Unit 20 • Lesson 1 • Class 11Compulsory English (Grade 11) (Eng.003)

Unit 20: Power and Politics — Lesson 1: An Open Letter to Mary Daly

एकाइ २०: शक्ति र राजनीति — पाठ १: मेरी डेलीलाई खुला पत्र (अड्रे लर्ड)

Audre Lorde’s seminal intersectional feminist critique of racial exclusion in feminist theory, challenging white supremacy, questioning cultural dogma, and adjective order syntax.

Prescribed Lesson Text

Official Reading Material • ~2 min read (308 words)

### An Open Letter to Mary Daly (May 6, 1979) *By Audre Lorde* Mary, I have decided to write this letter to you openly because so many women, both Black and white, have read *Gyn/Ecology* and are being deeply affected by your words. I am glad that many women attended the speak-out in Boston and hope that the show of joined power will create more space for you to grow and be within. I thank you for sending me *Gyn/Ecology*. It is a work full of import, generative, provoking, and useful. Many of your analyses are strengthening and helpful to me. Yet, as I read through your pages, I experienced a familiar, heavy sorrow. I realized that once again, the words and realities of non-white women were being either dismissed, ghettoized, or used merely as decorative background. In *Gyn/Ecology*, when you explore the heritage of women’s mythic power, you draw almost exclusively upon Western, European, and white goddesses—the Greek Fates, the Celtic crones, the Christian virgins. But when you turn to non-European women—in your chapters on African female genital mutilation, Indian suttee, and Chinese footbinding—non-white women appear only as passive victims of patriarchal horror. Where are the African goddesses of power? Where is Yemanja, where is Oya, where is Mawu, where is Afrekete? By failing to represent non-white women in their divine, creative, and powerful aspects, you reinforce the very white-supremacist patriarchy that your work seeks to overthrow. White women must not view themselves as the sole source of feminist insight and mythic wisdom, reducing non-white women to objects of pity or pedagogical examples of victimization. The oppression of women knows no racial boundaries, but neither does the power of women. The tools of the master will never dismantle the master's house. We must learn to acknowledge difference without hierarchy, building authentic solidarity across race, sexuality, and class.

Lesson Summary & Key Concepts

Audre Lorde’s seminal intersectional feminist critique of racial exclusion in feminist theory, challenging white supremacy, questioning cultural dogma, and adjective order syntax.

Core Themes & Main Ideas

Audre Lorde’s seminal intersectional feminist critique of racial exclusion in white feminist theory

Critique of Mary Daly’s book *Gyn/Ecology* for treating non-white women solely as victims rather than spiritual creators and goddesses

The invocation of Afrekete and African maternal deities as authentic emblems of female power

The danger of white feminists universalizing their own historical experiences while ignoring racial and economic oppressions

Grammatical mastery of the Royal Order of Adjectives in English syntax

Key Figures & Historical / Literary Personalities

Audre LordeAfrican-American poet, essayist, and feminist philosopher

Author of the open letter advocating for intersectionality and dismantling white supremacist feminist paradigms.

Mary DalyRadical white feminist theologian & author of Gyn/Ecology

Recipient of the letter whose theoretical omissions catalyzed the intersectional critique.

AfreketeDahomean/West African goddess archetype

Symbol of Black female linguistic power, community, and sexual self-determination.

Textbook Exercises & Solutions

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High-Yield Exam Focus Questions (1)

Exam Preparation

Practice questions curated specifically for An Open Letter to Mary Daly.

Exam FocusExam Preparation Question5 Marks

Exam Rationale: CDC Curriculum Unit: Power and Politics — Assesses comprehension of Audre Lorde’s landmark critique of racial bias in white feminist theory, intersectionality, and the archetype of Afrekete.

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