Andrea Dworkin: Rape in marriage

Quotes:

“We need to understand the reality for women on the ground, in the world, in real life, and our advocacy of social policy and legal reform has to be based on the experiences of real women.” 

“She left. She's not coming back. How do you own her? You kill her.” 

“We may not accept the social situation the way that it is. We cannot accept the legal system the way that it is. We have to put ourselves in the centre of the world… Every time we look at the legal system and social policy, we have to put a woman in the centre of it and say, “what happens to her?”” 

“The first thing that we have to do is to refuse to accept the premises that we have been given to start with. And that's what I came here to ask you to do.”

Andrea was internationally renowned as a radical feminist activist and author who helped break the silence around violence against women. She is co-author of the pioneering Minneapolis and Indianapolis ordinances in the early 1980's that define pornography as a civil-rights violation against women. She is the author of 12 books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry and has contributed to many anthologies, periodicals, media events and has spoken at activist demonstrations, universities and in cities in many countries. Her critique of pornography and violence against women began with Woman Hating in 1974. This was followed, amongst other books, by Pornography: Men Possessing Women in 1981. This book tells us what pornography actually does and explores the relationship between pornography and women’s civil status. 

 

 

Updated to include Dworkin's answers to inaudible audience questions, on the topic of women who kill their abusers.