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Intercourse

Andrea Dworkin,

Ariel Levy (Foreword by)

3.81 · Rating details · 1,486 ratings · 107 reviews

Andrea Dworkin, once called “Feminism’s Malcolm X,” has been worshipped, reviled, criticized, and analyzed-but never ignored. The power of her writing, the passion of her ideals, and the ferocity of her intellect have spurred the arguments and activism of two generations of feminists. Now the book that she’s best known for-in which she provoked the argument that ultimately ...more

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Paperback, 349 pages

Published November 7th 2006 by Basic Books (first published 1987)

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· 1,486 ratings · 107 reviews

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Oct 19, 2017 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-for-dmv-bookclub, nonfiction, own-physical, feminism

A radical feminist text that critiques how heterosexual sex often subjugates women within a patriarchal society. In the United States, sex is everywhere, yet a lot of us shy away from discussions about sex even when those discussions would bring great benefits. Andrea Dworkin does the opposite of shy away; she tackles sex head on, calling out how sexism affects sex to the detriment of many women. People think that Dworkin said that "all heterosexual sex is rape," when she said no such thing. Rat A radical feminist text that critiques how heterosexual sex often subjugates women within a patriarchal society. In the United States, sex is everywhere, yet a lot of us shy away from discussions about sex even when those discussions would bring great benefits. Andrea Dworkin does the opposite of shy away; she tackles sex head on, calling out how sexism affects sex to the detriment of many women. People think that Dworkin said that "all heterosexual sex is rape," when she said no such thing. Rather, she addresses how aspects of sexism seep into sexual relationships between women and men. For example, she analyzes sex in this passage:

"Intercourse is frequently performed compulsively; and intercourse frequently requires as a precondition for male performance the objectification of the female partner. She has to look a certain way, be a certain type - even conform to preordained behaviors and scripts - for the man to want to have intercourse and also for the man to be able to have intercourse. The woman cannot exist before or during the act as a fully realized, existentially alive individual."

I appreciate how Dworkin addresses objectification, pornography, and the politicization of women's bodies in Intercourse. She draws on a wide range of allusions to build her argument, ranging from Joan of Arc's refusal of submissive femininity, to the glorification of women's subordination to men in Dracula, to how writers construct sex in problematic ways like in Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata and much more. While this literature review did not always feel 100% coherent and cohesive, Dworkin fills her writing with passion and a sharp intelligence that cuts away at patriarchal BS. With great fire in her voice, she drives her message home: all heterosexual sex occurs within the context of male domination. We should pay attention to that.

Overall, a great book for those interested in radical feminism and understanding the ideas of an outspoken leader in the feminist movement. I deduct one start because sometimes Dworkin's prose felt overwrought or just too long, and also she could have been more intersectional in her approach. Otherwise, a fascinating book that addresses a topic we still encounter a lot in today's patriarchal society. ...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Zach rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone willing to consider the ideological consequences of what they do in the bedroom

Shelves: feminism, read-for-class

Yes, I'm a heterosexual man who read Andrea Dworkin, and I not only survived, but I also actually enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is that very little of what has been said about Dworkin and this book in the mainstream media is strictly true; she does not, for example, actually claim that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. In fact, that widely-reported reading in many ways just proves Dworkin's point. What she is arguing is that in our present society, the notion of heterosexual intercourse Yes, I'm a heterosexual man who read Andrea Dworkin, and I not only survived, but I also actually enjoyed it. The fact of the matter is that very little of what has been said about Dworkin and this book in the mainstream media is strictly true; she does not, for example, actually claim that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. In fact, that widely-reported reading in many ways just proves Dworkin's point. What she is arguing is that in our present society, the notion of heterosexual intercourse is so fully intertwined with patriarchal fantasies of domination, invasion, and conquest that we can scarcely imagine sex between men and women without it; if it seems like she's saying all sex is rape, that's only because she's asking us to imagine a different kind of sex entirely (something this book's fiercest critics seem to be incapable, or unwilling, of doing). "Intercourse," then, is about how sex has been imagined in (patriarchal) culture, primarily through literature, and the scope of texts she marshals is impressive in its scope and eclecticism: everything from Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" to Abe Kobo's "The Woman in the Dunes." Her conclusions are devastating enough to live up to their notoriety, but that doesn't invalidate them. This book is a challenge to rethink our relationships between sex and power, and as such, I think it deserves a lot more consideration than it's gotten. Dworkin would probably roll her eyes at the comparison, but to me it almost feels like a distant cousin of Foucault's History of Sexuality from an explicitly female and American perspective.

