Could women's liberation ever be a revolutionary movement, not rhetorically but on the ground? Andrea Dworkin More Quotes by Andrea Dworkin More Quotes From Andrea Dworkin Truth is harder to bear than ignorance, and so ignorance is valued more--also because the status quo depends on it; but love depends on self-knowledge and self-knowledge depends on being able to bear the truth. Andrea Dworkin able ignorance self Pornography incarnates male supremacy. It is the DNA of male dominance. Every rule of sexual abuse, every nuance of sexual sadism, every highway and byway of sexual exploitation, is encoded in it. Andrea Dworkin nuance abuse dna The hurting of women is . . . basic to the sexual pleasure of men. Andrea Dworkin pleasure hurt men Pornography reveals that male pleasure is inextricably tied to victimizing, hurting, exploiting; that sexual fun and sexual passion in the privacy of the male imagination are inseparable from the brutality of male history. The private world of sexual dominance that men demand as their right and their freedom is the mirror image of the public world of sadism and atrocity that men consistently and self-righteously deplore. It is in the male experience of pleasure that one finds the meaning of male history. Andrea Dworkin passion hurt fun Seduction is often difficult to distinguish from rape. In seduction, the rapist often bothers to buy a bottle of wine. Andrea Dworkin seduction bottles wine Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman. Andrea Dworkin radical-feminism feminist son To be rapeable, a position that is social, not biological, defines what a woman is. Andrea Dworkin position feminist social No woman needs intercourse; few women escape it. Andrea Dworkin intercourse women needs Every woman who has had experience with sexual violence of any kind has not just pain, and not just hurt, but has knowledge. Knowledge of male supremacy. Knowledge of what it is. Knowledge of what it feels like. And can begin to think strategically about how to stop it. We are living under a reign of terror. Now what I want to say is that I want us to stop accepting that that's normal. And the only way that we can stop accepting that that's normal is if we refuse to have amnesia everyday of our lives. Andrea Dworkin pain hurt thinking Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice. Rape, originally defined as abduction, became marriage by capture. Marriage meant the taking was to extend in time, to be not only use of but possession of, or ownership. Andrea Dworkin abduction use practice No phallic hero, no matter what he does to himself or to another to prove his courage, ever matches the solitary, existential courage of the woman who gives birth. Andrea Dworkin hero courage giving Men know everything - all of them - all the time - no matter how stupid or inexperienced or arrogant or ignorant they are. Andrea Dworkin stupid men funny Can women make use of men's vulnerability not to marry but instead to destroy male power? Andrea Dworkin males use men Men are rapists, batterers, plunderers, killers; these same men are religious prophets, poets, heroes, figures of romance, adventure, accomplishment, figures ennobled by tragedy and defeat. Men have claimed the earth, called it 'Her'. Men ruin Her. Men have airplanes, guns, bombs, poisonous gases, weapons so perverse and deadly that they defy any authentically human imagination. Andrea Dworkin airplane religious hero The man takes a body that is not his, claims it, sows his so-called seed, reaps a harvest - he colonizes a female body, robs it of its natural resources, controls it. Andrea Dworkin female men sex Men characterize pornography as something mental because their minds, their thoughts, their dreams, their fantasies, are more real to them than women's bodies or lives; in fact, men have used their social power to characterize a $10-billion-a-year trade in women as fantasy. Andrea Dworkin real dream men The annihilation of a woman's personality, individuality, will, character, is prerequisite to male sexuality. Andrea Dworkin feminist personality character Men have constructed female sexuality and in so doing have annihilated the chance for sexual intelligence in women. Sexual intelligence cannot live in the shallow, predestined sexuality men have counterfeiteed for women. Andrea Dworkin female chance men Violation is a synonym for intercourse. Andrea Dworkin synonym violation intercourse In this society, the norm of masculinity is phallic aggression. Male sexuality is, by definition, intensely and rigidly phallic. A man's identity is located in his conception of himself as the possessor of a phallus; a man's worth is located in his pride in phallic identity. The main characteristic of phallic identity is that worth is entirely contingent on the possession of a phallus. Since men have no other criteria for worth, no other notion of identity, those who do not have phalluses are not recognized as fully human. Andrea Dworkin pride identity men
