One of the most controversial modern feminists cuts to the heart of the gender debate to examine the social, legal, and political meanings of sexual intercourse for women, men and society.
Intercourse
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Dworkin argues that in a society where men oppress women, they will use sex for that purpose as well, and that men's sexual dominion over women underpins the whole system of oppression codified in law. Her most provocative point is that sexual intercourse itself intrinsically creates problems for women's self-esteem. She bases this argument on the premise that human beings need to protect their physical boundaries to feel safe. Since women's boundaries are breached in even the most welcome and humane forms of sexual intercourse, they must therefore experience themselves, as part of their normal existence, as more vulnerable than men experience themselves and less able to assert their humanity. Dworkin's argument is obviously one-sided, disregarding benefits women may derive from these intimate connections. Nor does she spend much time on a solution for the problem of boundaries she has identified. Still, this fascinating book deserves a wide readership. Cynthia Harrison, American Historical Assn., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"The most shocking book any feminist has yet written." Germaine Greer"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
64 of 88 people found the following review helpful
By Jeremy Koch
Format:Paperback
Holy gawd, a male who loved this book! And I did. It's sad how most people can only see the sophomoric caricatures their biases craft in this book, rather than the real story: which is not hatred for males, nor an indictment of all heterosexuality as rape. Though it will be read that way if a person can *only* concieve of sex which contains an element of domination: take away the domination aspect, and for them, sex is abolished. The men and women (such as the odious Camille Paglia) who fear this book have minds too entrenched in patriarchal pseudoscientific essentialist nonsense to get over that. As for me, I love sex. I think it's beautiful -- and that's also why I love this book. It suggests to me that intercourse can retain that beauty, and that it doesn't have to be debased by being used as a weapon and a tool of oppression. Dworkin is a brilliant mind whose works have altered my life.
23 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The problem with "Intercourse" isn't so much that Dworkin takes her rhetoric overboard. That much was probably intentional, in order to make a point about how deep sexism runs in most cultures and for how long it has been that way - and she definitely got that point across. The book's downfall is that she not only doesn't make it clear that that's what she's doing, she even eschews any opportunity to clue readers in to that end.
"Intercourse" is probably the work that gave rise to the myth that Dworkin believed all sex was rape. In fact she never said that, here or elsewhere, and as such it would be wrong to attribute that belief to this or any other of her works. That said, she doesn't quite NOT say that either, and it's not entirely unreasonable to conclude that she is implying as much. Perhaps she considered it unnecessary to spell out the point that a survey of literary sex scenes could never be completely comprehensive. But after chapter upon chapter of examples in which she (correctly) shows various classic works of literature to be rather misogynistic, it may well have strengthened her thesis if she'd shown an example or two of more female-positive works. Never is the possibility of such things even floated. Also, for all her later denials that she was arguing that women can never really enjoy sex or that men can never be anything but dominating in the bedroom, she scrupulously avoids allowing for either of those possibilities throughout the book. Given the opportunity to clarify those points directly, she refused. In the preface to the updated 1997 printing, she asked rhetorically if men could ever hope to understand her thesis, pointedly refused to give a straight answer, and then referred to any and all of her detractors with a word I can't repeat here.
I certainly understand why any writer would resent having to address a baseless accusation cooked up by one's critics. But Dworkin ultimately had no one but herself to blame for the degree to which this book was misinterpreted. Which is too bad, because her larger points about the eroticization of violence against women in literature would be well taken if they weren't so ambiguous.
"Intercourse" is probably the work that gave rise to the myth that Dworkin believed all sex was rape. In fact she never said that, here or elsewhere, and as such it would be wrong to attribute that belief to this or any other of her works. That said, she doesn't quite NOT say that either, and it's not entirely unreasonable to conclude that she is implying as much. Perhaps she considered it unnecessary to spell out the point that a survey of literary sex scenes could never be completely comprehensive. But after chapter upon chapter of examples in which she (correctly) shows various classic works of literature to be rather misogynistic, it may well have strengthened her thesis if she'd shown an example or two of more female-positive works. Never is the possibility of such things even floated. Also, for all her later denials that she was arguing that women can never really enjoy sex or that men can never be anything but dominating in the bedroom, she scrupulously avoids allowing for either of those possibilities throughout the book. Given the opportunity to clarify those points directly, she refused. In the preface to the updated 1997 printing, she asked rhetorically if men could ever hope to understand her thesis, pointedly refused to give a straight answer, and then referred to any and all of her detractors with a word I can't repeat here.
