She was labelled a man-hater, anti-sex and ugly. But she predicted both the ascent of Trump and #MeToo – and her unapologetic attitude is more relevant than ever
Witches, hags, crones. All derided and persecuted. But the most powerful words in the English language and should be celebrated. They all mean "wise women", or so my grannie told me when I was a child and she was all three.
Dworkin was right, it has got far, far worse for women. This piece could have been written yesterday as nothing has changed for the better. Thank you for sharing it, Julie, and woe to ‘Lucy’ for her lack of honesty and backbone. On a lighter note, predictive text on my iPad changed ‘Dworkin’ to ‘Dewormer’ and, perhaps, that’s exactly what she was - deworming our society and she is continuing to do so…as are you.
Thank you for this wonderful piece. I discovered the work of Andrea Dworkin in 1984 when I was writing my English BA thesis on Doris Lessing's 'The Golden Notebook'. Her book 'Pornography' had a massive impact on me and my thinking which persists to this day. She was amazing.
I think about Andrea Dworkin often because I have a daughter and granddaughter who are facing a nightmarish future. Sadly, my daughter is estranged from our family, largely due to her father's influence after our divorce. He has since gone on to be a homeless alcoholic. I am a successful business woman. I credit the work of women like Andrea for my determination to survive and thrive after an abusive father who molested me and an abusive husband because I realized men could nit be trusted with my wellbeing and safety. My mother, too, suffered her whole life due to my father's abuse and after she kicked him out, she went on to marry another emotionally abusive man. I'm starting to see men now calling out other men for their sexist and toxic behaviour. It's refreshing to see but we need so much more of it.
I had the opposite. It was my dad who gave me my first Andrea Dworkin book. My mother was the abusive one. She loved her sons much more than she loved her daughters and husband. I had a very supportive partner who loved me unconditionally. My dad has told my sister and I that his one "regret" is that he raised strong, independent women who don't know how to ask for help". It is the "asking for help" bit he regrets, as neither my sister or I will ask voluntarily, even in a crisis. I have found that since my partner died last summer, I rarely ask anything of anyone else and my friends have learned not to take "no" as an answer and to force me out of the house and to stay in my house when I open the door and to do things for me that I need done but won't ask for. Sometimes it is other strong women that hold us back
Oh wow. Perhaps it in the asking of help that you/we can build community, one at a time. I get you about not wanting to ask for help. You were clearly raised to be strong and independent, but like your Dad pointed out, can add to unnecessary suffering when others would want to help out - sounds like you have found a great community of friends who "get" you and are there for you. God speed and don't give up.
I sometimes think of her too and wish she was still with us but then she's already more than paid her dues to the women's liberation movement. She earned her rest. We just failed to pick up her project and that's on us. She owes us nothing since she's already left an incredible legacy of writing that should inspire radical feminists to take back what is now being robbed from us.
Thank you for this piece, I was not familiar with Andrea Dworkin but I am with her and thank her for her vision and bravery. The struggles are real and dangerous and are going to get far far worse.
Hi Julie, Roy Porter did indeed write the words you say he did, but that was in his first paragraph where he was satiriziing Andrea Dworkin. As he explains in later paragraphs, he didn't think she added anything new in the book he was reviewing.
But he was attacking her tone, which rightly or wrongly he thought unhelpful. Ian Mordant
Dworkin didn’t fall for the biggest pitfall of modern feminists: the temptation to embrace “porn” because it transgressed patriarchal norms and humiliated the men who use it.
Thank you for this Julie. I have always meant to read her but didn't know where to start. I also enjoyed the other article you wrote about her for The Guardian in 2015.
Dworkin was understandably angry given the treatment by the men in her life who betrayed and abused her.
That said, on the left, Richard Rorty, 36 years ago, did a FAR BETTER job of predicting the rise of Trump, BECAUSE he predicted the MAJOR REASON it would happen.
Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-century America
Members of labor unions, and unorganized and unskilled workers, will sooner or later REALIZE that their government is NOT EVEN TRYING to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported.
Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers—themselves desperately afraid of being downsized—are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and START LOOKING AROUND FOR A STRONGMAN to vote for—someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the SMUG BUREAUCRATS, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and POSTMODERN PROFESSORS s will no longer be calling the shots. . . .
Once the strongman takes office, no one can predict what will happen.** **
Again - That AMAZING QUOTE is from 1999 but it could have been written any time up to now.
Can a feminist understand the frustration of the lesser educated working class man? (i.e. The >60% of men in the USA have not seen real wage rises since 1979. See ref below)
Thank you for this memorial and for the link to one of Dworkin's last published articles - "Through the pain barrier' - about her experience of osteoarthritis. It's poignantly and powerfully written.
The other links in your article are helpful in accessing her life and causes. Before this, I knew little about her.
"Andrea healed her wounds by listening to the stories of other survivors, despite the pain that could cause." (Julie Bindel).
Thank you for this post. Such a beleaguered, hopeful and determined sigh came as I read. A collective movement to emancipate all women - YES. As a very vocal woman espousing full equality for all women and full feminism I’d like to say many may have been derisive of Dworkin but she was also loved respected and seen as a kindred feminist by so many.
Great piece and more relevant than ever.
“Once upon a time there was a wicked witch and her name was
Lilith
Eve
Hagar
Jezebel
Delilah
Pandora
Jahi
Tamar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called goddess and her name was
Kali
Fatima
Artemis
Hera
Isis
Mary
Ishtar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called queen and her name was
Bathsheba
Vashti
Cleopatra
Helen
Salome
Elizabeth
Clytemnestra
Medea
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called witch and her name was
Joan
Circe
Morgan le Fay
Tiamat
Maria Leonza
Medusa
and they had this in common: that they were feared, hated, desired, and worshiped.”
Andrea Dworkin
Witches, hags, crones. All derided and persecuted. But the most powerful words in the English language and should be celebrated. They all mean "wise women", or so my grannie told me when I was a child and she was all three.
Hot damn, if that's not a "who's who" of powerful women in history! Thank you.
Worth mentioning that three of Andrea Dworkin's most important titles have just been reissued by Penguin Modern Classics.
Dworkin was right, it has got far, far worse for women. This piece could have been written yesterday as nothing has changed for the better. Thank you for sharing it, Julie, and woe to ‘Lucy’ for her lack of honesty and backbone. On a lighter note, predictive text on my iPad changed ‘Dworkin’ to ‘Dewormer’ and, perhaps, that’s exactly what she was - deworming our society and she is continuing to do so…as are you.
Thank you for this wonderful piece. I discovered the work of Andrea Dworkin in 1984 when I was writing my English BA thesis on Doris Lessing's 'The Golden Notebook'. Her book 'Pornography' had a massive impact on me and my thinking which persists to this day. She was amazing.
Any chance that your 1984 work on the The Golden Notebook is available? Would be interested to read it. Ian Mordant
I think about Andrea Dworkin often because I have a daughter and granddaughter who are facing a nightmarish future. Sadly, my daughter is estranged from our family, largely due to her father's influence after our divorce. He has since gone on to be a homeless alcoholic. I am a successful business woman. I credit the work of women like Andrea for my determination to survive and thrive after an abusive father who molested me and an abusive husband because I realized men could nit be trusted with my wellbeing and safety. My mother, too, suffered her whole life due to my father's abuse and after she kicked him out, she went on to marry another emotionally abusive man. I'm starting to see men now calling out other men for their sexist and toxic behaviour. It's refreshing to see but we need so much more of it.
