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

[frightened]

Sheila Jeffreys bothers me. It was the time she listed cross-dressing, BDSM and child abuse together as though they were in any way comparable. I cannot stand the way she talks about "radical lesbian feminists" as a clique, like the moment I asked to get tied up I got my Smashing The Patriarchy & Eating Pussy merit badge taken away, like my wonderful genderqueer feminist partner is abusive and misogynist and the two of us are just too stupid to have realised it. I'm not having it.

[cheshire_bitten]

Yes, also I happen to like my peircings and don't think of them as a form of Self injury

[andwhatev]

But is there nothing that feminists like Sheila have done that you're thankful for - nothing positive that you can comment on at all? What about her tireless activism on the part of trafficked women? Or her work to expose the dangers of Western feminist activists condemning practices like female genital mutilation without also turning this critique on damaging beauty practices in their own society?

[frightened]

I find it difficult to be grateful to people who insult me on a regular basis. "It's for your own good" is a dynamic much more damaging than consensual power exchange!

[nebula99]

I don't agree with Andrea Dworkin on a lot of issues, but I do admire her courage and tenacity.

Having Sheila Jeffreys as a tutor must have been interesting. I read "The Lesbian Heresy" some years ago - again, I disagree with a lot that she has to say, but not all of it.

From a freind

[cheshire_bitten]

(she) told one of my g/fs (that because she was wearing lippie, she wanted to be raped. In the tute. In front of the other students.

Interesting. Yes.

Re: From a freind

[herkyjerkydance]

Jesus fucking christ. I've read some of her work and she always came off like a hateful, judgemental asshole, but saying that kind of thing in a classroom takes it to a whole new level.

Re: From a freind

[happiestsadist]

My jaw literally dropped.

Remember folks: When a man says that a woman deserves rape for looking like that, it's misogynist. When a self-described feminist says the same thing, she just knows better than you!

[absofrickinlute]

To deviate from other comments, I don't have an opinion or quotes from Sheila Jeffreys, so I'll address (the bulk of) your post, I really like what you wrote and I can see what you are saying, and it's so nice to have it so well put.

[purplelizzy]

Ditto.

[matilde_cl]

Thank you for this post. I especially liked your take on Dworkin's hope and optimism (I'd never read that quote about women not taking arms because they still believe in the rapists' potential humanity).

Her role was so crucial in my life, and in the lives of so many people. The mainstream never acknowledges that (I remember when she died, Marie Claire - yeah, I read that tripe back then, but cut me some slack, I was nineteen - did a column on her that was 70% gruesome, voyeuristic accounts of the abuse she'd been through, 20% condescending BS about her subsequent 'rage', and 10% "but she did achieve some stuff").

I think she's just one of those writers whose good sense suddenly opens your eyes on the insanity of the world at large, and helps you cure some of that insanity in yourself.

[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.