Notre sang (éd. poche): Discours et prophéties sur la politique sexuelle

by Andrea Dworkin, Camille Chaplain (Translator), Harmony Devillard (Translator)

Figure de proue du féminisme américain, Andrea Dworkin a été prise pour cible de la haine antiféministe. Le milieu de l'édition américaine lui reproche le manque de « féminité » de son écriture, directe et sans compromis, qui choque et décille les consciences. Pour survivre, elle se tourne vers l'art oratoire et se déplace de campus en associations, où elle suscite l'admiration, la colère et le débat. Publié en 1976 aux États-Unis, enrichi en 1981 d'une nouvelle préface, ce recueil rassemble neuf de ses discours. L'autrice y aborde des problématiques aussi diverses que l'art, le rapport des filles à leur mère, la chasse aux sorcières, le lesbianisme, la non-violence et l'histoire « amérikaine ». Toutes visent le même objectif : un appel à la sororité afin de galvaniser les femmes dans la lutte contre la domination masculine, jusqu'à son abolition totale.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Essays, Politics, Womens, Feminist Theory, Sexuality

192 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women.

An anti-war activist and anarchist in the late 1960s, Dworkin wrote 10 books on radical feminist theory and practice. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, she gained national fame as a spokeswoman for the feminist anti-pornography movement, and for her writing on pornography and sexuality, particularly in Pornography - Men Possessing Women (1981) and Intercourse (1987), which remain her two most widely known books.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best speech is the last one in which she breaks down toxic masculinity and how to eradicate it. A masterpiece which deconstructs gender roles and advocates for a gender free society. Please read this if you want to understand your own repression and exploitation more fully.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 10 of 5 thorns

"We live in a male-imagined world, and our lives are circumscribed by the limits of male imagination. Those limits are severe." (page 55)

This book comprises Dworkin's forward-thinking, revolutionary speeches. She explores the nuances of socialized identity with clear, eloquent, quite beautiful, and transformative notes on sexual hierarchy, which are even more relevant today. She analyzes the relationship between masculine and feminine cultural/sexual realities and proposes ways to create equality that embrace naming (developing a non-misogynist language) and call for discontinuing the patriarchy by redefining what it means to be a gendered man and woman and by making ourselves [women] visible, developing a sisterhood.

Dworkin is an intersectional feminist and, through these speeches, shows how deeply the patriarchy has been ingrained into our consciousness. Discovering and destroying the roots of the patriarchy, then replanting a system that does not prioritize one human over another, is her necessary and vital vision for future generations of the sisterhood of all women and oppressed groups.

[Irina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A medida que avanzaba la lectura podía sentir lo desgarrador de la realidad. Me demoré en leerlo, porque entre un capítulo y otro es tanto lo que se piensa. Aprendí mucho.

[So · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hay capítulos que leí más de una vez y otros que me era muy difícil leer por lo fuertes que eran, mientras leía algunos sentía tristeza y rabia. Es fácil de entender, se puede reflexionar mucho con él. Se lo recomendaría a cualquier mujer que quiera aprender sobre feminismo

[Sofía · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Creemos vivir en una sociedad heterosexual porque la mayoría de los hombres tienen una fijación en las mujeres como objetos sexuales; pero, de hecho, vivimos en una sociedad homosexual porque todas las transacciones creíbles de poder, autoridad, y autenticidad tienen lugar entre los hombres; todos los intercambios basados en la equidad e individualidad se producen entre los hombres.”
lo amé al libro y con la claridad q andrea explica todo <3 deja mucho para pensar y en algún momento sin dudas volveré a leerlo

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In order to change, we must renounce every male definition we have ever learned; we must renounce male definitions and descriptions of our lives, our bodies, our needs, our wants, our worth--we must take for ourselves the power of naming."

This collection of Andrea Dworkin's most powerful speeches so early in her career is utterly and completely fantastic. Discussing topics such as her family, rape, womanhood, and so much more, she creates for us a world in which women are angry and they are not nice and they get what they deserve and so do men. Using her typical mastery of language, one that is blunt and to the point, Dworkin elaborates on a feminism so hugely radical for its time that she asks all men of the world to not rape for one day.

One.

Day.

40 years later, her essays still hold true. They are still powerful and empowering. This is the second time I've read this collection, and I find myself still with chills and a call to action.