It's not a perfect book, of course. Dworkin's eclecticism is bound to be frustrating for those who (justifiably) would like a less sweeping analysis of patriarchal ideology: the fact that she's conflating European, American, and even Japanese literature from the 19th and 20th centuries certainly says something about the universality of misogyny, but it also threatens to dehistoricize it. Also, like many of her fellow second-wavers, Dworkin's more strident moments threaten to alienate the very women she's trying to uplift: I can imagine reading this as a woman who takes pleasure in being sexually submissive, for example, and being (again, justifiably!) insulted by Dworkin's unwavering characterization of such women as "collaborators." But hey, some stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and Dworkin wouldn't be Dworkin if she wasn't making sweeping claims or employing incisive, confrontational rhetoric. What's more important, for me at least, is that this book asks--indeed, demands answers to--questions that surprisingly few other thinkers, feminist or not, have been willing to ask; if we're going to talk about violence and inequality in the relations between men and women, then we need to consider the most intimate of those relations as well. Read this with an open mind and I guarantee, at the very least, that it will make you think. ...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Milo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: general-gender

After all of the hype I've heard about Dworkin, I found her book terribly mild to what I was expecting. I loved her style, though; blatant, angry, and poetic all at the same time.

I'm completely befuddled now about her supposed "man-hating" approach. This is what I usually heard from others who claimed to have properly read her, but I never saw the typographical proof. Perhaps I'm reading the wrong book?

As far as I can tell, Dworkin doesn't hate masculinity; she hates patr ...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Ben rated it it was amazing

Given its reputation, I was expecting (hoping for) something angrier and even more radical. This is mostly a very reasonable book.

Liberals refuse categorically to inquire into even a possibility that there is a relationship between intercourse per se and the low status of women.... What intercourse is for women and what it does to women's identity, privacy, self-respect, self-determination, and integrity are forbidden questions; and yet how can a radical or any woman who wanats freedom notdoesis/> ...more

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Oct 08, 2010 Heather rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Honestly, reading this book reminded me of looking at modern art or eating at one of those restaurants that puts half a grape and a squirt of ketchup on a giant plate, calling it cuisine. Everyone knows it's splattered paint and half a grape, but everyone pretends it's fine art and cuisine in order to show society they are smarter and more cultured than the average Joe.

This book is, quite frankly, drivel. I was expecting social commentary. Instead, I found mostly literary criticism. But, not ev Honestly, reading this book reminded me of looking at modern art or eating at one of those restaurants that puts half a grape and a squirt of ketchup on a giant plate, calling it cuisine. Everyone knows it's splattered paint and half a grape, but everyone pretends it's fine art and cuisine in order to show society they are smarter and more cultured than the average Joe.

This book is, quite frankly, drivel. I was expecting social commentary. Instead, I found mostly literary criticism. But, not even good literary criticism. Her writing is disjointed, flowery, and her ideas are poorly developed. I often found myself thinking (and saying out loud from time to time), "what the hell does that sentence even mean?" I wouldn't be surprised if Dworkin herself couldn't answer the question. She was riffing... ranting... splattering paint on canvas.

I was so excited to read this book.... the same sort of excited I become when I'm about to read a conservative Christian book about women pandering to and submitting to men. (See: "Fascinating Womanhood" by Helen Andelin & "Liberated Through Submission" by Bunny Wilson) These books are such great fodder for dinner discussions with my husband. It's fun to be shocked by inanity and dissect it with someone who sees the world the same way I do. But, alas, this book was more of a chore than a conversation starter.

Phew. I feel much better getting that out of my system.

I found much of what Dworkin said to be offensive and ridiculous. Especially ridiculous was her assertion that women have become collaborators in their own oppression. She asserts that women who enjoy men and sex have been brainwashed into accepting the male perspective on sex and sexuality. This is a perfect example of why I oppose feminist ideals. I do not see women as pathetic victims of their circumstance. Instead of seeing people who simply disagree, Dworkin sees captives. I often find that feminists have worse opinions of women than they claim men do... as is evident in Dworkin's work... not only in her assessment of women who disagree with her, but also her acceptance and appreciation for what Joan of Arc supposedly said of other women. If Dworkin believed what she claimed in the book, what does it say of her that she stands by someone who insulted the gender she is supposedly trying to shine the light of liberation upon? The portrait of women painted by every piece of this book is one of weakness and victim-hood. I would say Dworkin is as much a woman-hater as the men she takes to task in these pages.

