Pornography: Men Possessing Women  

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-'''''Intercourse''''' (1987) is a [[radical feminism|radical feminist]] analysis of [[sexual intercourse]] in literature and society, written by [[Andrea Dworkin]]. ''Intercourse'' 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."+| style="text-align: left;" |
 +"The word ''[[pornography]]'', derived from the ancient Greek ''[[porne]]'' and ''graphos'', means “writing about whores.” Pome means “whore,” specifically and exclusively the lowest class of whore, which in ancient Greece was the brothel slut available to all male citizens.
-== Thesis ==+The ''porne'' was the cheapest (in the literal sense), least regarded, least protected of all women, including slaves. She was, simply and clearly and absolutely, a sexual slave. ''Graphos'' means “writing, etching, or drawing.
-In ''Intercourse'', Dworkin extended her earlier analysis of [[pornography]] to a discussion of [[heterosexuality|heterosexual]] [[sexual intercourse|intercourse]] itself. In works such as ''Woman Hating'' and ''[[Pornography: Men Possessing Women]]'', Dworkin had argued that pornography and erotic literature in patriarchal societies consistently eroticized women's sexual subordination to men, and often overt acts of exploitation or violence. In ''Intercourse'', she went on to argue that that sort of sexual subordination was central to men's and women's experiences of sexual intercourse in a male supremacist society, and reinforced throughout mainstream culture, including not only pornography but also in classic works of male-centric literature.+
-<!-- This needs restructuring. Perhaps an overview discussion of the structure of the book by chapter? -->+The word pornography does not mean “writing about sex” or “depictions of the erotic” or “depictions of sexual acts” or “depictions of nude bodies” or “sexual representations” or any other such euphemism. It means the graphic depiction of women as vile whores. In ancient Greece, not all prostitutes were considered vile: only the ''porneia''.
-Extensively discussing works such as ''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]]'', ''[[Madame Bovary]]'', and ''[[Dracula]]'' (and citing from religious texts, legal commentary, and pornography), Dworkin argued that the depictions of intercourse in mainstream art and culture consistently emphasized heterosexual intercourse as the only or the most genuine form of "real" sex; that they portrayed intercourse in violent or invasive terms; that they portrayed the violence or invasiveness as central to its eroticism; and that they often united it with male contempt for, revulsion towards, or even murder of, the "carnal" woman. She argued that this kind of depiction enforced a male-centric and coercive view of sexuality, and that, when the cultural attitudes combine with the material conditions of women's lives in a sexist society, the experience of heterosexual intercourse itself becomes a central part of men's subordination of women, experienced as a form of "occupation" (cf. [http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/IntercourseI.html Chapter 7, "Occupation/Collaboration"]) that is nevertheless expected to be pleasurable for women and to define their very status ''as women''. Dworkin describes the view of intercourse enforced by saying:+
-:This is nihilism, or this is truth. He has to push in past boundaries. There is the outline of a body, distinct, separate, its integrity an illusion, a tragic deception, because unseen there is a slit between the legs, and he has to push into it. There is never a real privacy of the body that can coexist with intercourse: with being entered. The vagina itself is muscled and the muscles have to be pushed apart. The thrusting is persistent invasion. She is opened up, split down the center. She is occupied--physically, internally, in her privacy. ...+Contemporary pornography strictly and literally conforms to the word’s root meaning: the graphic depiction of vile whores, or, in our language, sluts, cows (as in: sexual cattle, sexual chattel), cunts. The word has not changed its meaning and the genre is not misnamed. The only change in the meaning of the word is with respect to its second part, ''graphos'': now there are cameras — there is still photography, film, video. The methods of graphic depiction have increased in number and in kind: the content is the same; the meaning is the same; the purpose is the same; the status of the women depicted is the same; the sexuality of the women depicted is the same; the value of the women depicted is the same. With the technologically advanced methods of graphic depiction, real women are required for the depiction as such to exist." --''Pornography: Men Possessing Women'', p. 199-200, 1981, Andrea Dworkin, extending her definition from porn from "writing about whores" to "writing about vile whores" because ''[[porne]]'' was the lowest class whore in Ancient Greece. It is not because someone is low class that someone is ''[[vile]]'' nor a [[slut]]."