[annapurrna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realmente es un 4.5. No es el primer texto que leo de Dworkin y siento que luego repite mucho sus ideas. Pero fuera de eso amo con todo mi ser su trabajo y aportaciones al radfem, cada vez que la leo es aprender a ver el mundo desde otra perspectiva. Lectura obligatoria para todas las feministas del mundo la vdd

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunca un libro me ha hecho sentir tan reflejada, educada y triste al mismo tiempo

[meow (semi hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“we must renounce every male definition we have ever learned; we must renounce male definitions and descriptions of our lives, our bodies, our needs, our wants, our worth-we must take for ourselves the power of nam- ing. We must refuse to be complicit in a sex- ual-social system that is built on our labor as an inferior slave class. We must unlearn the passivity we have been trained to over thousands of years. We must unlearn the masochism we have been trained to over thousands of years. And, most importantly, in freeing ourselves, we must refuse to imitate the phallic identities of men. We must not internalize their values and we must not replicate their crimes.”

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still relevant! Don't let the prejudice people have about her influence you, she says very reasonable things here, things we need to listen right now. This is a good book to start with radical feminism, which means to get to the origin of the problem and fix it, evil, right?

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible, insightful read. So enlightening. Andrea Dworkin was truly a genius.

[Fetillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se nota la potencia de sus palabras, leer a esta autora me hizo acordarme de mi realidad como mujer en este mundo. Muy ilustrativo

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best part, for me, of Andrea Dworkin's truth telling is her prose. It is often terrifyingly blunt--no euphemisms for her--but her meanings are always clear, her logic unassailable, her metaphors beautiful and emotional.

On The Sexual Politics of Fear and Courage:

This physical act of giving birth requires physical courage of the highest order. It is the prototypical act of authentic physical courage. One's life is each time on the line. One faces death each time. One endures, withstands, or is consumed by pain. Survival demands stamina, strength, concentration, and will power. No phallic hero, no matter what he does to himself or to another to prove his courage, ever matches the solitary, existential courage of the woman who gives birth.

[YaL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super condensé des discours des 70s de Dworkin. La préface est très intéressante et émouvante, A Dworkin y raconte tous les obstacles qu’elle a rencontré pour se faire publier et se faire payer correctement ses conférences. Son discours où elle partage sa misogynie intériorisée passée (qui s’est essentiellement dirigée contre sa mère) est très beau, j’ai trouvé ça impressionnant de raconter tous les mécanismes qu’elle avait intériorisés puis interrogés.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an utter joy reading work by a well known, prestigious feminist, Andrea Dworkin. She discusses in this collection of speeches the difficulties women face (and continue to face, more than 40 years later), such as not being taken seriously, being paid less for equal work, the erasure of women from male perspective, the horrors of the sex industry, how western culture often ruthlessly sides with sex offenders, the inherent homosexuality in a male-dominated society, etc. It is a difficult and painful read, for anyone who has open eyes to see the truth of women's suffering in reality.

Dworkin's writing is thorough and to the point, while citing sources such as Aristotle and Freud. She also delivers her strong messages in a way that is comprehensive and easy to understand, both for the long-time feminist and those who are just beginning. A small criticism is that she often seems to latch onto the same few words ("repudiate" is one of her favorites) and the overuse of the same word creates a loss of impact. However, her larger points are still strong and well delivered, despite the lack of synonyms.

It was interesting to read about Dworkin's struggle to get Our Blood published. Even though she already had a published credit to her name, the resistance and pushback towards publishing Our Blood in and of itself highlights the truth and importance of the collection's message. Feminism, especially when this book was first published, was gauche, unmarketable, outrageous, and hence, not profitable. But I'm so glad a publisher saw the value in Dworkin's words and published this book. It was uplifting and inspiring to see how women came together to encourage, demand, that Our Blood be published and that women of all backgrounds have access to it.

[A M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dworkin forever! ❤️

“Also, if we were not invisible to ourselves, we would see that most women can bear, and have for centuries borne, any anguish--physical or mental--for the sake of those they love. It is time to reclaim this kind of courage too, and to use it for ourselves and each other. For us, historically, courage has always been a function of our resolute commitment to life. Courage as we know it has developed from that commitment. We have always faced death for the sake of life; and even in the bitterness of our domestic slavery, we were sustained by the knowledge that we were ourselves sustaining life.”

