Andrea Dworkin the life and death of a feminist disciple Andrea Dworkin was one of the key modern disciples of feminism and died on April 9, 2005, at the age of 58. Her death provides an opportunity to reflect on her influence in the realm of sexual politics, and on her specific role in feminism. It also allows contemplation of some of the pathological elements that make up the mindset of such a fearsome leader. Dworkin was an important figure in sexual politics for several decades, having written controversial books primarily on pornography and rape. Pornography as men's theory, where rape is their practice. This was her basic thesis. She portrayed pornography - images of men and women having sex, or women naked - as somehow linked to the sexual abuse of women. In other words, she made a link between normal heterosexual desire in men and rape. Like most prominent feminists, she liked to portray rape as far more common than conventionally perceived. She portrayed it as the norm of heterosexual relations. She was very successful in that, becoming an important academic reference source, and got regularly interviewed, even in the capitalist running dog mainstream press. Contemporary feminists want to give her a kind of muted sainthood. This is an almost impossible task, but not beyond their efforts. Feminists commenting on Dworkin's death, characterize Dworkin as "not a man-hater." In doing so, they are forced to fudge Dworkin's key thesis about men. Take for example Catherine Viner's obituary in the Guardian: "She has always been seen as the woman who said that all men are rapists, and that all sex is rape. In fact, she said neither of these things." Yet, Dworkin DID argue indirectly that men are basically sexual oppressors. Masculinity is about the sexual abuse of women. How did she make the argument? By slight of hand, a verbal game: a = b = c. A) Not all men are rapists ( a preamble that Dworkin rarely made). B) All heterosexual sex is male-coercive. Male sexual fantasies are oppressive to women. C) Men desire women, fantasizing about and exercising their sexual impulses. Conclusion: men are (latent) sexual abusers. Masculinity is oppression. It has to be conceded that most men get turned on by porno, so most men who believe Dworkin must think that this must be their oppressive impulse coming out. All nonsense of course, but widely disseminated as true in feminist circles... and in the mainstream press. Catherine Viner insists on calling Dworkin "…a truly challenging voice…much of this was brilliant..." Viner shows a typical feminist coy admiration and solidarity for an individual who should have been condemned as one of the greatest fomenters of sexual division and misrepresentation in modern history. Dworkin was never brilliant, only pathological and one-eyed. She was never challenging. She was insulting and misrepresenting... come to think of it, exactly like all the other leading feminists. It's easy for a reasonable, experienced man to refute Dworkin in his own mind, though it may be more difficult for a woman. As a man, I know I have an interest in women, and some occasional interest in porno. And I know I am not a rapist. Far from it. I am, like the vast majority of men a gentleman, perhaps even at times overly civilized. The porno I see contains no explicit or implicit coercion. An average woman is less likely to be able to judge men, as women have far less direct interest in porno, and after all, this is about what goes on in men's heads, rather than women's. Nevertheless, women should know that they are generally confident about men's sexual civility. The rare notorious rape cases that are publicized show very little overt signs of porno as a primary influencing factor in the crime. More likely, the background, upbringing, social culture, mental health of the male is the key influence affecting his abusive attitude to women. "Patriarchal" societies see rape as a crime…one of the worst, perhaps THE worst crime. Men are not soft on rape. We hate it. The issue comes down to Dworkin's reinterpretation of male sexual desire and power and also indirectly of women. Remember the Monika Lewinsky affair with Bill Clinton. Although Clinton was accused of abusing several women, his affair with Lewinsky was unambiguously consensual, if not initiated by her. How did Dworkin interpret the affair: "What needs to be asked is, was the cigar lit?" This quote directly implies that the erotic antics between a man and a woman should be interpreted as torture. A woman cannot possibly enjoy penetration by a man, symbolically or actually. A man can only penetrate as an act of power. But the example proves the point… that Dworkin grossly misrepresented heterosexuality. Dworkin vilified masculinity; male desire and erotica. We know that she did it. Why did she do it? Her reasons were both systemic and personal. On the personal level, her abuse of men and denigration of heterosexuality reflected her low self esteem and befuddled intellect. It's a case of hating the thing you want the most. She made herself deliberately ugly, in order to defy men. She became a woman who couldn't get raped in a Serbian prisoner of war camp. Being ugly, unwashed, unkempt were things she wore on her sleeve, and the rest of her body. In fact, her gross obesity became so severe, that it led to her premature death. In a way, it was a death at the hands of feminism. There were also political reasons for her man-hating. There is a powerful feminist requirement to have such an ideology: all men are bastards, rapists, exploiters. Feminism seeks alienation between men and women. Fear and loathing are advantageous emotions to invoke in impressionable women. We can therefore say that Dworkin's key selling point was actually functional to feminist aims. There is a powerful downside to the adoption of Dworkin's ideological mode. Anyone believing Dworkin's ideology can become deeply suspicious of heterosexuality; they can become chauvinistic, asexual, puritan, neurotic, and embrace other related behavior that is dysfunctional to a healthy (sexual) lifestyle (as Dworkin did). Dworkin became her own pathological canvas for the world of women that she projected. In other words, while the majority of women seek to be attractive to men, Dworkin sought to be ugly. She wilfully embraced obesity, making no effort to be physically attractive to men. Of course, implicitly she was also ugly to women, but this was a derivative matter, given that her whole obsessive intellectual and personal focus was on men. It is even possible that the final step on this road is a kind of delusion and insanity. In recent years she publicly advocated women's violence against men: all in the context of men's barbarity of course. Furthermore, her obsession with rape possibly led her to fantasize about having been a victim of rape; become deluded that she had in fact been raped herself (there is no proof it ever happened). Dworkin should be looked at as a phenomenon of western sexual politics and sexual power. This individual had been given the right to exercise slanderous abuse of men (half the human population) for over 30 years. This occurred in an age when equality and discrimination were supposed to be watchwords. It just goes to show that our western ideals are a sham in the breach; that we have a selective application of democracy and equality. Only men are required to constrain their sexist urges. Only men's sexual characterize is subject to widespread public doubt. It is quite an irony to think that Dworkin's cacophonous ranting about male abuse was really its own opposite, that in fact, men have been politically emasculated; powerless to stop this vilification. Dworkin's notion of women as powerless is proven as the opposite. An elite group of women have been demonstrably extremely powerful in setting ideological agendas on the subject of sexual perception. At pains of devaluing a powerful word: it is men who have been raped by feminism. I welcome your response to the topic, especially if you have an original comment to make. If you contact Thinkbomb and leave a message your ideas on the topic may be posted on the dialogue pages (Your Say). Your comment will be included on the reader forum page. Please allow several days for updates. Don't forget, there is also a wealth of material on the page links below. Includes facts, opinions, satire, news and references.