Alicen Grey
2 min readApr 8, 2020

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Hey everyone! I rarely log into Medium, so I didn’t see the questions about “necrotechnocracy” until now. Apologies! That word, along with countless others, was coined by feminist theologian Mary Daly. (More about her at the end of this response.)

Mary Daly’s M.O. was to interrogate the implicit patriarchal message in words. So she took issue with the word “biotechnology” because it breaks down to mean “the study of advancing life,” which wrongfully implies something positive. However, she argued that it would more accurately be called “necro-technology” because male-ordained technology has, time and again, proven to be deadly to life (people [particularly women], animals, plants, the earth itself). Even something as arbitrary as seatbelts have been tested on male models but not female ones, resulting in more injuries to women, because that’s how deeply patriarchal disregard for women permeates every arena of humanity.
She then added the “ocracy” part as shorthand “theocracy” which is a system in which priests rule in the name of God. Basically she was arguing that necro-technology is how men attempt to make women and nature obsolete (for example: cloning as a substitute for natural birth, 3-D printing food to replace nourishment from the earth) to appoint themselves Gods, thus justifying their own rule over the earth.

In short, “necrotechnocracy” was basically her catch-all word for the matrix of male-dominated science, religion and government upholding male power.
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Mary Daly is a stunningly brilliant thinker and compelling writer who has a way of breaking the most massive concepts down to their nanoscopic bits and pieces. The best part is that she can talk about the most brutal aspects of patriarchy without becoming dismal and cynical; she always maintained her contagious optimism. I HIGHLY recommend her to everyone, particularly those who are bored with the same old feminist conversations about high heels and makeup & want to explore feminism in relation to God, philosophy and abstract concepts like time and existence itself. But (perhaps unsurprisingly) her books have become hard to find. The last time I tried to find one of her books, it had been out of circulation at the library for 10 years. So I can’t stress this enough, PLEASE find her books and keep them in circulation.

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