“Women strive for passivity, because women want to be good. The abuse evoked by that passivity convinces women that they are bad. Even a woman who strives conscientiously for passivity sometimes does something. That she acts at all provokes abuse. The abuse provoked by that activity convinces her that she is bad.”

“When one is consistently and exclusively rewarded for hurting oneself by conforming to demeaning or degrading rules of behavior; when one is consistently and inevitably punished for accomplishing, or succeeding, or asserting; when one is battered and rammed, physically and/or emotionally, for any act or thought of rebellion, and then applauded and approved of for giving in, recanting, apologizing; then masochism does indeed become the cornerstone of one's personality.”

“She polices and punishes herself; but should this internal value system break down for any reason, there is always a psychiatrist, professor, minister, lover, father, or son around to force her back into the feminine flock.”

“By the time we are women, fear is as familiar to us as air. It is our element. We live in it, we inhale it, we exhale it, and most of the time we do not even notice it. Instead of ‘I am afraid,’ we say, ‘I don't want to.’ or ‘I don't know how.’ or ‘I can't.’”

“They, the masculinists, have told us that they write about the human condition, that their themes are the great themes: love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself. They have told us that our themes--love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself--are trivial because we are, by our very nature, trivial.”

“For the female, the capacity to love is exactly synonymous with the capacity to sustain abuse and the appetite for it. For the woman, the proof of love is that she is willing to be destroyed by the one whom she loves, for his sake. For the woman, love is always self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of identity, will, and bodily integrity.”

“Sophie Tolstoy wrote:
‘And the main thing is not to love. See what I have done by loving him so deeply! It is so painful and humiliating; but he thinks that it is merely silly. "You say one thing and always do another." But what is the good of arguing in this superior manner, when I have nothing in me but this humiliating love and a bad temper; and these two things have been the cause of all my misfortunes, for my temper has always interfered with my love. I want nothing but his love and sympathy, and he won't give it to me; and all my pride is trampled in the mud; I am nothing but a miserable crushed worm, whom no one wants, whom no one loves, a useless creature with morning sickness, and a big belly, two rotten teeth, and a bad temper, a battered sense of dignity, and a love which nobody wants and which nearly drives me insane.’
Does anyone really think that things have changed so much since Sophie Tolstoy made that entry in her diary on October 25, 1886? And what would you tell her if she came here today, to her sisters? Would you have handed her a vibrator and taught her how to use it? Would you have given her the techniques of fellatio that might better please Mr. Tolstoy? Would you have suggested to her that her salvation lay in becoming a ‘sexual athlete’? Learning to cruise? Taking as many lovers as Leo did? Would you tell her to start thinking of herself as a ‘person’ and not as a woman?”

“Men tell us that they too are ‘oppressed.’ They tell us that they are often in their individual lives victimized by women - by mothers, wives, and ‘girlfriends.’ They tell us that women provoke acts of violence through our carnality, or malice, or avarice, or vanity, or stupidity. They tell us that their violence originates in us and that we are responsible for it. They tell us that their lives are full of pain, and that we are its source. They tell us that as mothers we injure them irreparably, as wives we castrate them, as lovers we steal from them semen, youth, and manhood--and never, never, as mothers, wives, or lovers do we ever give them enough.”

“That means that we will have to divest ourselves of the identity we have been trained to as females--that we will have to divest ourselves of all traces of the masochism we have been told is synonymous with being female.”

“Men consider intellectual accomplishment to be a function of phallic identity, and so we are intellectually incompetent by their definition. Men consider moral acuity to be a function of phallic identity, and so we are consistently characterized as vain, malicious, and immoral creatures.”

“In a male supremacist culture, the male condition is taken to be the human condition, so that, when any man speaks- for instance, as an artist, historian, or philosopher- he speaks objectively-that is, as someone who has, by definition, no special bone to pick, no special investment which would slant his view; he is somehow an embodiment of the norm. Women, on the other hand, are not men. Therefore women are, by virtue of male logic, not the norm, a different, lower order of being, subjective rather than objective, a confused amalgam of special bones to pick which make our perceptions, judgments, and decisions untrustworthy, not credible, whimsical.”

