Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak: "Prisons"

Here is the entire (short) chapter "Prisons" from Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak 

Prisons 1

   Perhaps because I came from the pacifist left, I had an intense and abiding hatred for prisons (even though the U. S. prison system was developed by the Quakers). After the publication of Our Blood, I wrote a proposal for a book on prisons. I was struck by the way prisons stayed the same through time and place: the confinement of an individual in bad circumstances with a sadistic edge and including all the prison rites of passage. I was struck by how prisons were the only places in which men were threatened with rape in a way analogous to the female experience. I was struck by the common sadomasochistic structure of the prison experience no matter what the crime or country or historical era. That proposal was rejected by a slew of publishers. I found myself at a dead end.

  But an odd redemption was at hand. I had noticed that in all pornography one also found the prison as leitmotif, the sexualization of confining and beating women, the ubiquitous rape, the dominance and submission of the social world in which women were literally and metaphorically imprisoned. 

   I decided to write on pornography because I could make the same points - show the same inequities - as with prisons. Pornography and prisons were built on cruelty and brutalization; the demeaning of the human body as a form of punishment; the worthlessness of the individual human being; restraint, confinement, tying, whipping, branding, torture, penetration, and kicking as commonplace ordeals. Each was a social construction that could be different but was not; each incorporated and exploited isolation, dominance and submission,humiliation, and dehumanization. In each the effort was to control a human being by attacking human dignity. In each the guilt of the imprisoned provided a license to animalize persons, which in turn led to a recognition of the ways in which animals were misused outside the prison, outside the pornography. Arguably (but not always), those in prison had committed an offense; the offense of women in pornography was in being women. In both prisons and pornography,sadomasochism was a universal dynamic; there was no chance for reciprocity or mutuality or an equality of communication. 

   In prison populations and in pornography, the most aggressive rapist was at the top of the social structure. In prison populations gender was created by who got fucked; so, too, in pornography. It amazed me that in pornography the prison was recreated repeatedly as the sexual environment most conducive to the rape of women.

   The one difference, unbridgeable, intractable, between prisons and pornography was that prisoners were not expected to like being in prison, whereas women were supposed to like each and every abuse suffered in pornography.

1. p. 127-129 in Heartbreak by Andrea Dworkin, Published by Perseus Books Group
Copywrite 2002 Andrea Dworkin

** All of Andrea's published works can be found online, courtesy of radfem.org **

Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak: Passage in a Post I

Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak was moving, inspiring, shocking, and honest. Since the entire book cannot be outlined in a blog post, several more passages will be posted at a later time.

[From the chapter Anita.*]

"She and Abbie had not been together for a while . It was clear that she was poor. She said that she didn't know what to do, that a friend of Abbie's had offered her work as a prostitute ("escort," high end of the line) and was putting a lot of pressure on her. Abbie's latest caper had left her destitute. This guy was a friend of Abbie's, so he had to be okay, right? She had thought of doing organizing -- poor, single mothers like herself had no political power in the system; but really, what was wrong with prostituting? She could earn a lot of money and she was lonely. Honey, I thought, you don't begin to know what lonely is. 


I told her about my own experiences in the trade, especially about the disassociation that was essential to doing the deed. You had to separate your mind from your body. Your consciousness had to be hovering somewhere near the ceiling behind you or on the far side of the room watching your body. No one got through it without having that happen. I also told her that she'd begin to hate men; at first manipulating them would seem like power, but eventually and inevitably the day would come when one perceived them as coarse and brutal, smelly, dirty bullies. She had said that she liked sex and that she had had sex with the guy who was now trying to pimp her. I told her that sex with Abbie's friend was a set up to make her more pliant and that in prostituting one lost the ability to feel, so if one liked sex it was the last thing, not the first thing, that one should do." 1



*Anita Hoffman, married to activist Abbie Hoffman


1. p. 162 in Heartbreak by Andrea Dworkin, Published by Perseus Books Group
Copywrite 2002 Andrea Dworkin

Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant

Yes, my copy of Andrea's memoir has finally arrived! I am considering a formal post, for my thoughts after the book is completed, but so far this book has been raw, honest and sometimes, surprising. This book, like her others, is incredibly inspiring to read - her writing is beautiful.

