Andrea Dworkin

[andwhatev]

I've found it saddening to see the sometimes dismissive attitude with which Andrea Dworkin is treated these days, so I wrote this about why, as a 22-year-old Australian feminist, Andrea Dworkin is important to my life.

She died, on April 9th 2005. Which is around the time that I took my first Sexual Politics class, with Sheila Jeffreys, who is

Comments

[sunnies]

It's always good to see someone as inspired as you are.

That being said, I am immensely bothered by many of Dworkin's and Jeffries' theories. Transphobia, for one? No thanks, I'll pass. I'm also not of the "the good outweighs the bad" mindset - there are plenty of inspiring, strong feminist writers out there who happen not to spout hateful views.

[andwhatev]

Dworkin is in no way transphobic. Have you read Women Hating? I can't remember the direct quote but she makes it very, very clear there.
Jeffreys is of the belief that gender and sexuality is socially constructed, and is critical of a society that demands body modification from people that don't conform to these constructed gender norms.
I think feminists are like all people - I have yet to find one that I agree wholly and completely with.

[ibnfirnas]

Jeffries sure is, though. And Greer. And Robin Morgan. Virulently so. Are we supposed to just put that aside because you believe some of their work outweighs the harm they've done to the trans community?

While we're on it--and there's plenty of Dworkin I appreciate--how do you square her views on incest? Because seriously.

[fall_of_sophia]

I'm a transsexual woman who appreciates some aspects of Dworkin's work and just always got the sense that, even if I strongly disagreed with much of her work, her strategies, or even her thoughts about my choices in life, I think I would have.. just liked her. But currently, I see Jefferys as one of the most hateful and uninformed voices within feminism regarding MY experience in the world, as though trans people have no agency or understanding of how problematic conformity can be. The problem is that unlike a lot of irrelevant transphobes, she is in a position of academic power, and still has plenty of women within mainstream feminism willing to be transphobe apologists for her. And you know, I'm apparently supposed to be understanding, because she made some white cissexual college girls feel totally empowered to buy unscented deodorant and stuff.

[pdxkate]

last sentence = amazing.

[cheshire_bitten]

This

[shemale]

"And you know, I'm apparently supposed to be understanding, because she made some white cissexual college girls feel totally empowered to buy unscented deodorant and stuff."

i am madly in love w/ this sentence.

[pluvka]

I think feminists are like all people - I have yet to find one that I agree wholly and completely with.

This is such utterly dismissive, privileged bullshit. It really just shows that you don't consider transpeople important enough to include their rights in your definition of feminism.

[ex_drakyn]

"Jeffreys is of the belief that gender and sexuality is socially constructed, and is critical of a society that demands body modification from people that don't conform to these constructed gender norms."

Despite people's actual, lived experiences proving this theory wrong.
Especially that whole "demands body modification" part; society does all it can to force us not to medically transition. Moreover, queer trans*folk, butch trans*women, and fem trans*men disprove that whole idea that we transition to escape being queer or gender nonconforming--and that's ignoring the genderqueers and bigendered and various other non-binary identified trans*folks.

[daddysambiguity]

queer trans*folk, butch trans*women, and fem trans*men disprove that whole idea that we transition to escape being queer or gender nonconforming

One of my biggest pet peeves is this always gets left out of these debates, so thanks!

[0xmahliax0]

Thanks for this; I feel like I'm learning a lot in this thread.

[shemale]

Woah woah woah, butch trans women, femme trans men? What sort of madness is this! Surely all trannies exist only to fulfill each and every socially prescribed aspect of masculinity and femininity in such a way that it undercuts and rots away the very core of feminism or something!

[roseofjuly]

You all just want to transition and disappear into mainstream society. OF COURSE THE GOAL IS TO ASSIMILATE. ASSIMILATE ALREADY.

[gaudysalamander]

Jeffreys is of the belief that gender and sexuality is socially constructed, and is critical of a society that demands body modification from people that don't conform to these constructed gender norms.I'm not even sure where to start with how wrong this is. To start with, even if you believe gender and sexuality are something foisted on us by some entity called "society," and many many members of this community and of the wider feminist communities outside the internet would disagree with that assertion, people who are transgendered or intersexed or otherwise genderqueer still have to interact with "society" in the form of family, coworkers, bosses, social workers, government employees, clients, etc. etc. every day. A person's overall quality of life is often, if not always, dependent on the ability to form and maintain relationships with "society," and if a person chooses body modification surgery as a means to help navigate their way through the world, it is completely unfeminist to insist that it is immoral or wrong for them to do

[shemale]

"Society" demands that i modify my body?

That's funny because i've felt more pressured not to get any kind of plastic surgery, including genital reconstruction surgery, than to pursue it. The times that i've mentioned i've thought about breast augmentation, i've been told that i shouldn't do it because "plastic surgery is ugly."

I've lost count of how many times people have asked me "why can't you just be a femme guy?" rather than doing things to my own body that other people don't approve of.

And what kind of "feminist" calls women rapists what they choose to do to their own bodies