books with the intent of conveying its purpose, which is addressing the language and myths masquerading in the forefather’s fixations.
The standard definition of the prefix meta is of higher logic formed by nouns from various related disciplines, such as those dealing with nature or behavior of the original ones. It is correct to say that metaethics is a profound instinctual kind of ethics.
The latter, having been written from the various patriarchal perspectives, holds a hidden agenda in the structure of the language buried in the mythic setbacks that control expression.
Consequently, philosophers with a focus on ethicists identified women as inexistent. The metaethics of feminism is intended to uncover the background of such logic. In this case, it is a new discipline that deals with the behavior of ethicists and ethic and functions to affirm the changing aspects of female beings.
The other term, metapatriarchal, is also used to describe the process of correcting the male delusion in ethics because the prefix meta has been used to designate various things. In this case, Daly uses the prefix to refer to something that occurs later, post-patriarchal.
In this way, patriarchy is put in the past, ignoring that its influence exists and that it has impacted women. Since meta can also be used to refer to something located at the back, it suggests that the direction of correcting the damages caused by male-dominated beginnings are in the background.
Another meaning of the prefix is transforming or changing something. This, of course, offers a hint on the purpose of the journey, which is to correct the mistakes. Together with metaethics, Daly intended to provide an account of how male rulings have oppressed females for several years, and it is time to change. Women should no longer accept societal loathed definitions.
