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Woman Hating
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Dworkin examines the place and depiction of women in fairy tales and pornography (focusing on the French erotic novels Story of O and The Image and the magazine Suck). She then looks at the historical practices of Chinese foot binding and Medieval European witch burning from a radical feminist perspective. The book's final section discusses the concept of androgyny within
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Paperback, 224 pages
Published
December 1st 1991
by Plume
(first published 1974)
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Showing 1-30
At the age of 22, decades ago, I read this book, and was amazed. In particular, Dworkin's description of global woman hating cultural practices such as foot binding and witch hunting made a vivid impression upon me. She tied together history and culture to expose patriarchy as a negative anti-life power dedicated to its own perpetuation. Though I had read Millett, Freidan, de Beauvoir, Solanas, Morgan, Brownmiller, and many others during the early seventies, the force of Dworkin's arguments reac
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sisters, give yourself some room while reading this one. youll be mad. itll happen.
What first struck me while reading this was the realization that, despite what most people say about her, Andrea Dworkin was not "crazy" while writing it. It's hard to argue with her thesis: Western and Eastern civilization and culture, as a matter of course, operated on the degradation and villainization of women, from fairy tales to marrying off your daughters for money to impossible demands for beauty. Men needed women to fuck and make children, and a system was in place to keep them in their
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I wish I'd read this when I was sixteen. For that matter I wish every young woman could.
I agree with most of what Dworkin says here, and it has been important for my ideological and perceptive development. It's also great that she's at least one radical feminist who isn't transfobic. I agree with most of radical feminism beside that major point and a few others.
Unfortunately, as with anyone, I have my disagreements. For one, she gets academic in one chapter, reminding me of what I disliked most about Intercourse. She made far too much reference to a couple of creepy and ...more
Unfortunately, as with anyone, I have my disagreements. For one, she gets academic in one chapter, reminding me of what I disliked most about Intercourse. She made far too much reference to a couple of creepy and ...more
I had this book forever and finally got around to reading it. Of course I wish I'd read it sooner. The most amazing thing about Woman Hating is that everything Dworkin has to say about women is just as true today, in 2008, as it was when the book was published in 1974. Sure, some things have gotten better for women but other things have remained the same. Sexism is rampant in U.S. society today. Entertainment, music, fashion and so much else contiue to fly whatever flag sells their product while quiet
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Everything I even thought I knew about Andrea Dworkin was wrong. I read this book, intrigued to know more about this feminist who seemed to be either loved or hated by so many. What I found was a passionate and painful book about what women (and trans people even) suffer in this world. It was full of, not ridiculous or outlandish leaps, but a true love of women and a desire for their liberation. It was an honest and aggressive attack on the horrible things women experience in this world, radical
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I was hesitant to read anything by Andrea Dworkin because people in liberal feminist circles talked about how she was a bad and mean radical feminist . . . and that was really dumb of me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it gave me a lot to think about. She really does not pull any punches when discussing the hatred of women in society. I will definitely be reading more of her books.
This was a great eye-opener for me. I hadn't considered matters from this point of view - probably, I hadn't considered anything at all except in a most superficial way.
What sort of crack was Dworkin smoking when she wrote this book? It was her first publication, but that's surely no excuse. She makes some valid points about how misogynist our American society has been/is/can be, then goes on to say we as humans should be so free that we should be able to have sex with anyone we want, regardless of their age or even species. A lot of random ideas thrown together that make absolutely no sense and are, many of which, utterly horrifying.
Andrea Dworkin's first published work of nonfiction, "Woman Hating," (1974), is a concise study of a variety of topics. The misogyny of fairy tales, Chinese foot-binding, and the slaughter of innocent women accused of being "witches" by the Christian Church, are succinctly examined in this text. Dworkin also provides a literary analysis of some famous works of pornography, including "The Story of O."
