NO, SHE DIDN’T SAY THAT
examining the legacy of Andrea Dworkin
Iconic, second wave radical feminist, Andrea Dworkin was one of the most prolific feminist voices and cultural critics of the 70's, 80's and 90's. Her writings and analysis are, in many current academic circles, considered seminal texts informing a cultural understanding of what we currently define as mainstream pornography. Sadly, Andrea Dworkin died on April 09 / 2005 at her home in Washington DC with her long time partner John Stoltenberg at her side. She was fifty nine years old.
This article is intended to examine several common misunderstandings and misrepresentations surrounding the ideas and statements of a woman who has long been one of my personal mentors in the fields of gender, anti-oppression, social justice theory, and the ethics and responsibilities inherent to the art of writing.
One thing I’ve come to realize after several years of writing and teaching about Andrea’s work, is that it is often necessary to address what are several, common assumptions. Assumptions that seem to suggest that everyone, but Andrea Dworkin herself, knew precisely what it was that Andrea Dworkin was saying, every time the issue of heterosexual intercourse came up. (No pun intended)
To begin, I pose a mildly satirical question. What do you get when you take a bunch of conservative, right wing “real” women, combine them with a bunch of conservative, right wing “real” men with anti-feminist issues (translated to mean not noticed by an attractive woman who makes decisions for herself), and then add in the mere mention of anything feminist?
The answer, sadly, is glaringly similar to all the other vitriolic anti feminist bullshit normally engaged by the bigot crowd. However, there is one unique, though increasingly tired approach many use to advance their “facts”, and that is what I have affectionately dubbed the “Dworkin derail”.
It’s the type of assertion that is meant to invalidate the idea of full human rights for women, because the object of the statement, Andrea Dworkin, one of the most notable feminists of the past century, dared to be, well, fat. She also failed to shake her hair flirtatiously, blink her eyes, giggle, and say “tehe” every time she made a declarative statement.
In short, the “Dworkin derail” is meant to invalidate this woman’s opinions and ideas on the basis of her weight. Because, let’s be honest, the real kick in the pants with Andrea Dworkin, is the collective cultural unease with Andrea’s very clear lack of concern over how she came across sexually to men. Fat, it seems, is not really the issue. The rub is fat, in addition to the gall of not attempting to mitigate that supposed deficit.
Of course no one will admit this directly, but it’s the underlying dynamic present in most all of the anti Dworkin narratives that occur in feminist discourse. As I mentioned in the piece highlighting two of her best known quotes, the fact that her academic and feminist scholarship includes twelve non-fiction books, five books of fiction and poetry, eight peer reviewed academic articles, seven speeches before a national audience, and four critical film reviews in leading arts based publications, is apparently irrelevant. Since even without the empty justifications cited above, the anti Dworkin crowd will always unleash their smoking gun, the “fact”, that Andrea Dworkin once said that all intercourse is rape. A fact that in one fell swoop, has labeled every man, both figuratively and essentially, a rapist, as well as conveniently labelled Dworkin a hysterical, man hating feminazi.
Interesting. Since I have never once, in all of my readings and analysis of Dworkin’s work, seen or been given a reference to this sweeping indictment of the male species. In any of the books, articles and speeches Ms. Dworkin wrote, delivered, or published, she has never once suggested that idea by statement, by tone, or by inference. Instead, those with an anti-feminist, anti-Dworkin agenda, have misappropriated her words with an alarming degree of artistic license.
I intend to follow up this piece with an analysis of what it was, exactly, that Andrea Dworkin actually said about the practice of heterosexual intercourse in a North American society still dominated by patriarchy.
Part II of this series will be posted tomorrow.
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