The Life and Times of Andrea Dworkin
The Radical Feminist Leader’s Fight Against Pornography
Oct 2, 2008
When noted radical feminist Andrea Dworkin died in 2005, one of the twentieth century’s greatest feminist voices died with her.
Andrea Dworkin in Europe
Dworkin grew up in the United States but moved to Europe in her late early 20s to interview anarchists. She later married a member of the anarchist group, though he began abusing Dworkin shortly after their marriage began. Dworkin claimed later in life that she remained afraid of her ex-husband for many years afterward.
Dworkin's Early Protest Writing
After Dworkin returned from the Netherlands, she began writing in earnest. Her early poetry spoke largely to her experiences protesting the Vietnam War, though she would turn to feminism solely in her later writings.
Dworkin as a Radical Feminist
Dworkin committed herself to feminism, becoming what she called a “feminist militant” when she returned in 1972. The feminist movement was in full swing with the Roe v. Wade case working its way through the courts and women gaining ground in educational and career attainment. Yet, Dworkin turned her sights to other concerns for women.
Dworkin and the Anti-Pornography Movement
Most of Dworkin’s activism dealt with women’s bodies and how they are mistreated by men. She and Catharine MacKinnon focused their efforts on the anti-pornography movement, and Dworkin carried on this cause until her death. Dworkin believed, and outlined in Pornography: Men Possessing Women that pornography desensitized men to women’s bodies and sexuality, and she argued that pornography should be outlawed because of what she considered obvious links between pornography and rape, domestic violence, and other crimes against women.
While MacKinnon and Dworkin continued working against pornography, Dworkin focused on other issues as well. Her first book argued against the use of fairy tales because of their portrayal of women as “weak.” Though Dworkin’s book was a radical feminist treatise, the concept now is accepted in more mainstream parts of American culture.
Dworkin's Book Intercourse
Despite Dworkin’s renown as a leading speaker for the feminist movement in the 1970s, she did not gain mainstream notoriety until the 1987 publication of Intercourse, the book in which she argued in essence that all heterosexual intercourse is a form of domination and that it is something to be avoided. Dworkin became associated with the lesbian rights movement from that point forward, and many ridiculed her radical feminist position for being absurd and unnatural.
Dworkin’s death occurred without much fanfare. Few people noticed the death of such a brilliant voice of feminist ideology. Even in the feminist community, Dworkin had become a sort of stereotype of a feminist whose time had passed. Yet, her voice remains in her works. Regardless of one’s view of the Dworkin thesis in Intercourse, one must acknowledge the force and sincerity with which she shared it.