“The kinds and categories of mythic male heroes are numerous. A man can be a hero if he climbs a mountain, or plays football, or pilots an airplane. A man can be a hero if he writes a book, or composes a piece of music, or directs a play. A man can be a hero if he is a scientist, or a soldier, or a drug addict, or a disc jockey, or a crummy mediocre politician. A man can be a hero because he suffers and despairs; or because he thinks logically and analytically; or because he is ‘sensitive’; or because he is cruel. Wealth establishes a man as a hero, and so does poverty. Virtually any circumstance in a man's life will make him a hero to some group of people and has a mythic rendering in the culture--in literature, art, theater, or the daily newspapers.”

“When a woman violates a rule which spells out her proper behavior as a female, she is singled out by men, their agents, and their culture as a troublemaker. The rebel's isolation is real in that she is avoided, or ignored, or chastised, or denounced. Acceptance back into the community of men, which is the only viable and sanctioned community, is contingent on her renunciation and repudiation of her deviant behavior. Every girl as she is growing up experiences this form and fact of isolation. She learns that it is an inevitable consequence of any rebellion, however small. By the time she is a woman, fear and isolation are tangled into a hard, internal knot so that she cannot experience one without the other. The terror which plagues women at even the thought of being “alone’ in life is directly derived from this conditioning.”

“This physical act of giving birth requires physical courage of the highest order. It is the prototypical act of authentic physical courage. One's life is each time on the line. One faces death each time. One endures, withstands, or is consumed by pain. Survival demands stamina, strength, concentration, and will power. No phallic hero, no matter what he does to himself or to another to prove his courage, ever matches the solitary, existential courage of the woman who gives birth.”

“Sadly, we are as invisible to ourselves as we are to men. We learn to see with their eyes-and they are near blind. Our first task, as feminists, is to learn to see with our own eyes!”

“As long as we have life and breath, no matter how dark the earth around us, that sun still burns, still shines. There is no today without it. There is no tomorrow without it. There was no yesterday without it. That light is within us- constant, warm, and healing.”

[Louise Hewett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrea Dworkin is always breathtaking and inspiring. Her call to do away with gender polarity or the sex-role system seems to me to be easily misinterpreted if care to deeply understand is lacking - as I'm sure it has been and continues to be. Having recently read Genevieve Vaughan's 'For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange,' and having seen a view that presents the sexes interpreted as economies...and seeing how the poor and alienating interpretation of boy children as somehow other to the nurturing Mother (in patriarchal societies) has created this polarised view of the sexes, I am thankful I know what Dworkin is referring to, and for her insights. Phew! Each essay/speech demonstrates her commitment to the vision and actualisation of women's freedom from pervasive and institutionalised male violence. I only think of those economies again, and wonder how, while money and capitalism endure, we can ever live as communities of caring, dignified fully human beings. In addition, her writing is just so satisfying. Our Blood was a gut-wrenching and electrifying read.

[Edle Julve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book change my view of many things. The first chapter made me burst into tears and I appreciate the way Andrea Dworkin says things. Definitely it's like having a conversation with her in a bar. She uses sharp words to describe the brutality that means the world for a woman and she is capable to touch your mind with her strong speech and change your world. I think I'm not the same after Our Blood and I encourage every woman to read it, I assure you, it will change your life for ever.

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 4 out of 5]

powerful polemic about patriarchal oppression of women. very radical ideas. I defined myself as a radical feminist until I read Dworkin but after I thought about it awhile, I found she expanded my horizons with this book. I quoted excerpts of this book to my Unitarian minister because I was upset he had scheduled a "dinners for 8" round robin for the congregation on the same night as the "Take Back The Night Rally" and I was very angry about that.

[Zozio · Rating 4 out of 5]

« Pour moi aussi, dans ma vie, la terre a parfois tremblé. »
Je me souviens d’un jour où la terre a tremblé pour moi. J’avais 19 ans, je voulais écrire un billet de blog sur l’injonction à la sexualité, faire sens de mon vécu, et je suis tombée sur une phrase de Dworkin, que j’ai découverte ce jour-là : « C’est une réalité pour les femmes que d’avoir à composer sans cesse avec le sexe forcé au cours d’une vie normale. Le sexe imposé, habituellement le coït, est un enjeu central dans la vie de chaque femme. »
Ça m’a soufflée (j’ai pleuré pendant deux jours). J’ai cherché à lire plus mais les traductions et les éditions françaises de Dworkin restent affreusement maigres. Je suis contente d’avoir pu mettre la main sur cette édition de poche de Notre Sang.