I had the opposite. It was my dad who gave me my first Andrea Dworkin book. My mother was the abusive one. She loved her sons much more than she loved her daughters and husband. I had a very supportive partner who loved me unconditionally. My dad has told my sister and I that his one "regret" is that he raised strong, independent women who don't know how to ask for help". It is the "asking for help" bit he regrets, as neither my sister or I will ask voluntarily, even in a crisis. I have found that since my partner died last summer, I rarely ask anything of anyone else and my friends have learned not to take "no" as an answer and to force me out of the house and to stay in my house when I open the door and to do things for me that I need done but won't ask for. Sometimes it is other strong women that hold us back
Oh wow. Perhaps it in the asking of help that you/we can build community, one at a time. I get you about not wanting to ask for help. You were clearly raised to be strong and independent, but like your Dad pointed out, can add to unnecessary suffering when others would want to help out - sounds like you have found a great community of friends who "get" you and are there for you. God speed and don't give up.
I agree.
Great piece. Dworkin increasingly on my mind these days. God do we need her now?
I sometimes think of her too and wish she was still with us but then she's already more than paid her dues to the women's liberation movement. She earned her rest. We just failed to pick up her project and that's on us. She owes us nothing since she's already left an incredible legacy of writing that should inspire radical feminists to take back what is now being robbed from us.
Thank you Julie.
I appreciate the reminder to read and re read all of her writings.
Thank you for this piece, I was not familiar with Andrea Dworkin but I am with her and thank her for her vision and bravery. The struggles are real and dangerous and are going to get far far worse.
Do read "Last Days at Hot Slit" as it is an excellent introduction to her work. HIGHLY recommend.
Thank you for this wonderful piece. “Right wing women” is so helpful in understanding women’s behaviour these days.
Hi Julie, Roy Porter did indeed write the words you say he did, but that was in his first paragraph where he was satiriziing Andrea Dworkin. As he explains in later paragraphs, he didn't think she added anything new in the book he was reviewing.
But he was attacking her tone, which rightly or wrongly he thought unhelpful. Ian Mordant
Dworkin didn’t fall for the biggest pitfall of modern feminists: the temptation to embrace “porn” because it transgressed patriarchal norms and humiliated the men who use it.
Thank you for this Julie. I have always meant to read her but didn't know where to start. I also enjoyed the other article you wrote about her for The Guardian in 2015.
Dworkin was understandably angry given the treatment by the men in her life who betrayed and abused her.
That said, on the left, Richard Rorty, 36 years ago, did a FAR BETTER job of predicting the rise of Trump, BECAUSE he predicted the MAJOR REASON it would happen.
Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-century America
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Achieving-Our-Country-Twentieth-century-Massey/dp/0674003128
Prescient quote from his book:
Members of labor unions, and unorganized and unskilled workers, will sooner or later REALIZE that their government is NOT EVEN TRYING to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported.
Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers—themselves desperately afraid of being downsized—are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and START LOOKING AROUND FOR A STRONGMAN to vote for—someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the SMUG BUREAUCRATS, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and POSTMODERN PROFESSORS s will no longer be calling the shots. . . .
Once the strongman takes office, no one can predict what will happen.** **
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/richard-rortys-philosophical-argument-for-national-pride
-------------
Again - That AMAZING QUOTE is from 1999 but it could have been written any time up to now.
Can a feminist understand the frustration of the lesser educated working class man? (i.e. The >60% of men in the USA have not seen real wage rises since 1979. See ref below)
-------------
Reference:
See Chart 4 in the attached is self-explanatory.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-earnings/2020/pdf/home.pdf
Thank you July, beautiful and important article.
Thank you for this memorial and for the link to one of Dworkin's last published articles - "Through the pain barrier' - about her experience of osteoarthritis. It's poignantly and powerfully written.
The other links in your article are helpful in accessing her life and causes. Before this, I knew little about her.
"Andrea healed her wounds by listening to the stories of other survivors, despite the pain that could cause." (Julie Bindel).
Thank you for this post. Such a beleaguered, hopeful and determined sigh came as I read. A collective movement to emancipate all women - YES. As a very vocal woman espousing full equality for all women and full feminism I’d like to say many may have been derisive of Dworkin but she was also loved respected and seen as a kindred feminist by so many.