 Unfortunately, this book cannot be found in most mega-book stores like Indigo, but yet are purchasable as "used and rare" on their website. 

Thus far the book has been difficult to put down and in reading it, I have learned so much about Andrea's life that I would have never imagined or assumed. So many have  taken to distorting Andrea Dworkin's character  her ideas, but this memoir tears those misrepresentations to shreds. 

So, read it! 

(also, found a free copy of Susan Faludi's Backlash...!!)

Links - August 3, 2011

Links - August 3, 2011


Sociological Images:
Gendered Kids Stuff


1. Kid's Luggage Normalizes Gendered Occupations

2. More Gendering of Kids' Stuff

My two cents:


I have to add some commentary to this photograph as it is so biologically deterministic and reflective of our larger cultural values regarding the two sex-classes. First we can see the text claiming how "different" boys and girls really are. This seems to be intended to allow us to digest the text that appears next to each advertised photo. Next to the ad featuring the girl-child we read, "Pretty and Playful." This illustrates female's  perceived role and purpose as an object to be looked at and played with rather than respected. This girl is posed to look passive and playful as she has her hand on her head and she is smiling. However, look over to the boys and we see that they are described as "rugged and ready". Boys are brave, courageous and ready to take on the world, unlike the girls who are asked to merely smile and giggle. They are with a dog, too, to signify their bravery and so-called "boyishness." The posing is interesting, also as one of the boys has his knee raised to signify his "natural" bravery. His pose garners respect whereas the picture of the little girl is meant to garner "aww, how cute!" 


This is exactly what we're talking about when we say feminism has a LONG way to go...


and finally from the same Sociological Images post

Two Cents: 


Again, this photo illustrates roles based on biological deterministic beliefs about boys and girls. Boys like to learn and create and discover shit - girls like to take care of babies and change diapers full of shit. It's just the way it is.


A Place for Everywomon and her series on Radical Feminist Seminar 

1. Radical Feminist Seminar: Sheila Jeffrey’s Speech on Trafficking

Excerpt:

"Sheila Jeffreys gave a lecture related to her book, The Industrial Vagina. I had recently read through this entire book, a book so painful to read that I had to put it down every few minutes of reading, just to remind myself that, yes, I am safe, but this is why I am a radical feminist. One point Jeffreys hammered home, is that the idea of individual agency is fundamentally a conservative idea. At what other job do we claim workers are expressing their “agency”?  It is really Milton Friedman’s politics of super, super individualism that are being put forth by “pro-sex work” lobbyists."

2. Radical Feminist Seminar: Professor Dines Brings It On

Excerpt: 

"Another reason a switch to a pornography with a “feminist conscious” is not likely to happen is a reason rather hard to face: Men actually like getting off to women in pain. For example, Dines quotes a porn producer as saying, “Nobody wants to watch a girl enjoying anal.” Dines also mentioned that condoms are typically not used in heterosexual porn. According to her, this is because condoms show at least a minimum level of care about the women’s health. If porn showed men wearing condoms, that would be a reminder that women are human beings, who are capable of being hurt."

3. Radical Feminist Seminar: Sheila Jeffreys on Trans Politics

Excerpt: 

"Groups such as GenderPAC, a U.S. organization that ran from 1999-2009, are “gender protection rackets,” Jeffreys asserted, since GenderPAC thinks we all have a “right to our gender.”
A point I was not aware of–and quite horrified by–was that gender identity laws are not meant to protect born women. This is because there are apparently too many of us."



Sub-Human by Rmott62


Excerpt: 

"Sub-human that is an uncomfortable word, a word that you would do anything to avoid.

Sub-human is what the vast majority of the prostituted class are made. That sounds harsh, that is harsh.