Les années sont passées, ma pensée sex-neg s’est développée, peut-être un peu dé-radicalisée aussi, donc le monde a moins tremblé à la lecture. Je vois certaines limites, certains angles morts, pour autant ça reste un ensemble de textes tellement limpides et importants pour avancer dans l’exploration.

« Le féminisme est une exploration, et elle a tout juste commencé. On nous a appris que pour nous, les femmes, la Terre est plate, et que si nous nous aventurons au-dehors, nous allons basculer dans le vide. Certaines d'entre nous se sont quand même aventurées dehors, et jusqu'ici nous n'avons pas basculé. C'est ma conviction, ma conviction féministe, que nous ne basculerons pas. »

[Mochi · Rating 4 out of 5]

accessible and clear, dworkin does not skip a beat

some of these speeches feel "obvious" in the context of the past 50+ yrs of feminist work since this was published, but the first and last essays stood out as revealing uncomfortable truths that i hadnt seen so well-articulated before. i think especially the last essay everyone should read! it gets at the roots of the gender binary, male dominance, female masochism (and how these are all really the same)

[lula · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A woman’s erotic femininity is measured by the degree to which she needs to be hurt, needs to be possessed, needs to be abused, needs to submit, needs to be beaten, needs to be humiliated, needs to be degraded.”

god i loveeee dworkin. thank you for all ur works allowing me to become a raging lesbian radical feminist and writing my dissertation on pornography and sex work.

[Nancy⭐ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encantó el estilo, en ensayos que fueron conferencias. Toma temas importantísimos y aunque no tiene una bibliografía académica muchos de los elementos con los que justifica sus tesis son con experiencias de decenas y decenas de mujeres con las que ha hablado y le han contado sus experiencias de vida, eso se me hace muy bonito del libro, aparte de que es súper digerible y fácil de leer.

[Pilar Navarro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro corto de recopilaciones de charlas de Dworkin. En ellas de manera corta y directa va tocando cada uno de los puntos neurálgicos del feminismo radical. Algunos capítulos son más duros de leer que otros. Mi favorito fue "Feminismo, arte y mi madre". Libro imprescindible para cualquier feminista.

[Mateo Dk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I don't generally agree entirely with conclusions she draws, but that doesn't make her work not informative and thought-provoking. By and large, the disagreements I have are ones of nuance, not fundamental conceptions.

[eight · Rating 5 out of 5]

encore une fois pas d’accord avec tout (notamment sur sa façon d’appréhender l’intersectionnalité) mais merci à elle d’avoir sauvé ma vie ! un autre monde est possible + Andrea Dworkin the person that you are

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo personal sí es político.

[Malvina Buffet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incroyablement précurseur, beau, juste et en colère. Tout le monde doit lire ce livre.

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

again such deeply thought provoking writings especially the last essay on how to destroy male supremacy, the lesbian pride essay was so beautiful!

