Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 2
Quotes from book
Intercourse
Intercourse is a 1987 book by Andrea Dworkin, in which the author offers a radical feminist analysis of sexual intercourse in literature and society. Dworkin is often said to argue that "all heterosexual sex is rape", based on the line from the book that says "violation is a synonym for intercourse." However, Dworkin has denied this interpretation, stating, "What I think is that sex must not put women in a subordinate position. It must be reciprocal and not an act of aggression from a man looking only to satisfy himself. That's my point."
“Objectification may well be the most singly destructive aspect of gender hierarchy”
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Context: Being female in this world is having been robbed of he potential for human choice by men who love to hate s. One does not make choices in freedom. Instead, one conforms in body type and behavior and values to become an object of male sexual desire, which requires an abandonment of a wide-ranging capacity for choice Objectification may well be the most singly destructive aspect of gender hierarchy, specially as it exists in relation to intercourse.
“Violation is a synonym for intercourse.”
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Context: A woman has a body that is penetrated in intercourse: permeable, its corporeal solidness a lie. The discourse of male truth—literature, science, philosophy, pornography—calls that penetration violation. This it does with some consistency and some confidence. Violation is a synonym for intercourse. At the same time, the penetration is taken to be a use, not an abuse; a normal use; it is appropriate to enter her, to push into ("violate") the boundaries of her body. She is human, of course, but by a standard that does not include physical privacy.
“Reforms are made, important ones' but the status of women relative to men does not change.”
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Context: Life can be better for women - economic and political conditions improved - and at the same time the status of women can remain resistant, in deed impervious, to change: so far in history this is precisely the paradigm for social change as it relates to the conditions of women. Reforms are made, important ones' but the status of women relative to men does not change. Women are still less significant, have less privacy, less integrity, less self-determination. This means that women have less freedom.
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7, "Occupation/Collaboration"
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 2
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 8, "Law"
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Context: But the hatred of women is a source of sexual pleasure for men in its own right. Intercourse appears to be the expression of that contempt in pure form, in the form of a sexed hierarchy; it requires no passion or heart because it is power without invention articulating the arrogance of those who do the fucking. Intercourse is the pure, sterile, formal expression of men's contempt for women; but that contempt can turn gothic and express itself in many sexual and sadistic practices that eschew intercourse per se. Any violation of a woman's body can become sex for men; this is the essential truth of pornography.
Introduction
Intercourse (1987)
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 8
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter Eight
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter One, "Repulsion"
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 9
“Women do not know how to be women exactly; men constantly fail to be men.”
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 8, "Law"