I certainly understand why any writer would resent having to address a baseless accusation cooked up by one's critics. But Dworkin ultimately had no one but herself to blame for the degree to which this book was misinterpreted. Which is too bad, because her larger points about the eroticization of violence against women in literature would be well taken if they weren't so ambiguous.
16 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By R. Swaney
Format:Paperback
After Betty Friedan, Andrea Dworkin seems to top the list as one of the most referenced feminists. Her popularity did not prepare me in the least for what exactly her book de jour is. That is, Intercourse, the book coined as "saying" "all sex is rape," is actually an intriguing literary criticism with a brief peppering of art history. Any quotes I previously listed by Dworkin were taken out of context in that it would only make sense that after Dworkin is read a conversation must occur on art's ability (and lack of) to reflect and represent life.
Dworkin's book begins at Tolstoy and moves through biographies of he and his wife and his literary work The Kreutzer Sonata. The book provides a feminist and specific sexual critique on how sexuality is represented throughout classical, fictional pieces ranging from Tennessee Williams to James Baldwin to Bram Stoker to the Bible and how these works reflect the reality of the culture they were produced in. This bundle of information is presented to the reader and then weaved together in a luxurious manner to critique present views on sexuality. (Absolutely fascinating to me as this is what I did for my late modern art assignment last semester.)
Similar to Reading Lolita in Tehran, it is not necessary that you've actually read any of these works. However, as with any literary criticism it's a bit difficult to rebut or disagree with it without reading the actual texts the critique is based on. Overall, it's a brilliant piece of feminist literature that is blunt and honest and thought provoking. Whether or not you agree with everything (or anything) that Dworkin says, it's a thought stimulating book that consistently questions the reader.
Dworkin's book begins at Tolstoy and moves through biographies of he and his wife and his literary work The Kreutzer Sonata. The book provides a feminist and specific sexual critique on how sexuality is represented throughout classical, fictional pieces ranging from Tennessee Williams to James Baldwin to Bram Stoker to the Bible and how these works reflect the reality of the culture they were produced in. This bundle of information is presented to the reader and then weaved together in a luxurious manner to critique present views on sexuality. (Absolutely fascinating to me as this is what I did for my late modern art assignment last semester.)
Similar to Reading Lolita in Tehran, it is not necessary that you've actually read any of these works. However, as with any literary criticism it's a bit difficult to rebut or disagree with it without reading the actual texts the critique is based on. Overall, it's a brilliant piece of feminist literature that is blunt and honest and thought provoking. Whether or not you agree with everything (or anything) that Dworkin says, it's a thought stimulating book that consistently questions the reader.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Giving woman the power to be equal
In this book, Dworkin extends her analysis from pornography to sexual intercourse itself. She argues that in a male supremacist society the sexual subordination depicted in... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Joyce
1.0 out of 5 stars
More ravings from the radical left
I understand that Dworkin had reason to fear and hate men. She was molested as a child. Her first husband abused her horribly. Read more
Published 17 months ago by othoniaboys
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book
I agree with all of the other five-star reviews I've read here, and don't want to reiterate what they've stated so well. Read more
Published 18 months ago by T. Trask
5.0 out of 5 stars
ingenious.
I am an unpopular person in the current world of sadomasochistic, sex-working-as-"empowerment" lesbian "feminists" who volunteer to be painfully copulated by men and enjoy... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Hedonist
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Sorrow and the Pity...
In Ariel Levy's forward to my 2006 edition of this work, she says: "'Intercourse' is an inventive, combative, and wildly complicated piece of work, and to imagine that all there is... Read more
Published on January 12, 2011 by John P. Jones III
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you, Andrea Dworkin
The time was the early nineties. I was in a small liberal arts college that was heavily steeped radical feminist thought. Read more
Published on August 22, 2009 by S. Schafer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book, Great Author
Dworkin is a hero and she speaks the truth. Whether you like it or not its the truth and the truth hurts.
Published on December 13, 2007 by Sara G. Harden
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ravings and Ramblings of an Ideologue
Dworkin presumes to tell straight women what their experience of sex is really like. But Dworkin never was a straight woman. Read more
Published on May 25, 2007 by John Stanhope
5.0 out of 5 stars
a lost classic
A. Dworkin: genius of our times! Not since Louis Ferdinand Celine have I enjoyed the smelly brown halo of personal politics. Read more
Published on April 18, 2007 by K. Rutmanis
5.0 out of 5 stars
misunderstanding
nobody seems to realize the personal element in this book.her insinuations of violence as revenge are rhetorical and come from millenia of do i even need to say it? Read more
Published on July 15, 2005 by gia m.