-There is no analogue anywhere among subordinated groups of people to this experience of being made for intercourse: for penetration, entry, occupation. There is no analogue in occupied countries or in dominated races or in imprisoned dissidents or in colonialized cultures or in the submission of children to adults or in the atrocities that have marked the twentieth century ranging from Auschwitz to the Gulag. There is nothing exactly the same, and this is not because the political invasion and significance of intercourse is banal up against these other hierarchies and brutalities. Intercourse is a particular reality for women as an inferior class; and it has, in it, as part of it, violation of boundaries, taking over, occupation, destruction of privacy, all of which are construed to be normal and also fundamental to continuing human existence. There is nothing that happens to any other civilly inferior people that is the same in its meaning and in its effect even when those people are forced into sexual availability, heterosexual or homosexual; while the subject people, for instance, may be forced to have intercourse with those who dominate them, the God who does not exist did not make human existence, broadly speaking, dependent on their compliance. The political meaning of intercourse for women is the fundamental question of feminism and freedom: can an occupied people--physically occupied inside, internally invaded--be free; can those with a metaphysically compromised privacy have self-determination; can those without a biologically based physical integrity have self-respect?+--''[[Pornography: Men Possessing Women]]'' (1981) by Andrea Dworkin
- +|}
-== Controversy ==+{{Template}}
-Such descriptions are often cited by Dworkin's critics, claiming that ''Intercourse'' argued that "All heterosexual intercourse is rape." That statement, however, occurs nowhere in the book, and her comparisons of intercourse to "occupation," "possession," "collaboration," etc. are made in the context of discussions of the way in which intercourse is depicted "the discourse of male truth--literature, science, philosophy, pornography" (122), and the enforcement of those terms through men's social power over women.+'''''Pornography: Men Possessing Women''''' (1981) is a book by [[Andrea Dworkin]] on [[pornography]] with a sizeable chapter on [[Marquis de Sade]].
- +
-Dworkin rejected the interpretation that "All heterosexual intercourse is rape" as a grave misunderstanding of her work. When asked in a later interview, she explained,+
-:No, I wasn't saying that [all heterosexual sex is rape] and I didn't say that, then or ever. ... The whole issue of intercourse as this culture's penultimate expression of male dominance became more and more interesting to me. In ''Intercourse'' I decided to approach the subject as a social practice, material reality. This may be my history, but I think the social explanation of the all sex is rape slander is different and probably simple. Most men and a good number of women experience sexual pleasure in inequality. Since the paradigm for sex has been one of conquest, possession, and violation, I think many men believe they need an unfair advantage, which at its extreme would be called rape. I don't think they need it. I think both intercourse and sexual pleasure can and will survive equality. It's important to say, too, that the pornographers, especially ''Playboy'', have published the "all sex is rape" slander repeatedly over the years, and it's been taken up by others like ''Time'' who, when challenged, cannot cite a source in my work. --Interviewed by Michael Moorcock. 21 April 1995.+==Full text[https://archive.org/stream/PornographyMenPossessingWomenAndreaDworkinPdf/Pornography%20-%20Men%20Possessing%20Women%20-%20Andrea%20Dworkin%20-%20pdf_djvu.txt]==
 +==Summary==
 +Dworkin analyzes (and extensively cites examples drawn from) contemporary and historical [[pornography]] as an industry that [[Misogyny|hates]] and [[dehumanization|dehumanizes]] women. Dworkin argues that the industry is implicated in [[violence against women]], both in its production (through the abuse of the women that are used to star in it) and in the social consequences of its consumption by encouraging men to eroticize the domination, [[humiliation]] and [[abuse of women]].
