Andrea Dworkin :: essays research papers fc

Andrea DworkinAndrea Dworkin has been an influential write, speaker, and activist forover two decades. She claims to be a feminist, and that her ideas atomic number 18beneficial to women. This paper will show that many of her most popular beliefsare non only detrimental to society, but also not in the best interests of women.In letters from a war zone, Andrea Dworkin presents a collection ofspeeches and short articles she has composed during her career as a writer andactivist. Many of her articles destiny with censorship and pornography. One claimis central to all of these, pornography is an act and not an idea, thuscensorship is not relevant to it.In response to a New York Time Review of her 1981 book, pornography MenPossessing Women, Dworkin writes, Pornography says the women lack to be hurt,forced, and abused pornography says women want to be raped, battered, kidnapped,maimed pornography says women want to be humiliated, shamed, defamed,pornography says that women say no bu t mean yes - Yes to violence, yes to pain.(Dworkin p 203)In response to Dworkins fiery rhetoric, Wendy Mcelroy writes thatDworkin has scientific backing and even cites evidence to the contrary. InJapan, where pornography depicting violence is widely available, rape is muchlower per capita than in the United States, where violence in porn isrestricted. Mcelroy attacks the belief that pornography stool violence,stating that even if a correlation is present, is does not necessarily meanthere is a causal relationship. (McElroy 102)Lynne Segal sees in inherent harm in trying to affiliate the two together.She believes that feminists who try to do so are wasting valuable time thatcould be spent on other important issues. In the end, anti-pornographycampaigns, feminist or not, can only enlist today, as they have invariouslyenlisted before, guilt and anxiety around sex, as well as lifetimes of confusionin our ad hominem experiences of sexual arousal and activity. In contrast,campaigns whi ch get to the heart of mens violence and sadism towards women mustenlist the widest possible resources to empower socially. (Gibson 19)Another argument of Dworkins is that pornography should not beprotected as free speech under the first amendment. It is her contention thatprotecting what pornographers say, is protecting what pornography does.Pornography is more than words. They are acts against women. Pornographyhappens to women. As a result, bans on such material are warranted, not onlybecause it is harmfully and discriminatory to women, but also because there areno civil liberties that are violated in preventing an act.