Andrea Dworkin

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Andrea Dworkin, 1988

Andrea Dworkin (born September 26, 1946 in Camden , New Jersey , † April 9, 2005 in Washington, DC ) was an American radical feminist , sociologist and writer . In Germany she was particularly noticeable through her book PorNOgraphy-Men possessing women (1979) and her collaboration with Alice Schwarzer .

Life

Andrea Dworkin's father was a teacher and a socialist . She credited him for inspiring her passion for social justice . Although she noted that her Jewish family was dominated by the memory of the Holocaust in many ways , she generally had a happy and normal childhood until the age of nine when she was sexually assaulted in a movie theater.

Since 1965 she fought as an activist and author for a change in society. She became best known for her fight against pornography .

In 1965, as a student at Bennington College , she was arrested during a demonstration against the Vietnam War outside the United States Mission to the UN and sent to the New York Women's House of Detention , where she was subjected to a physical search by prison doctors that was so ruthlessly carried out that she suffered from bleeding for days afterwards. Her testimony of the experience received international attention and led to the prison being closed.

After graduating from college, she moved to Amsterdam and married a Dutch anarchist who abused her over the course of their five-year marriage . During this time she worked as a prostitute and lived in a state of poverty , including occasional homelessness .

In the 1980s, together with the lawyer Catharine MacKinnon , she developed a draft for an anti-pornography law in the USA that generally defines pornography as misogynistic. Her radicalism and her unscientific approach has also been criticized by other feminists.

At the age of 27 she met John Stoltenberg , with whom she had a lifelong friendship. In 1998 they married, although both identified as homosexual .

Andrea Dworkin died at home in Washington on the morning of April 9, 2005, at the age of 58. The cause of her death has not been established. Very overweight, she had suffered from osteoarthritis for years , which she herself interpreted as the result of rape .

Ideas and controversies

In the course of her life Dworkin wrote numerous books, articles and speeches in which she was very critical of pornography and prostitution; many of these texts deal with the subject of sexuality in great detail. The following quote from the book Woman Hating serves as an example of her views on incest : “ The parent-child relationship is primarily erotic, as all human relationships are primarily erotic. [...] The destruction of the incest taboo is essential for the development of a cooperative human community based on the free flow of natural androgynous eroticism. "

Andrea Dworkin became known and criticized for her provocative remarks on the “unchangeable and parasitic self of man” . She writes:

“ Terror radiates from the man, terror illuminates his being, terror is his purpose in life. "

- Andrea Dworkin: "Pornography - Men rule women".

The fantasies of violence against men who run through her work were also criticized. An excerpt from her novel Mercy from 1991 is quoted particularly frequently . The book is fictional, but the story is very similar to the life that Andrea Dworkin describes in her autobiography 2002. In the style of the “ stream of consciousness”, a feminist named Andrea u. a. about what she wants to do with men as rapists:

"I've always wanted to see a man beaten to a shit bloody pulp with a high-heeled shoe stuffed up his mouth, sort of the pig with the apple."

"I've always wanted to see a man beaten into a bloody bloody mass, with a nice high-heeled shoe stuffed into his mouth, like a pig with an apple."

- Andrea Dworkin: Mercy . 1991

Dworkin linked sexual issues with larger social structures. She wrote about the class struggle aspects of feminism in books like Right-Wing Women . She deplored the tendency of wealthy liberal feminists to enter into agreements with the establishment that, while advancing their position, left out less well-off women.

Dworkin was often exposed to personal attacks, e.g. B. because of their outwardly obese appearance or their lesbian identity . She believed that pornography was rooted in a male hatred of women, that it was a significant cause of rape and other sexual violence, and that women who experienced sexual violence had the right to self-defense , including deadly violence. Despite her supposed hatred of men , she had numerous close male friends, including the writer Michael Moorcock and her husband Stoltenberg. Her criticism of gender roles and her belief that they must be eliminated in order to achieve full equality in society are also cited to defend her against allegations that she hates men.

Influence on the legal system

Together with feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon , Dworkin wrote a bill that defined pornography as a violation of women's civil rights and that would enable women to sue producers and distributors of pornography for damages under civil law. In 1983 the bill was passed in Indianapolis , but later in the American Booksellers Association, Inc. v. Hudnut found unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal for the 7th district of federal law matters. This ruling sets an important precedent for balancing pornography and censorship .

Works

Non-fiction

Novels, poems and stories

Digitized speeches and interviews (English)

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: Andrea Dworkin  - Quotes

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  1. ^ Salon.com Julia Gracen: “Andrea Dworkin in agony” in: SALON - Violence Against Women. September 20, 2000
  2. ^ Andrea Dworkin in agony ( memento of February 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) by Julia Gracen
  3. ↑ Andrea Dworkin: "Pornography - Men Rule Women" with a foreword by Alice Schwarzer. EMMA- Frauenverlags- GmbH. Cologne 1st ed. 1987. ISBN 3-922670-15-6 . P. 24
  4. ↑ Andrea Dworkin: Mercy . For Wall Eight Windows: New York 1991. p. 327.
  5. ^ Daphne Patai: "Heterophobia: Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism" . American Intellectual Culture. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (June 28, 2000). ISBN 0-847689-88-3
  6. ↑ Cathy Young, “ The misdirected passion of Andrea Dworkin,” The Boston Globe, April 18, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Dworkin, Andrea
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American feminist and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Camden , New Jersey , USA
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 2005
Place of death New York City , USA