The most offensive part of this book was Dworkin's comparison of the holocaust and sexual politics.

There is no analogue anywhere among subordinate groups to this experience of being made for intercourse: for penetration, entry, occupation. There is no analog in occupied countries or in dominated races or imprisoned dissidents or in colonized cultures or in the submission of children to adults or in the atrocities that have marked the twentieth century ranging from Auschwitz to the Gulag. There is nothing exactly the same, and this is not because the political invasion and significance of intercourse is banal up against these other hierarchies and brutalities. Intercourse is a particular reality for women as an inferior class; and it has in it, as part of it, violation of boundaries, taking over, occupation, destruction of privacy, all of which are construed to be normal and also fundamental to continuing human existence.

This is only one of many references Dworkin makes to the holocaust, including quotes from Hitler. One might try to assert that Dworkin was referring to only rape. But I believe that assertion would be a disingenuous one. Anyone who has read the book knows Dworkin makes no distinction between rape, prostitution and sex. Quite the contrary. Dworkin asserts that people who do make distinctions between those are collaborators to their oppression. In any case, Dworkin's choice to invoke the holocaust is offensive and should discredit anything she has to say.

Dworkin does have one thing in common with the authors I mentioned above (Wilson & Andelin). She took tiny nuggets of truth and wrapped them in layers of bullshit to justify her ignorant assertions. Yes, women have been mistreated in the past. Yes, there are many places in the world today where women continue to be mistreated. Yes, some men in "the developed world" hate women. Yes, some men in "the developed world" find women dirty and inherently inferior. Yes, some men misuse women sexually. But those things do not make truth of the drivel Dworkin offered up in "Intercourse." ...more

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Nov 21, 2013 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

It sounds cliche- but this book changed my life.
I recall making the decision to read it for the first time, knowing I would not be the same at its conclusion. As a liberal feminist, I was fully aware of the mythos surrounding Dworkin and what a derisive figure she was.
Suffice to say, at the end of Intercourse I realized that liberal feminism was simply re-branding womens oppression for convenience, and that liberation was not so easy. I was well on my way to becoming one of those difficult lad ...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Holly rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: sex positive feminists

Anyone who hates Dworkin should at least give this book a chance before forming an intractable opinion.

Merging feminist literary criticism with political polemic, Intercourse lays out a psycho-social-political analysis of heterosexual fucking, with chapters on Possession, Dirt, Law, Stigma, Virginity, Repulsion and Communion. Dworkin uses historical and literary texts to explore the meanings intercourse has for women and men, the ways in which women internalise male dominance through Anyone who hates Dworkin should at least give this book a chance before forming an intractable opinion.

Merging feminist literary criticism with political polemic, Intercourse lays out a psycho-social-political analysis of heterosexual fucking, with chapters on Possession, Dirt, Law, Stigma, Virginity, Repulsion and Communion. Dworkin uses historical and literary texts to explore the meanings intercourse has for women and men, the ways in which women internalise male dominance through sex, the use of rape and racial-sexualisation as a political weapon, and sex as redemption. The chapter on Virginity stands out as a loving ode to Joan of Arc’s militant defiance of traditional femininity: Dworkin contrasts Joan’s notorious virginity, a rebellion against women’s sexual servitude, with the descent into adultery which destroys Madame Bovary. Another notable chapter is Communion, in which she uses James Baldwin’s Another Country and Giovanni’s Room to explore emotionally powerful sex: “With this grace, fucking can be a communion, a sharing, mutual possession of an enormous mystery; it has the intensity and magnificence of violent feeling transformed into tenderness” (page 76).

