In excerpts from Right-Wing Women, Dworkin analyzes the writings of anti-feminist women to understand why they would campaign against their own self-interest. This should enlighten anyone viewing Dworkin and fellow anti-prostitution feminists as “whorephobic” or “SWERFs (Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminists).” In her blunt style, inspired by countercultural male writers she idolized, she contrasts their descriptions of “adventurous” sex with prostitutes with what the women actually experience.

In the excerpt from Mercy: A Novel, Dworkin revisits her time in prostitution. In excerpts from Pornography: Men Possessing Women, she exposes how various genres of pornography repeat the notion that sex must be violent but promise that women really love being hurt. She had analyzed the works of respected male writers, exposing their patriarchal notions of intercourse as a natural and necessary act of domination. The most common lie about her is that she believed all intercourse (even all sex) is “rape.” The editors include the foreword to the second edition of her book Intercourse, where she scrutinizes this avoidance of her analysis. They realize supporters of the status quo will stereotype women like Dworkin who ask difficult questions as “manhaters” and “anti-sex.”ĭworkin maintained her confidence in men’s ability to have new, equal relationships with women and form a view of sexuality as loving and mutual. Like her, feminists today feel “politically homeless” with misogyny coming from both Left and Right. Many call Dworkin prophetic in explaining pornography’s function as patriarchal propaganda dehumanizing all women. She had confidence our struggles could result in a better future. Dworkin kept speaking, writing, dealing with hatred aimed at her, and listening to painful stories of women who confided in her. She warned that violence, especially towards women, was going to increase. She exposed patriarchy as an essential part of fascism and as interconnected with racism and classism. A victim of rape, domestic violence, and prostitution, Dworkin used her ambition as a writer to “make sense of what had happened to me.” These writings reveal violence against women as the philosophical basis of patriarchy.

Right wing women dworkin