The Life of Andrea Dworkin: Twenty Years Since the Loss of a Feminist Icon
By Isobel Edwards, Masters in Gender and International Relations
This April 9th marks twenty years since the passing of Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist, activist, and author who has left a polarising but undeniably powerful legacy.
Dworkin dedicated her life and work to eradicating violence against women - publishing feminist fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, advocating for and creating anti-pornography legislation, and collaborating with other inspiring feminist thinkers such as Catherine A. MacKinnon. However, despite empowering and emboldening the feminist movement, Dworkin’s work sparked division and critiques for its extreme and at times misandrist nature. Unsurprisingly, her sweeping assertion that all men are complicit in perpetuating a patriarchal Western Society that glorifies and fosters violence against women invited controversy. In the weeks before her death, Dworkin spoke to The Guardian about how she would like to be remembered:
‘In a museum, when male supremacy is dead. I’d like my work to be an anthropological artefact from an extinct, primitive society’.
Twenty years after her death, we find ourselves in the midst of a growing epidemic of violence against women, with male supremacy still alive and kicking. Sadly, the society that she theorised so deeply, and sought to transform, is far from extinct. Despite the controversy surrounding her ideas, a reconsideration of her nuanced work and arguments may well be necessary.
Early Life and the Roots of Activism:
Dworkin was born in 1946 in Camden, New Jersey, into a Jewish family with progressive values. Raised by a father who was a teacher and socialist and a mother who was outspoken in her support for legalised birth control and abortion, it is no wonder Dworkin later found inspiration to build a life sustained by feminist activism. However, after being sexually abused at the age of nine, the family moved to the suburbs of New Jersey and Dworkin’s childhood became increasingly isolated. However, Dworkin did not allow such feelings of solitude to stifle her fierce desire to enact change. During her time as a student at Bennington College, Dworkin was arrested for protesting against the Vietnam War in 1965. This was her first time participating in anti-war activism, which would later characterise and shape much of her subsequent work and activism, but it was far from a liberating experience. During her incarceration at the New York Women’s House of Detention, Dworkin was forced to undergo a nonconsensual internal examination by the prison doctors. Dworkin publicly testified to sexual assault and the claim made national and international news, sparking widespread public outrage over the abuse of those held in detention. While the claim did not result in an official indictment, Dworkin’s voice contributed to corrective change, and the prison was closed seven years later.
In a dramatic pursuit to heal from this experience and develop her talents, Dworkin travelled from Paris to Athens on the Orient Express to live on the island of Crete, where she would begin to publish her writing. During her time in Crete, Dworkin published a collection of poems entitled Child (1965), her first novel Notes on Burning Boyfriend (1965), and began writing Morning Hair (1967), which she would later publish upon her return to the United States. After two years in Greece, Dworkin returned to Bennington College and continued her student activism, campaigning for women’s reproductive rights and against the ongoing Vietnam War.
A Brutal Entry to Adulthood:
After graduating from Bennington College with a degree in literature, Dworkin began travelling internationally again, but to new and more northern horizons. She moved to Amsterdam with the hope of interviewing Dutch anarchists involved in the Provo movement, a political counterculture that equipped non-violent means to elicit violent responses. It was here that Dworkin met one of the anarchists, Cornelius Dirk De Bruin, who would soon become her first husband. However, Dworkin’s relationship with De Bruin was not the romantic, sentimental, and respectful one she had envisioned. She would later write about the continuous abuse she suffered at his hands, to the extent that she felt trapped in the relationship: ‘I often lived the life of a fugitive, except that it was the more desperate life of a battered woman’. It was only with the help of a fellow feminist writer and friend, Ricki Abrams, that Dworkin was able to escape De Bruin’s violence. However, Abrams’ aid could only do so much, and Dworkin resentfully turned to prostitution as a means of returning to the United States. During this time, Abrams introduced Dworkin to early radical feminist writings that would inspire much of Dworkin’s later work. These writings attributed blame to the pornography and prostitution industries as major facilitators of ‘the hatred of women […], that pervades sexual practice and passion’.
A Tale of Triumph:
In 1972, Dworkin returned to the United States and worked as an anti-war organiser. She also became involved in anti-apartheid activism and joined local feminist groups campaigning for lesbian rights and against violence towards women. In addition to publishing her first nonfiction work, Woman Hating (1972), Dworkin became a renowned and prolific figure within feminist circles. She spoke at the first ‘Take Back the Night’ march in 1978 and gave her famous ‘I Want a Twenty-Four Hour Truce […]’ speech at the National Organisation for Men Against Sexism in 1983. That same year, Dworkin and Catherine A. Mackinnon (a prominent feminist legal scholar and activist) drafted an anti-pornography civil rights ordinance, which was passed by the Minneapolis City Council. The ordinance aimed to better protect women from sexual violence.
At this time, Dworkin was living with fellow feminist author John Stoltenberg, best known for his book Refusing to be a Man (1989), which he claimed was inspired by Dworkin and dedicated to her. Dworkin and Stoltenberg, both openly gay, lived together in a happy and intellectual partnership for nearly three decades. They married in 1998 due to Dworkin’s developing osteoarthritis and declining health.
Dworkin, a woman with a passionate legacy who dedicated her life to improving women’s security worldwide, passed away peacefully in her sleep from an enlarged heart at her home in Washington in 2005. As a controversial yet undeniably iconic figure in feminist history, Ariel Levy expressed the lasting significance of her life and work:
‘If you disagree with her answers, you may still find yourself indebted to her for helping you discover your own’.
References and Further Reading
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/apr/12/guardianobituaries.gender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiGtb5Rth_k