Dworkin’s arguments in this book are often summarized as “all sex is rape,” a sloppy truncation of her complex, historical analysis of the ways gender constructs intercourse, and intercourse constructs gender. Dworkin never once claims that all sex is rape: she emphasizes the fact that heterosexual intercourse always takes place within a social context of male dominance. For example, “Most women are not distinct, private individuals to most men; and so the fuck tends towards the class assertion of dominance. Women live inside this reality of being owned and being fucked: are sensate inside it; the body learning to respond to what male dominance offers as touch, as sex, as love,” (p.83). Dworkin describes fucking as an social institution which perpetuates and protects patriarchy through asserting male ownership over women (male virility and female inferiority), and by regulating through punishment who can fuck who and how (the chapter on Law has a detailed explication of sodomy laws and prohibitions of homosexuality).

To characterize Dworkin as ‘anti-sex’ is grossly simplistic; rather, she locates her politics in an embodied critique of sexual power dynamics and constructions of gender, arguing that in a patriarchal society, female self-determination is always already shaped by male dominance. Therefore, what heterosexual sex means for and feels like to women must be understood as a product of centuries of patriarchal rule. Though marred as a biological essentialist by some critics, Dworkin’s actual analysis is more along the lines of poetic marxism: she writes lyrically about women’s experiences of fucking, grounded in the particular historical, social, political context of Western patriarchy. When Dworkin says, “There is never a real privacy of the body that can coexist with intercourse: with being entered…The thrusting is persistent invasion,” she is not describing what she sees as an essential, objective condition of being a woman, but rather she depicts the socially-inscribed ontology of femininity which has arisen from the context of male domination. Patriarchy needs to construct women as fundamentally different from men, so it emphasizes the penetrability of the vagina, and the female body’s lack of privacy, because men do not have vaginas and women do. Patriarchy also brutally demonizes the penetration of men, sodomy, because for men to be fucked the way women are fucked challenges this sexual power structure, the rigid dichotomy of gender.

Queer readers may find Dworkin’s focus on heterosexual sex rather narrowly normative, and indeed she fails to consider lesbian eroticism, or the subversion of queer identities, despite some discussion of gay sexuality. Her analysis relies on making a lot of generalizations about women and men’s interactions, mostly void of cultural specificity, which basically amounts to her universalising a white subject position. The only chapter which really acknowledges race and cultural difference is Dirt/Death, which connects narratives of feminine sordidness with constructions of racial inferiority used to condone violence against African-Americans and Jews. These narratives, perpetuated by dominant whites, portray all women, but particularly women of colour as inherently degraded and therefore rapable: “Racially motivated rape is considerably protected by the misogyny that finds the rape of women as such no atrocity at all” (pg.224) The fact that discussion of racial difference is limited to one chapter is problematic in a book which is supposed to consider intercourse ‘in general’; separating and containing her discussion of race this way reveals that the rest of her analysis is centered on white heterosexuality.

Stylistically, Dworkin has a tendency to repeat herself, belabour a point, and use a startling number of semi-colons. But while this book is limited in scope and subject position, it is still an important contribution to feminist theory as an analysis of heterosexuality, even if only to illuminate the historical development of radical feminist thought.

Here’s an essay critiquing the new foreword by Ariel Levy, arguing that her portrayal of Dworkin is anti-feminist: http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dwork...
...more

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Mar 16, 2014 Dylan Horrocks rated it really liked it

Shelves: sex

I went into this book expecting something far simpler: angry, caricatured polemic; easy to dismiss and depressing to read. Instead I found an extraordinary piece of writing that will echo through my head for some time to come - as a dark, apocalyptic vision of hyper-gendered sexuality that appalls and disturbs to the core, even as I struggle to reject it.

Difficult, confrontational, unpleasant, idiosyncratic, exasperating - but also full of beautiful, surging - almost chant-like - pro ...more

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Feb 09, 2011 JenniferRuth rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminism

This book has a serious reputation. It has been both derided and lauded. It's touted as the pinnacle of man-hating radical feminism. It is claimed that within the book, Dworkin says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. With a reputation such as that, how could I resist reading it?

First things first. Dworkin never says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. She just asks the question - how does our culture, our politics, our society, our feminism intersect with the act of in This book has a serious reputation. It has been both derided and lauded. It's touted as the pinnacle of man-hating radical feminism. It is claimed that within the book, Dworkin says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. With a reputation such as that, how could I resist reading it?

