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

 

Smutty Smut - Asshats on Parade

Utah is the state that consumes the most pornography.

This post has musical accompaniment below.

The sponsor of a recently passed Utah resolution declaring that “pornography is creating a public health crisis” appeared on the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch” program yesterday to defend the measure, which the governor signed on Tuesday, and allege that the availability of pornography is violating his “First Amendment right to not view it.” - See more...

Dude, stay away from the computer. Or put out your eyes. Problem solved. 

And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 18:9

Pornography - UPDATE

Hugh Hefner is dead. Some folks are casting shade on his memory by calling him a pornographer. Hugh is the wonderbread Modernist version of a pornographer. Now Big Al Goldsten, he was the pornographer's pornographer. I was there.

Portrait of Goldstein on the cover below.

Screw and Al Goldstein are long gone now but I still remember the fights and furor brought on by Screw's content. I came across an interesting blog that features the cover art of Goldstein's Screw Magazine. You want to go there.

Note: Nothing about this essay is safe for viewing at work. I guess my blog is not safe for work too. So sue me.

SCREW #358, art by Bob Dunker

Pornography is ancient and the controversy over its value or lack of value in human lives continues. I reproduce this cover. It illustrates the editorial tone of the magazine better than any words I could write.

I am ambivalent about pornography. I like to look at dirty pictures. Some of what appeared in Screw made me sick. I appreciated the social satire and Goldstein's crusades for free speech.

I love Cartoon Art. I am a fan of vintage pornography. You can see a gallery of SCREW covers by Milton Knight.

Feminists have been in a long dialogue about the depiction of human sexuality.

"Pornography is about dominance and often pain. Erotica is about mutuality and always pleasure."
Gloria Steinem "Erotica vs Pornography", in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)

"Pornography is the essential sexuality of male power: of hate, of ownership, of hierarchy; of sadism, of dominance."
Andrea Dworkin, Pornography, Men Possessing Women

“Prostitution, perversion, and pornography are intertwined with independence and radical politics in the history of outstanding women. Radclyffe Hall, Colette, Anaïs Nin, Kate Millett, Erica Jong--all of these women used the money they made from writing about sexuality to make it possible for them to live as rebels, dykes, feminists, artists, or whatever deviant and defiant identities they assumed.” Pat Califia, Some Women

I miss Al Goldstein. Rest in peace. It is true Goldstein was a Dirt. It is true that much of what he published was disgusting. A great deal of it was funny. Very funny. Nothing Goldstein published was as obscene and pornographic as this video below.

FEMENS - Grab patriarchy by the balls!

I love FEMEN. What courage. 

Google Adsense quit me because they consider my writing about FEMEN pornography. Ultimately the kiss-off set me free. I became more so.

FEMEN makes the most cogent statement of all. Enjoy. These women get the Balls of Steel Award.