-Some critics, such as [[Gene Healy]] and [[Cathy Young]] claimed that they found Dworkin's explanation hard to square with her frequent willingness to criticize ordinary heterosexual practices as violent or coercive. Young went on to claim that, given Dworkin's expressed views, arguments over whether Dworkin actually said that heterosexual intercourse is rape can be dismissed as "quibbling".+She outlines the power of men as: 1) a metaphysical assertion of self; 2) physical strength; 3) the capacity to terrorize; 4) the power of naming; 5) the power owning, 6) the power of money; and 7) the power of sex. The "metaphysical assertion of self" is described as a subject position. Dworkin suggests that men occupy a powerful subject position that is protected by laws and customs, art and literature, documented in history, and upheld in the distribution of wealth. Men have this self (an “unselfconscious parasitism”) and women must, by definition, lack it. The first sign of his parasitism is in his relationship to his mother. He then transfers this to other women in his life and uses women to enlarge himself. Men also have the power of physical Strength. This is not the same as being muscular or strong, but it is the right to physical strength. The capacity to terrorize is the metaphysical assertion of self plus strength which creates fear in a whole class of people (men over women). This happens through rape, [[battery sexual abuse]], and the use of prostitutes. This behavior is idolized in movies about heroism, war, and glory. In TV, literature, books, drama this story plays out. Men’s acts are huge and awesome even when villainous and women become the prize. The power of naming means that men have the ability to define experiences and this is upheld by force. As an example, men name women as “weak” and then further weaken them with preferences and standards of beauty that leave women mutilated and stunted. The power of owning refers to husbands' ownership of wives and fathers' ownership of daughters. This ownership is natural as he is the “one who takes.” Once he has had, it is his. Men also have the power of money. In the hands of women, money buys things, it stays literal. Money in the hands of a woman is sometimes evidence of something foul: unwomanly ambition and greed. For men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, loyalty, and all manner of possibility; it brings qualities, achievements, and respect. Money in the hands of a man signifies worth and accomplishment. Wealth of any kind is an expression of male sexual power. Lastly, Dworkin suggests that men have the power of sex although they assert the opposite. The carnality of women is said to be the defining characteristic of women. Women have sexual power because the erection is involuntary and a woman is always the presumed cause, therefore the man is helpless and the woman powerful. The male reacts to a stimulus for which he is not responsible. Whatever he does, he does out of a provocation from a female – she is the temptress. According to Dworkin, men force women to become that thing that causes erection and then holds himself helpless when he is aroused by her. His fury when she is not that thing is intense and powerful.
-== Quotations ==+==Reception==
-:The creation of gender (so-called nature) by law was systematic, sophisticated, supremely intelligent; behavior regulated to produce social conditions of power and powerlessness experienced by the individuals inside the social system as the sexual natures inside them as individuals. There were the great, broad laws; prohibiting sodomy; prescribing fucking in marriage; directing the fuck to the vagina, not the mouth or the rectum of the woman because men have mouths and rectums too; legitimizing the fuck when it produces children; each turn of the screw so to speak heightening gender polarity and increasing male power over women, fucking itself the way of creating and maintaining that power. ... Opposites were created; a hierarchy was created; intercourse expressed both the opposition and the hierarchy. Intercourse became the "natural" expression of the different "natures" of men and women, each pushed away from having a common human nature by laws that prohibited any recognition of sameness; each pushed into a sexual antagonism created by the dominance and submission that was the only intimacy they shared.+[[Terry Baum]] has written that the book is a "revelation" and that Dworkin "spoke with the urgency and eloquence of the [[Biblical prophet]]s."
 +==See also==
 +*[[Anti-pornography]]
 +*[[Radical feminism]]
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Current revision