First things first. Dworkin never says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. She just asks the question - how does our culture, our politics, our society, our feminism intersect with the act of intercourse? Can intercourse ever be removed and set free from misogyny and patriarchy? A lot of people - don't like the fact that Dworkin dared to ask that question. But Dworkin does dare. Further than that, she refuses to mince her words or hide her anger. She does not make the journey into critically examining the act of intercourse easy and she will not take "just because" as an answer. The result is not pretty - sometimes it is horrendously upsetting. But it talks about the act of intercourse with a truth that you will not find anywhere else encompassing many, many topics and deep analysis.

This book will not, however, give you answers. Dworkin lays it out bare but she does not make it easy on her reader and tell you how it is. She gives you the information, the reasoning, the situation but she offers no conclusion. This is because the conclusion should be yours - especially with such an intimate act as intercourse. This is not a lecture, the book is an opportunity for you to look at the act of intercourse in a different way; for you to question the world and yourself. You can take that opportunity or you can reject it and learn nothing. I found that I did not agree with all of Dworkin's analysis but other parts of the book were moving, enlightening and powerful.

Overall though there is one part of Intercourse that is hardly ever mentioned by it's detractors (and I do wonder if these people have ever read it). Underlying all the anger is a pleading, a passion for what the physical intimacy of intercourse has the potential to be and a sadness for how often we fall short. If anything, the book is pro-sex. It's just anti-violence, -oppression and -bitterness. It calls for both men and women to have the freedom to be fully human. I think that is a message we all still need to hear. ...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Carmen rated it it was amazing

The woman was brilliant. A must-read.

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Sep 21, 2016 Girly Mcfemale rated it it was amazing

While less radical than its reputation, ("All heterosexual intercourse is rape" is a false quote often attributed to this work), it still reigns supreme as the most unapologetically radical, yet rational, book available in feminist literature. It belongs on the proverbial shelf of feminist Bibles along with Faludi's Backlash, Friedan's Feminine Mystique and Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex.

"Radical Feminism" isn't the dirty word the mainstream, and even those within the movement have made it out While less radical than its reputation, ("All heterosexual intercourse is rape" is a false quote often attributed to this work), it still reigns supreme as the most unapologetically radical, yet rational, book available in feminist literature. It belongs on the proverbial shelf of feminist Bibles along with Faludi's Backlash, Friedan's Feminine Mystique and Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex.

"Radical Feminism" isn't the dirty word the mainstream, and even those within the movement have made it out to be. Personally, I found Dworkin's unabashed nose-thumbing at the patriarchal status quo both admiring and refreshing among so very many more apologetic/inclusive/submissive works easily found within this genre. Andrea Dworkin could give a rat's ass if patriarchal society thinks well of her or validates her as a rational academic. And hot damn, that made me want to applaud her. Feminism is, was and always will be, Women's Advocacy. It is not a movement meant to include the upper members of the existing power structure. Dworkin nails this point in subtext on every page. She is fearless, unafraid of backlash, and willing to go ovaries out dissecting and criticizing patriarchal structures within popular culture and their effects on larger society's collective thought process with zero fucks given.

It's not every person's feminism, I don't even agree with many of her points personally, but it's a voice that needs to be heard and respected, if nothing else, for its outright disgust with man-pleasing. So many works within the genre attempt to bridge the gap between the sexes by pulling from familiar female tropes of submission and peace-making. You know the kind, arguments within the sect of "Humanism/Equalism" and acknowledgement of lesser "false rape" statistics in order to remain "fair" avoiding that awful unfeminine and unattractive judgment from society as being Radically Feminist, bra-burning, and ANGRY. Andrea Dworkin is VERY angry, and her supremely intelligent point of view, never, ever apologizes for it. Which, in my opinion, makes her a freaking hero.

This book is a giant FUCK YOU to the patriarchy, and I personally love that, and her, for its attitude. A million stars. ...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Chantay rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: People that use porn as a sexual format

Shelves: feminist-movement

Some would have you believe that Dworkin's book was all about the one quote she wrote "all rape is sex." Fully missing out on what exactly she meant or simply ignoring all the reasons she pointed out it every chapter. All sex is rape when you believe the person beneath, above or around you is nothing more then a inferior object to get you to an end goal and to be discard/picked up later at your whim. Refusing to see the person that you are entering as an equal to you. Someone that has needs, tha Some would have you believe that Dworkin's book was all about the one quote she wrote "all rape is sex." Fully missing out on what exactly she meant or simply ignoring all the reasons she pointed out it every chapter. All sex is rape when you believe the person beneath, above or around you is nothing more then a inferior object to get you to an end goal and to be discard/picked up later at your whim. Refusing to see the person that you are entering as an equal to you. Someone that has needs, that are on a greater plane then your own. Does turn sex into a form of rape.