The invention of the prostituted class was not a flux, was no mistake. It was invention that used slavery, capture of women and girls in times of disasters or wars, used that women are kept poor, used racism, used any and all oppression to create the prostituted class."

Silence Means Dissent - Andrea Dworkin from Anti-Porn Men Project


Excerpt: 

"We know that men like hurting us. We know it because they do it and we watch them doing it. We know that men like dominating us because they do it and we watch them doing it. We know men like using us because they do it, and they do it, and they do it, and they do it, and they do it. And men don’t do things that don’t like, generally speaking. They like doing it and they like watching it and they like watching other men do it and it is entertainment and pay money to see it and that one of the reasons that men make pornography. It’s fun."

Photograph of Andrea Dworkin found here

PRIORITIES, SEX POLITICS AND REALITY

I have been reading "Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism" lately, and it's full of great articles and essays. It features a lot of Sheila Jeffery's work as well as Andrea Dworkin.



Recently, I made a youtube video mocking Violet Blue, a so-called "sexpert" with zero credentials. She has a blog up where she scopes out apparent "feminist, female-friendly porn" and shares it. This makes her an expert on sexuality.
So much so that Oprah featured her via Skype to talk about how great porn is with Jenna Jameson. To my surprise, Violet Blue, after I left her a rather spiteful message on one of her chauvinistic blog posts, blogged about ME! Yes, she did. All of her "feminist" followers complained about what a puritan I was, how awful I am and how repressed I must be. An anti-feminist by the name of MadShangi found the blog and paraded it allover youtube. This inspired me to get even more involved in anti-exploitation feminist work. I wanted to find out more about these women who hurt women.

For now, let's get back to the book. I think Sheila Jeffreys has a bad rep. because she has a lot of ideas that a lot of feminists probably do not share. I find her fascinating and fair. Last Christmas I received "Beauty and Misogyny" which examines western cultural practices of beauty, fashion and feminist politics. Some of the material was a bit much for me, but a lot of it was new and I took it in the best I could. Keep in mind however, that I do acknowledge flaws in myself
I give into patriarchal cultural practices:
leg shaving
pit shaving
wearing a little makeup

I guess it's not that brutal. It could be much worse. I suppose that I could be wearing push up bras, using fake tanners, wearing fake nails and shaving my vulva. I could be piercing my clitoris and my breasts, wearing stilettos and thus ruining my future chance at having a healthy back.

I could be doing a lot of things, right? I don't like having that "it's not that bad" attitude. Nevertheless, my attitude acknowledges the practices put forth by the patriarchy (and thus I feel they need to be analyzed) but there are more important and dangerous (at least in my mind) practices occurring. These practices should be obvious to most women, they have been around for far too long.

Right now a woman is being pimped out, beat, raped, exploited and possibly killed.
Right now, some man is in his home watching a woman being pimped out, beat, raped, exploited and possibly killed.
That man is masturbating to those practices. He is taking pleasure in witnessing these things - these practices that he feels he is entitled to.

We live in a culture where men feel that they need unlimited access to a woman's body, be it through prostitution, sexual assault, or pornography. Our society calls this "free speech".

Where is our speech?

There are self-proclaimed feminists who take part in this male privileged, misogynistic behavior. Yes, there are women who purchase and use pornography, women that go to strip clubs and buy prostitutes.

They call it liberation. Sexual liberation.

They equate female liberation with male pleasure. This is where sex politics play a role. Females are sexually liberated, according to sexual libertarian 'feminists', when they allow themselves to become subordinate to male sexuality. When we fail to challenge our own lives and our own privilege, we fail to examine what women as a class go through. When we fail to question power struggles in our relationships, we fail to find out how those dynamics affect all women.

To conclude,

"Pornography is the orchestrated destruction of women's bodies and souls; rape, battery, incest, and prostitution animate it; dehumanization and sadism characterize it; it is war on women, serial assaults on dignity, identity, and human worth; it is tyranny. Each woman who has survived knows from the experience of her own life that pornography is captivity -- the woman trapped in the picture used on the woman trapped wherever he's got her."

--Andrea Dworkin