Pornography: Men Possessing Women

328 Pages·1991·6.412 MB·English

by  Andrea Dworkin

NONFIBY THE SAME AUTHORCTION
Woman Hating
Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics '
Right-wing Women
Intercourse
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976—1989
Pornography and Civil Rights (with Catharine A. MacKinnon)
FICTION
the new womans broken heart: short stories
Ice and Fire

PLUM E
Published by the Penguin Group
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Published by Plume, an im print of Dutton Signet, a
division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
This paperback edition of Pornography first published in 1989 by
Dutton, an im print of Dutton Signet, a division of Penguin Books
USA Inc. Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry and
W hiteside, Limited, Toronto.
Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1981 by Andrea Dworkin
Introduction copyright © 1989 by Andrea Dworkin
All rights reserved. Printed in the U. S. A.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or m echanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known
or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection
with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or
broadcast.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-51147
ISBN: 0-452-26793-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
The author gratefully acknowledges permission from the following
sources to reprint material in this book:
Gena Corea for an unpublished interview with Dr. Herbert Ratner,
September 20, 1979.
Alex de Jonge for his translation of four lines from Journaux
Completes by Charles Baudelaire, cited in Baudelaire: Prince of Clouds
by Alex de Jonge, copyright © 1976 by Alex de Jonge.
Grove Press, Inc., for Justine from The Complete M arquis de Sade
by M arquis de Sade, translated by Richard Seaver and Austryn
W ainhouse, copyright © 1965 by Richard Seaver and Austryn
W ainhouse.
The Institute for Sex Research, Indiana University, for Sex Of­
fenders: An Analysis of Types by Paul H. Gebhard, John H. G agnon,
W ardell B. Pomeroy, and Cornelia V. Christenson, published by
■Harper 8c Row, Publishers, and Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., M edical
Books © 1965 by The Institute for Sex Research. And for Sexual
Behavior in the H um an M ale by Alfred C. Kinsey, W ardell B. Pomeroy,
and Clyde E. M artin, published by W. B. Saunders Com pany,
copyright © 1948 by W. B. Saunders Company.
Robin M organ for “The Network of the Im aginary M other” in Lady
of the Beasts: Poems, published by Random House, copyright © 1976
by Robin M organ.
New Directions for two lines from A Season in Hell by Arthur
Rim baud, translated by Louise Varese, copyright © 1945, 1952, 1961 by
New Directions.
W. W. Norton 8c Com pany, Inc. for “Poem I” from “21 Love Poem s”
in Dream of a Com m on Language by Adrienne Rich, copyright © 1978
by W. W. Norton 8c Company, Inc.
Portions of this book have appeared in slightly altered form in New
Political Science, Sinister W isdom, M other Jones, and Ms.
For John Stoltenberg
In Memory of Rose Keller
Russian roubles walk in long lines.Tproverb
No two of us think alike about it, and yet it is clear to
me, that question underlies the whole movement,
and all our little skirmishing for better laws, and the
right to vote, will yet be swallowed up in the real
question, viz: Has woman a right to herself? It is very
little to me to have the right to vote, to own property,
etc., if I may not keep my body, and its uses, in my
absolute right. Not one wife in a thousand can do
that now.
Lucy Stone, in a letter to Antoinette Brown,
July 11, 1855
Sexual freedom, then, means the abolition of pros­
titution both in and out of marriage; means the
emancipation of woman from sexual slavery and her
coming into ownership and control of her own body;
means the end of her pecuniary dependence upon
man, so that she may never even seemingly have to
procure whatever she may desire or need by sexual
favors.
Victoria Woodhull, “Tried As By Fire;
or, The True and The False, Socially, ” 1874
He said that life is very expensive. Even women
are more expensive. That when he wants to f---------- a
woman they want so much money that he gives up
the idea.
I pretended I didn’t hear, because I don’t speak
pornography.
Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark
C o n te n ts
Introduction xiii
Preface lvi
1 Power 13
2 Men and Boys 48
3 The Marquis de Sade (1740-•1814) 70
4 Objects 101
5 Force 129
6 Pornography 199
7 Whores 203
Acknowledgments 225
Notes 227
Bibliography 239
Index 287
In tro d u c tio n
I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the
white man who expected to succeed in whipping,
must also succeed in killing me.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass
An American Slave Written by
Himself
In 1838, at the age of 21, Frederick Douglass became a
runaway slave, a hunted fugitive. Though later renowned
as a powerful political orator, he spoke his first public
words with trepidation at an abolitionist meeting—a meet­
ing of white people—in Massachusetts in 1841. Abolitionist
leader William Lloyd Garrison recalled the event:
He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and
embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensi­
tive mind in such a novel position. After apologizing
for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that
slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and
heart, he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in
his own history as a slave.... As soon as he had taken
his seat, filled with hope and admiration, I rose...
[and]... reminded the audience of the peril which
surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the
North, —even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the Pil­
grim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary