Online Encyclopedia
Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin (born 1946 in Camden, New Jersey) is an American radical feminist and writer.
Dworkin has produced numerous books, articles and speeches. She is known mostly for her work on pornography, prostitution, and male violence against women. More than many other critics of pornography, she links it directly to rape and violence. She is notable in general for linking sexual issues to the larger structures in society. According to her, sexual behavior is a cause of inequality between men and women.
However, she has also written about the class perspective on feminism, in books such as "Right-Wing Women".
Dworkin, together with the feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon, drafted a proposal for a law that defined pornography as a civil rights violation against women, and allowed women to sue the producers and distributors of pornography in a civil court for damages. In 1983 the law was passed in Indianapolis, but was subsequently overturned as unconstitutional by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1985. The Supreme Court of the United States later upheld the lower court's ruling in American Booksellers Association, Inc. v. Hudnut .
In 1965, Dworkin was arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest and sent to the Women's House of Detention. Her testimony of the experience were reported around the world. The prison is now closed.
Her works have been highly controversial and she is heavily critizised on many parts of the political spectrum. She has been taken as an example of feminism as a threat to family values. At the other end of the spectrum, some see her as a proponent of censorship and as exceedingly negative towards sex.
Pornographic cartoons of Dworkin have appeared in Hustler, resulting in her suing the magazine.
Today Dworkin lives in Brooklyn, New York with her life partner John Stoltenberg, who is also a feminist activist.
Bibliography
Nonfiction
- Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant (2002)
- Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000)
- Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women (1997)
- Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females (1991)
- Letters from a War Zone: Writings, 1976-1987 (1988)
- Intercourse (1988)
- Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women's Equality (1988)
- Pornography—Men Possessing Women (1981)
- Our Blood: Prophesies and Discourses on Sexual Politics (1976)
- Woman Hating (1974)
Fiction
- Mercy (1990)
- Ice and Fire (1986)
- The New Woman's Broken Heart: Short Stories (1980)