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Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics
These searingly powerful public addresses by a radical feminist expose the sexual violence, psychological abuse, and cultural denigration to which men have subjugated women.
118 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
46 people are currently reading
3139 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Dworkin
31 books1,518 followersAndrea 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
December 15, 2015
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.
December 26, 2015
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.
"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.
July 18, 2020
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.
August 14, 2021
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
March 10, 2021
“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
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
July 29, 2022
"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.
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.
July 28, 2020
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
August 15, 2023
Nunca un libro me ha hecho sentir tan reflejada, educada y triste al mismo tiempo
November 19, 2024
“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.”
April 25, 2022
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?
June 10, 2015
Incredible, insightful read. So enlightening. Andrea Dworkin was truly a genius.
April 30, 2020
Se nota la potencia de sus palabras, leer a esta autora me hizo acordarme de mi realidad como mujer en este mundo. Muy ilustrativo
July 6, 2024
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:
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.
February 4, 2025
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.
January 13, 2018
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.
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.
April 1, 2022
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.”
“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.”
January 13, 2024
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.
March 20, 2021
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.
March 31, 2011
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.
April 20, 2025
« 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. »
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. »
December 4, 2023
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)
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)
June 4, 2025
“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.
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.
November 29, 2020
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.
September 7, 2022
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.
November 23, 2022
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.
November 8, 2024
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
January 26, 2026
i'll always love the way Dworkin writes... no-bullshit and straight to the point. with these essays you can sadly tell though that they were written before a lot of her writing that i love so much. they seem less polished and a bit wobbly
June 15, 2021
Lo personal sí es político.
March 7, 2024
Incroyablement précurseur, beau, juste et en colère. Tout le monde doit lire ce livre.
October 2, 2024
again such deeply thought provoking writings especially the last essay on how to destroy male supremacy, the lesbian pride essay was so beautiful!
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