Andrea Dworkin Haunts Me -or- Ghosts of Protests Past

Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes the victim is a Child. Only 25 of every 1,000 perpetrators will go to prison.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics

Now that REDpublicans are proposing to put women who abort a rape pregnancy in prison for more time than their rapist, I thought I would run this again.

I'm a radical feminist, not the fun kind. - Andrea Dworkin

The #MeToo Movement's power, and the chaos that has accompanied that power's expression, has me remembering Andrea Dworkin.

Ms. Dworkin was reviled for talking about pornography and the politics of rape and sex in the 70s. And is still reviled by folks making something off her strong back.

But what no one said, and what no one wrote in Dworkin's obituaries, was this: Dworkin's true legacy has been that far too many young women today would rather be bitten by a rabid dog than be considered a feminist. - Havana Marking 

Andrea Dworkin and I were in college in 1968. Different colleges. Irrepressible, furry, thinking/being Andrea is the activist Sister I turned to in my mind when I began reading #MeToo accounts. So I went looking for her and this quote sprang at me off the page. She died in 2005 and ironically has become even more relevant in 2018.

“I don’t believe rape is inevitable or natural. If I did, I would have no reason to be here. If I did, my political practice would be different than it is. Have you ever wondered why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It’s not because there’s a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence.” ― Andrea Dworkin

I publish these quotes out of context. With Andrea Dworkin there is so much context. 

Poster by Favianna Rodriguez. I am a fan.

I never met any of the New York media-darling Sisters in the flesh. I read them all religiously. Ti-Grace was the Southern Belle, Gloria was effective Seven Sisters, Valerie was Artist Nutz, Florynce the Cowboy Lawyer and Germaine was a Brit. What a Meme Bouquet.

In New Jersey we were busy looking up each other's vagina with speculums provided by nurses from NOW at house parties. We were not waiting for the government to say was okay we owned our bodies. We were learning menstrual extraction.

Why Andrea? She speaks to the burning core of my condition now the WombZombies are on the march again.:

“In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived. In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then. In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society. And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.”
― Andrea Dworkin