Sex for women and men will forever be a complicated business. It is especially hard now. When women are not only expected to be the bearers of life. We also then expected to be sexual objects along with it (gossip magazines always picking at an actress weight after she gives birth)with no real sexuality beneath the veneer. Men are expected still as ever to be just the domineering type and pillage whatever is around them.

The words that Andrea has picked reminded me of what we view today. Instead of literary porn, we rely on visual porn. Porn is ever more prevalent today. It has wiggled it's way from the den's and back alley's into the mainstream. It is sold to us as a product and the lives of the women are not intricately viewed as being an actress playing apart. People watching it like to believe the actress thoroughly enjoys her job or why else would she consistently still be doing it; Compartmentalization at will... Elements of porn are now perfectly acceptable on prime time television.

We have now used the works of others as a guidebook for sex and our own sexuality. Completely losing the human factor. we have detached ourselves from people entirely. We tells ourselves to put the onus on the domineering factor of pleasure. To accept the other's submission, to revel it, even if it it debases or humiliates us altogether. Nothing about what is taught to this generation or the next is about harnessing and commanding to be pliable and understanding to the physical and emotional needs of the person they are with. Which is a frightening aspect. ...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Sarah Canavan added it

Recommends it for: the strong-stomached

I finally found a copy of this tonight. Unfortunately it smells really, really odd. I think it might be ...(sniffing it)..mothballs and cigarettes. Gross. I'm pretty interested in skimming through this, I've read a few excerpts and it's markedly extremist so I don't think I can viably get involved in it, but it's the versing in the extremes that makes me feel more grounded in my own version of middle-ground. Even with her eccentricism, Dworkin seems to have led a moving, impassioned and enlighte ...more

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Jan 15, 2011 C. rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminism, non-fiction, 2011

So, I guess this is the origin of the "all sex is rape" fallacy. Naturally, that's not what she's saying. But apart from the subject matter, which I think I might stay away from, what a strange, rambling book this is! I'm entirely unclear about why it began with five chapters of literary criticism, and whether this was supposed to illustrate the way the world was/is, or the way the world is perceived by men. At least she didn't try to draw sweeping conclusions based on the content of novels. But ...more

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Sep 10, 2014 Victoria rated it it was amazing

Shelves: feminism, sexuality, 42

It's impossible to truly love what you consider to be inferior to you.
Andrea Dworkin is one of those brilliant writers and thinkers I wish I discovered sooner. Doing so might have saved me so much time wasted on liberal-choice feminism.
And the main reason for that is "Intercourse" entices the reader (provided they came equipped with a mind open to it) to reconsider and analyze something too often taken for granted through and for its biology; along with the feelings we can't articulate but cli ...more

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Jun 25, 2016 Ronald Lett rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: gender-studies

This should be required reading in every course on sex education, especially as most such courses explicate the importance of safe sex, but never seem to touch on the mental attitudes that make up most of the sexual experience, leaving the student as easy prey for the implantation of third party ideas that are not much concerned with ethics (ie., internet pornography and almost any movie with traditional heterosexual gender roles).

In short, the author took all the vague ideas that were troublin ...more

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Dec 11, 2007 Kirk rated it really liked it

Shelves: sentimental-faves

I've been trying to read/reread this book since 1989. It took me seventeen years to really get through it and appreciate it---although, I've always wanted to appreciate it. It took me that long to understand it---or at least to feel confident enough to say I understood it. I think it's a great lesson for men to submit (!) to an argument like this, which, despite Dworkin's detractors, ISN'T easy to summarize. Just to be clear: Dworkin isn't saying that any heterosexual sex is de facto rape. That' ...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Varina rated it it was amazing

This was probably one of the most challenging and inspiring books I have read in awhile, and while I did not necessarily agree with everything in it, every argument did give me something to think about and wrestle with. The writing is also incredible; Dworkin's writing cuts to the bone of every issue and is savagely beautiful. I would recommend it to anyone who really wants to think deeply about patriarchy and violence against women (with the proviso that she uses pretty rough language)

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Aug 05, 2019 Melissa Stacy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, women-s-history, real-life-monsters, favorites, writing, racism, women, 2019-reads, books-that-make-life-worth-living, religion

Throughout my teenage and adult life, I have loved two books above all others: "The God of Small Things," by Arundhati Roy (1997), and "The English Patient," by Michael Ondaatje (1992).