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I saw a systematic despisal of women that permeated every institution of society, every cultural organ, every expression of human being. And I saw that I was a woman, a person who met that systematic despisal on every street comer, in every living room, in every human interchange. Because I became a woman who knew that she was a woman, that is, because I became a feminist, I began to speak with women for the first time in my life, and one of the women I began to speak with was my mother. I came to her life through the long dark tunnel of my own. I began to see who she was as I began to see the world that had formed her. I came to her no longer pitying the poverty of her intellect, but astounded by the quality of her intelligence. I came to her no longer convinced of her stupidity and triviality, but astonished by the quality of her strength. I came to her, no longer self-righteous and superior, but as a sister, another woman whose life, but for the grace of a feminist father and the new common struggle of my feminist sisters, would have repeated hers— and when I say ‘repeated hers’ I mean, been predetermined as hers was predetermined. I came to her, no longer ashamed of what she lacked, but deeply proud of what she had achieved—indeed, I came to recognize that my mother was proud, strong, and honest.”
—
“They, the masculinists, have told us that they write about the human condition, that their themes are the great themes— love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself. They have told us that our themes—love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself—are trivial because we are, by our very nature, trivial.”
—
“And what are we to think? Because if we begin to piece together all of the instances of violence—the rapes, the assaults, the cripplings, the killings, the mass slaughters; if we read their novels, poems, political and philosophical tracts and see that they think of us today what the Inquisitors thought of us yesterday; if we realize that historically gynocide is not some mistake, some accidental excess, some dreadful fluke, but is instead the logical consequence of what they believe to be our god-given or biological natures; then we must finally understand that under patriarchy gynocide is the ongoing reality of life lived by women. And then we must look to each other—for the courage to bear it and for the courage to change it.”
—
“As women, we live in the midst of a society that regards us as contemptible. We are despised, as a gender class, as sluts and liars. We are the victims of continuous, malevolent, and sanctioned violence against us—against our bodies and our whole lives. Our characters are defamed, as a gender class, so that no individual woman has any credibility before the law or in society at large. Our enemies—rapists and their defenders—not only go unpunished; they remain influential arbiters of morality; they have high and esteemed places in the society; they are priests, lawyers, judges, lawmakers, politicians, doctors, artists, corporation executives, psychiatrists, and teachers. What can we, who are powerless by definition and in fact, do about it?”
—
“As nonphallic beings, women are defined as submissive, passive, virtually inert. For all of patriarchal history, we have been defined by law, custom, and habit as inferior because of our nonphallic bodies. Our sexual definition is one of ‘masochistic passivity’: ‘masochistic’ because even men recognize their systematic sadism against us; ‘passivity’ not because we are naturally passive, but because our chains are very heavy and as a result, we cannot move.”
—
“We must destroy completely and for all time the personality structures ‘dominant-active, or male’ and ‘submissive-passive, or female.’ We must excise them from our social fabric, destroy any and all institutions based on them, render them vestigial, useless. We must destroy the very structure of culture as we know it, its art, its churches, its laws; we must eradicate from consciousness and memory all of the images, institutions, and structural mental sets that turn men into rapists by definition and women into victims by definition. Until we do, rape will remain our primary sexual model and women will be raped by men. As women, we must begin this revolutionary work. When we change, those who define themselves over and against us will have to kill us all, change, or die.”
—
“I have often heard men describe the vagina as ‘empty space’—the notion being that the defining characteristic of women from the top of the legs to the waist is internal emptiness. Somehow, the illusion is that women contain an internal space which is an absence and which must be filled—either by a phallus or by a child, which is viewed as an extension of the phallus. It is no wonder, then, that men recognize us only when we have a phallus attached to us in the course of sexual intercourse or when we are pregnant. Then we are for them real women; then we have, in their eyes, an identity, a function, a verifiable existence; then, and only then, we are not ‘empty.’”
—
“The debility which is intrinsic to fear as women experience it is progressive. It increases not arithmetically as she gets older, but geometrically. The first time a girl breaks a gender class rule and is punished, she has only the actual consequences of her act with which to contend. That is, she is isolated, confused, and afraid. But the second time, she must coatend with her act, its consequences, and also with her memory of a prior act and its prior consequences. This interplay of the memory of pain, the anticipation of pain, and the reality of pain in a given circumstance makes it virtually impossible for a woman to perceive the daily indignities to which she is subjected, much less to assert herself against them or to develop and stand for values which undermine or oppose male supremacy. The effects of this cumulative, progressive, debilitating aspect of fear are mutilating, and male culture provides only one possible resolution: complete and abject submission.”
—
“If we were not invisible to ourselves, we would see that since the beginning of time, we have been the exemplars of physical courage. Squatting in fields, isolated in bedrooms, in slums, in shacks, or in hospitals, women endure the ordeal of giving birth. This physical act of giving birth requires physical courage of the highest order. It is the prototypical act of authentic physical courage. One’s life is each time on the line. One faces death each time. One endures, withstands, or is consumed by pain. Survival demands stamina, strength, concentration, and will power. No phallic hero, no matter what he does to himself or to another to prove his courage, ever matches the solitary, existential courage of the woman who gives birth.”
—
