BY EUAN BEAR ccording to news reports and Internet sources: ndrea Dworkin, vari- ously identified as a “radical feminist writer,” “anti-pom cru- sader,” and “self-described les- na wkin 1946 -.2905 r Feminist ctivist & Author College, graduating with a bachelor’s in literature in 1968. As a Bennington fresh- man, she demonstrated against the U.S. 1 govemment’s prosecution of the Vietnam - 1 War at the United Nations. Her writings f. about her arrest, detention and treatment in 1 a New York women’s detention center helped get the facility closed. She was later in an abusive mar- riage with a Dutch man that lasted three years. Dworkin worked as a receptionist, waitress, factoryworker, and teacher. She also spent time as an assistant to poet Muriel Rukeyser, according to the Post, She published 13 books, includ- ing two novels, among them: Heartbreak: The Political Memoir ofa Feminist Militant (2002), Scapegoat: The Jews, - 1_srael and Women's Liberation (2000), Letters front a War Zone (1989), Right- Wing Women (1983) and Our Blood: Prophesies and Discourses on Sexual Politics (1976); her novel Ice and Fire (1987) was about prostitution, and her novel Mercy (1991), was about serial rape. She also published a collection of Short stories, The New Woman ’s Broken Heart (1980). Several commentators acknowl- edged that Dworkin was demonized by V" anti—feminists, often misrepresented, and when her arguments brooked no serious answer, frequently attacked because of her appearance: she was fat and had long, curly, unruly hair. - Dworkin’s ovular work on pornography as a civil rights/dis- crimination issue _ strengthened the _ feminist anti-vio- 1 lence movements ' of the 1980s and made a strong case for connect- ing violent visu- V alizations with 1*‘ violent actions. She punched a hole in an oppressive fog of sexism to let in light on how women are subjugated in obvious and subtle ways. V ' European witch b.umings to modern Western pornography. At least two other books she wrote achieved iconic feminist status: Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981) and Intercourse (1987). ducers. The ordinances were overturned by a Supreme Court ruling in 1986 on the basis of restricting free speech. ,Dworkin was born on September 26, 1946, in Camden, NJ. According to the Washington Post’s account, she began her bian,” died on April 9 in Washington, DC, 1* in her sleep, according to The New York ' Times account. She was 58. She is sur- vived by her companion of 30 years, John Stoltenberg, a gay man. The two were married in 1998. " Dworkin was most famous for her book Woman Hating (1974), in which she explored links between women’_s oppression in patriarchal cultures around the world, from Chinese footbinding to American high heels, from medieval ‘ She and lawyer Catherine MacKinnon succeeded in getting several cities to adopt ordinances characterizing pornography as sex discrimination and providing a basis for women who have been harmed by it to sue sellers and pro- life of activism by refusing to sing Christmas carols in elementary school. She wanted to be a Greenwich Village artist and paid for her bus trips into the city by prostitution — exchanging sex for money. Dworkin attended Bennington For tributes to Andrea Dworkin, point your browser_to www.stopfamilyviolence .org/sfvo/dworkin.html. Also check the myths vs. the truth at http://www.nosta- tusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/index.html. e have made beginnings at breaking the deep silence. We have identified rape: we have identified incest; we have identified battery; we have identi- fied prostitution: we have identi- fied pornography — as crimes against women. as means of exploiting women, as ways of hurting women that are matic and supported by the pra ices of the societies in which we live. We have identified sexual exploitation .as abuse. We have identified objectification and turning women into commodities for sale as dehu- manizing, deeply dehumanizing. ' We have identified objectification _; and sexual exploitation as mecha- nisms for creating inferiority. real inferiority: not an abstract concept but a life lived as an inferior per- son in a civil society. We have identified patterns of violence that take pl‘ ce in intimate relation- ships. We know now that most rape is not committed by the dan- gerous and predatory stranger but by the dangerous and predatory boyfriend. lover. friend. husband, neighbor, the man we are closest to, not the man who is farthest away. And we have learned more about the stranger, too. We have learned more about the ways in which men who do not know us target us and hunt us do\vn. We have refused to accept the pre- sumption in th‘ * society that the victim is responsible for her own abuse. We have refused to agree that she provoked it. that she wanted it. that she liked it. These are the basic dogma of pornogra- phy, which we have rejected. In rejecting pornography we have rejected the fundamentalism of male supremacy Nothing that we have done for women who have been raped or battered has helped women who have been prostituted What remains to be done? To think about helping a rape victim is one thing; to think about ending rape, is another. We need to end rape. We need to end incest. We need to end battery. We need to end prostitution and we need to end pornography. That - means that we need to refuse to accept that these are natural phe- nomena that just happen because some guy is having a bad day. V 4