I never thought I would read something so good that it toppled my two favorite books from first place.

But Andrea Dworkin's stunning nonfiction book, "Intercourse," published in 1987, is even better than my most-beloved books of all time.

It's no wonder that people slandered this book when it was publi ...more

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May 19, 2017 Anastasia Sijabat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"Intercourse" is a feminist classic and is Andrea Dworkin's most notorious book. The book came to save me in the time I needed it the most.

Unlike Millett's "Sexual Politics", "Intercourse" is a bitter realisation that we women would never possess an equal status with men in regard to our sexual activities. Dworkin argued why female inferiority in terms of sex inheres in the nature of coitus itself, which makes every relationship we have with men unequal to begin with. From what I con ...more

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Jul 13, 2016 Clarissa Littler rated it liked it

I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars but that doesn't seem feasible.

So first off, I think Intercourse is worth reading. I think it's a solid book in a number of ways, and in terms of actual criticisms of theory the main one I have is that it handles intersections of race and feminism a bit oddly. I was put off by the attempt to argue that the oppression of women is somehow more foundational than racial oppression. There were a few moments that seemed like a fanciful way of saying "look I kno ...more

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Feb 25, 2017 Willa Grant rated it really liked it

I originally got this book because it was referenced in a book about virgin martyrs. Andrea Dworkin had the ability to correctly see the realities of being female both historically & modernly. This book made me sad, angry & righteous and has touched on things I have observed & felt all my adult life & succinctly expressed what I have experienced. Dworkin's work is not light reading, it requires that we park our defenses both external & internal & to really LOOK at our liv ...more

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Nov 17, 2017 Sapphire rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2017, radical-feminism, non-fiction, feminism

This book is a series of thought-provoking questions, ones I wish I could have read when I was much younger (excerpts of it would have done me well in Sex Ed). Radical, unapologetic, and bold, the first half of the book is mainly literary criticism (which was fascinating, but the writing is a bit disjointed for my taste), while the latter half is an absorbing political analysis. I found the last two chapters especially captivating, especially the last few pages of Occupation/Collaboration.

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Jan 22, 2009 Rowan rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008

Far more even-handed than I would have been led to believe. Its elliptical style can be a little difficult to access, and much of the information is rather cherry-picked to make points. However, this aside, the points are important and extremely valid in today's society.

Clearly grossly misinterpreted by would-be followers on a level unlike anything that comes to mind other than the Bible.

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Jun 13, 2013 Dave rated it really liked it

This book opened my eyes and introduced me to the idea of literary criticism. It's safe to say it was one of the most influential books I have ever read.

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Nov 10, 2018 Yen Ba rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminist, favorites

Devastating. I don't want to summarize Dworkin for fear that I would add to the rampant misunderstanding around what she has written and said. To avoid stating her claim, I would delineate broadly that Intercourse is about having intercourse—that is, penile-vaginal, heterosexual, penetrative sex—in the patriarchy: what it means to have intercourse, how intercourse regulates and how intercourse is regulated, how the private and the political cannot be separated. Dworkin not only thinks with a razor-edged mi ...more

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Dec 01, 2013 Evelyn Woagh rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2014, my-actual-bookshelf

After waiting too long and expecting too much, I was thoroughly disappointed to find this book is extremely limited in any ideological benefit to my perspectives, filled with problems, and lacking in any solutions. While I will keep it and my edits/highlights as a form of reference for specific matters, I can say that this book suggests I'm better off writing my own perspective rather than expecting enlightenment from others.

While Dworkin has some powerful wordplay in describing her After waiting too long and expecting too much, I was thoroughly disappointed to find this book is extremely limited in any ideological benefit to my perspectives, filled with problems, and lacking in any solutions. While I will keep it and my edits/highlights as a form of reference for specific matters, I can say that this book suggests I'm better off writing my own perspective rather than expecting enlightenment from others.