“Our oppressors are not only male heads of state, male capitalists, male militarists—but also our fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, and lovers. No other people is so entirely captured, so entirely conquered, so destitute of any memory of freedom, so dreadfully robbed of identity and culture, so absolutely slandered as a group, so demeaned and humiliated as a function of daily life. And yet, we go on, blind, and we ask over and over again, ‘What can we do for them?’ It is time to ask, ‘What must they do now for us?’ That question must be the first question in any political dialogue with men.”
—
“We do not want to be buried inside the stone anymore. I think that the stench of decaying female carcasses has at last become so vile to us that we are ready to face the truth— about the stone, and about ourselves inside it.”
—
“The atrocity of male domination over women poisoned the social body, in Amerika as elsewhere. The first to die from this poison, of course, were women—their genius destroyed; every human potential diminished; their strength ravaged; their bodies plundered; their will trampled by their male masters. But the will to domination is a ravenous beast. There are never enough warm bodies to satiate its monstrous hunger. Once alive, this beast grows and grows, feeding on all the life around it, scouring the earth to find new sources of nourishment. This beast lives in each man who battens on female servitude.”
—
“Every married man, no matter how poor, owned one slave —his wife. Every married man, no matter how powerless compared to other men, had absolute power over one slave— his wife. Every married man, no matter what his rank in the world of men, was tyrant and master over one woman—his wife. And every man, married or not, had a gender class consciousness of his right to domination over women, to brutal and absolute authority over the bodies of women, to ruthless and malicious tyranny over the hearts, minds, and destinies of women.”
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“The genius of any slave system is found in the dynamics which isolate slaves from each other, obscure the reality of a common condition, and make united rebellion against the oppressor inconceivable.”
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“We have been, and are, sterilized against our will; our wombs are removed for no medical reason; our clitorises are cut off; our breasts and the whole musculature of our chests are removed with enthusiastic abandon. This last procedure, radical mastectomy, is eighty years old. I ask you to consider the development of weaponry in the last eighty years, nuclear bombs, poisonous gases, laser beams, noise bombs, and the like, and to question the development of technology in relation to women. Why are women still being mutilated so promiscuously in breast surgery; why has this savage form of mutilation, radical mastectomy, thrived if not to enhance the negativity of women in relation to men? These forms of physical mutilation are brands which designate us as female by negating our very bodies, by destroying them.”
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“Romantic love, in pornography as in life, is the mythic celebration of female negation. For a woman, love is defined as her willingness to submit to her own annihilation. As the saying goes, women are made for love—that is, submission. Love, or submission, must be both the substance and purpose of a woman’s life. For the female, the capacity to love is exactly synonymous with the capacity to sustain abuse and the appetite for it. For the woman, the proof of love is that she is willing to be destroyed by the one whom she loves, for his sake. For the woman, love is always self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of identity, will, and bodily integrity, in order to fulfill and redeem the masculinity of her lover.”
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“In pornography, we see female love raw, its naked erotic skeleton; we can almost touch the bones of our dead. Love is the erotic masochistic drive; love is the frenzied passion which compels a woman to submit to a diminishing life in chains; love is the consuming sexual impulse toward degradation and abuse. The woman does literally give herself to the man; he does literally take and possess her.”
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“That sanctified organ of male positivity, the phallus, penetrates into the female void. During penetration, the male’s whole being is his penis—it and his will to domination are entirely one; the erect penis is his identity; all sensation is localized in the penis and in effect the rest of his body is insensate, dead. During penetration, a male’s very being is at once both risked and affirmed. Will the female void swallow him up, consume him, engulf and destroy his penis, his whole self? Will the female void pollute his virile positivity with its noxious negativity? Will the female void contaminate his tenuous maleness with the overwhelming toxicity of its femaleness? Or will he emerge from the terrifying emptiness of the female’s anatomical gaping hole intact—his positivity reified because, even when inside her, he managed to maintain the polarity of male and female by maintaining the discreteness and integrity of his steel-like rod; his masculinity affirmed because he did not in fact merge with her and in so doing lose himself, he did not dissolve into her, he did not become her nor did he become like her, he was not subsumed by her. This dangerous journey into the female void must be undertaken again and again, compulsively, because masculinity is nothing in and of itself; in and of itself it does not exist; it has reality only over and against, or in contrast to, female negativity.”
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“Reality is always a function of politics in general and sexual politics in particular—that is, it serves the powerful by fortifying and justifying their right to domination over the powerless. Reality is whatever premises social and cultural institutions are built on. Reality is also the rape, the whip, the fuck, the hysterectomy, the clitoridectomy, the mastectomy, the bound foot, the high-heel shoe, the corset, the make-up, the veil, the assault and battery, the degradation and mutilation in their concrete manifestations. Reality is enforced by those whom it serves so that it appears to be self-evident. Reality is self-perpetuating, in that the cultural and social institutions built on its premises also embody and enforce those premises. Literature, religion, psychology, education, medicine, the science of biology as currently understood, the social sciences, the nuclear family, the nation-state, police, armies, and civil law—all embody the given reality and enforce it on us.”