"The word pornography, derived from the ancient Greek porne and graphos, means “writing about whores.” Pome means “whore,” specifically and exclusively the lowest class of whore, which in ancient Greece was the brothel slut available to all male citizens.

The porne was the cheapest (in the literal sense), least regarded, least protected of all women, including slaves. She was, simply and clearly and absolutely, a sexual slave. Graphos means “writing, etching, or drawing.”

The word pornography does not mean “writing about sex” or “depictions of the erotic” or “depictions of sexual acts” or “depictions of nude bodies” or “sexual representations” or any other such euphemism. It means the graphic depiction of women as vile whores. In ancient Greece, not all prostitutes were considered vile: only the porneia.

Contemporary pornography strictly and literally conforms to the word’s root meaning: the graphic depiction of vile whores, or, in our language, sluts, cows (as in: sexual cattle, sexual chattel), cunts. The word has not changed its meaning and the genre is not misnamed. The only change in the meaning of the word is with respect to its second part, graphos: now there are cameras — there is still photography, film, video. The methods of graphic depiction have increased in number and in kind: the content is the same; the meaning is the same; the purpose is the same; the status of the women depicted is the same; the sexuality of the women depicted is the same; the value of the women depicted is the same. With the technologically advanced methods of graphic depiction, real women are required for the depiction as such to exist." --Pornography: Men Possessing Women, p. 199-200, 1981, Andrea Dworkin, extending her definition from porn from "writing about whores" to "writing about vile whores" because porne was the lowest class whore in Ancient Greece. It is not because someone is low class that someone is vile nor a slut."

--Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981) by Andrea Dworkin

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Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981) is a book by Andrea Dworkin on pornography with a sizeable chapter on Marquis de Sade.

Contents

Full text[1]

Summary

Dworkin analyzes (and extensively cites examples drawn from) contemporary and historical pornography as an industry that hates and dehumanizes women. Dworkin argues that the industry is implicated in violence against women, both in its production (through the abuse of the women that are used to star in it) and in the social consequences of its consumption by encouraging men to eroticize the domination, humiliation and abuse of women.

She outlines the power of men as: 1) a metaphysical assertion of self; 2) physical strength; 3) the capacity to terrorize; 4) the power of naming; 5) the power owning, 6) the power of money; and 7) the power of sex. The "metaphysical assertion of self" is described as a subject position. Dworkin suggests that men occupy a powerful subject position that is protected by laws and customs, art and literature, documented in history, and upheld in the distribution of wealth. Men have this self (an “unselfconscious parasitism”) and women must, by definition, lack it. The first sign of his parasitism is in his relationship to his mother. He then transfers this to other women in his life and uses women to enlarge himself. Men also have the power of physical Strength. This is not the same as being muscular or strong, but it is the right to physical strength. The capacity to terrorize is the metaphysical assertion of self plus strength which creates fear in a whole class of people (men over women). This happens through rape, battery sexual abuse, and the use of prostitutes. This behavior is idolized in movies about heroism, war, and glory. In TV, literature, books, drama this story plays out. Men’s acts are huge and awesome even when villainous and women become the prize. The power of naming means that men have the ability to define experiences and this is upheld by force. As an example, men name women as “weak” and then further weaken them with preferences and standards of beauty that leave women mutilated and stunted. The power of owning refers to husbands' ownership of wives and fathers' ownership of daughters. This ownership is natural as he is the “one who takes.” Once he has had, it is his. Men also have the power of money. In the hands of women, money buys things, it stays literal. Money in the hands of a woman is sometimes evidence of something foul: unwomanly ambition and greed. For men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, loyalty, and all manner of possibility; it brings qualities, achievements, and respect. Money in the hands of a man signifies worth and accomplishment. Wealth of any kind is an expression of male sexual power. Lastly, Dworkin suggests that men have the power of sex although they assert the opposite. The carnality of women is said to be the defining characteristic of women. Women have sexual power because the erection is involuntary and a woman is always the presumed cause, therefore the man is helpless and the woman powerful. The male reacts to a stimulus for which he is not responsible. Whatever he does, he does out of a provocation from a female – she is the temptress. According to Dworkin, men force women to become that thing that causes erection and then holds himself helpless when he is aroused by her. His fury when she is not that thing is intense and powerful.

Reception

Terry Baum has written that the book is a "revelation" and that Dworkin "spoke with the urgency and eloquence of the Biblical prophets."

See also




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