While Dworkin has some powerful wordplay in describing her thesis, she limits herself to referencing and quoting creepy authors, in much the same way a college education typically does. Her class position puts this book in the same senseless ideological nothingness that term papers do with 'works cited'. It took nearly 200 pages before she started talking about the subject primarily from her own perspective, and by then it seemed incessant and overwrought with fixative conclusions rather than political radicalism. Even in the few moments she wrote things herself rather than pasted quotes, they were so few and far between, and so erratic and inconsistent, that there were many moments I had trouble continuing. I nearly stopped reading completely for this and multiple other reasons.

Firstly, she goes on a cissexist diatribe suggesting the need for ideological and societal improvement, whilst barely making any point clear or direction vivid. She mistakes sex-assignment and socialization for gender (which has a significant effect on her cissexism), and her repetitive and graphic depictions of what intercourse is, are unnecessary, gross, obnoxious, and obsessive. Dworkin confuses fixation for political dissidence.

Her description of the way of things, when not intensely graphic, is so sarcastic as to convolute her disagreement with that of the way of things, further convoluted by the referential treatment she makes for using others' works to make her unapparant point rather than using her own critical voice and observations. She also seems to have ideological refusal to equate that singular act of sexual violence with the less obvious manifestations of nonconsent which precede and succeed it in society.

To emphasise further, her writings are not about her attempt to fully formulate the criticism against the societal concept of sex in a violent society being sexual violence. Instead, she incessantly quotes and references ad nauseum, other works written by other people. I don't care about what sexually-violent books she has read. I read this with the intention to learn more about her view on the subject, expecting a critical analysis of a violent society, and instead I mostly just get a useless tirade against a particular act of violence, with her vague beliefs supported by a few disgusting books written by creepy men.

There were also some moments it seemed the creepiness of these authors has infiltrated her own perspective. She seems to imply, in multiple sections in this book, that the sexually violent behaviour of adult women toward non-adult males is a result of the sexually violent behaviour of adult males. As a believer in not sympathising with perpetrators and their potential past victimhood to the point of erasing another person's survival, and a supporter of the concept that any violent and coercive person with genitals has the capacity to be sexually-violent, I find this implication highly disagreeable, highly incapacitating to the destruction of nonconsent culture and all its sexualised violence.

Finally, she uses the r-word and similar words so often as to become a meaningless gimmick, incessant in what seems like a tic or tourettes. She misses the point of criticising and destroying nonconsent culture as a whole. And in so doing, I am doubly frustrated considering she suggests no alternative ways of life, no suggestions as to how to continue on in resistance. She uses atrocity propaganda to make her point, doesn't ever make her point, and ends abruptly. ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Louise Hewett rated it it was amazing

It took me about 25 years to be in the right space to read Intercourse, having done reading and reflection and experienced some of life to be able to understand the concepts and realities she discussed in the book. I can imagine why some people would be reactionary and frankly, frightened by some of her statements / suggestions, because they challenge the basic condiioning we receive whilst living in the male dominated dominator culture, all variations of which essentially exhibit the same thing ...more

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Dec 10, 2015 Annie rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction, in_english, read-in-2016

This book was on top of my to-read list since finishing John Stoltenberg's essays Refusing to be a Man, which deeply challenged my views on gender dynamics of domination, especially as expressed through sexuality. I thought Intercourse would enable me to deepen these reflexions. I was utterly disappointed: I did not find the social science reasoning I was expecting, but instead a collection of drabbles on various pieces of literature written by men, without any convincing analysis. Male authors ...more

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May 23, 2008 brian rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sex-and-or-death, fem-studies

"...fucking, in which both the man & the woman experience maleness, essentially demands the disappearance of the woman as an individual; thus, in being fucked, she is possessed: ceases to exist as a discrete individual: is taken over.
The man is not possessed in fucking even though he is terrified of castration...even though he is terrified of never getting his cock back because she has engulfed it inside her, and it is small compared with the vagina around it...he is not possessed even thou ...more

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About Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin

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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 ...more

Books by Andrea Dworkin

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Quotes from Intercourse

“Being female in this world means having been robbed of the potential for human choice by men who love to hate us. One does does not make choices in freedom. Instead, one conforms in body type and behavior and values to become an object of male sexual desire, which requires an abandonment of a wide-ranging capacity for choice...

Men too make choices. When will they choose not to despise us?” — 54 likes

“How can anyone love someone who is less than a full person, unless love itself is domination per se?” — 33 likes

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