The last part of the book is an examination of androgyny, both in the scientific biol ...more
The last part of the book is an examination of androgyny, both in the scientific biol ...more
The majority of the book is brilliant and well-articulated; the sections on fairytales, pornography, foot-binding, witch-burning are so strong, both fascinating and horrifying. She really captures something about how women are constructed through mythology, and how that in turn is played out through major misogynistic practices, cross-culturally. Compelling, griping, illuminating, and a quick read; couldn't ask for more. Until, unfortunately, the last section, which felt like a chapter torn out
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This is essential radical feminist reading but also a really good example of how we have to look at second wave texts critically instead of treating them as gospel. Much of this book is illuminating, but the conclusions she draws in the last chapter are very troubling & underexplained, and I do not believe overall indicative of how her beliefs developed. I would recommend this book for baby radfems both as a ecstatic primer to the horror & reach of patriarchy and as a wake up call to the
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one of the best books I have ever read. It is a damning expose of patriarchy and all its machinations. Those who are not interested in critical thinking will criticize the form (the repetition) and not really make an attempt to delve into why they therefore dislike the content. Hint: there's not as much repetition as they claim. It's an elegantly written book and very hard to put down.
Mostly ok but then in the last chapter she says we have to get over incest??? OK WHY??????
This one's a real mixed bag, I thought. Her strengths definitely lie in literary analysis and interesting writing. She's spot on when she talks about witch hunts and foot-binding. What she often excels at is presenting horrific facts in quite a dispassionate fashion, which for me increases their impact.
The "facts" about fairies... well, I'll have to read up on what was accepted at the time, but right now I have no idea where she got that from. I found the second half of the book started to brea ...more
The "facts" about fairies... well, I'll have to read up on what was accepted at the time, but right now I have no idea where she got that from. I found the second half of the book started to brea ...more
I loved this and I'm glad I read it, it's really powerful to read a feminist book that doesn't back down and a direct response to all of the pseudo-feminist ideas floating around today. Dworkin is super smart and such a bad-ass, I really loved reading her. She really had me up until that very last section on taboos... that was really crossing the line, in my opinion and I'm confused by the purpose it served. It seems like her argument about androgyny/the social construct of gender would've come
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My feelings regarding this book are.. confused. I consider myself a feminist for many reasons, and the ideology behind this text is important to me, but the structure and arguments of this book were not very intriguing. I found her arguments weak and ill-refined, with some relation to her cause, but not much. A lot of the chapters made me feel uncomfortable (in all the wrong ways), such as her aggressive opinions of incest and bestiality. However, I support this text and its pursuit for a more e
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I loved the first 3/4 of the book and was impressed by Dworkin the literary critic and historian. The ending, while well intended, was a bit of a train wreck. I didn't need to read about Julian Beck's cross dressing hard on (why is she so obsessed with him?) nor to see child abuser John Money's discredited gender frameworks used in ernst. The statements on parthenogenesis are completely false. No viable fetus has ever resulted from one person alone.
A lot of really fascinating ideas, commentary, and history. The first three parts of the book — on fairy tales, pornography, and footbinding / witch-burning were both gripping and horrifying. I love how clever and perfect Dworkin's prose is; in hardly any words, she is biting and exact. I was not such a fan of the last part of the book, on androgyny, and the pro-heterosexuality, pro-incest, and pro-zoophilia utopia she describes. Interesting thoughts on punctuation in the angry afterword.
Feb 22, 2008
Anthony D'Juan Shelton
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
open minds.
Recommended to Anthony by:
my Mother
i was a kid when i read this. it scared the hell out of me, and i haven't read it since. but i am going to go back to it soon. Dworkin was interesting. her views were WAY OVER the top and left no room to be misunderstood. it's clear. she hated the way men treated women and was in search of revenge (her and Valerie Solanos).
By Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) - American feminist, author and outspoken critic of sexual politics, particularly of the victimising effects of pornography on women.
Her best book. The language is amazing, a rhetorically powerful argument about how the myths and ideals of femininity are harmful.
Aug 14, 2013
James
added it
Andrea Dworkin is a better writer than you and all you have is that you're thinner
Weird in some parts, loved the others. I didn't understand the chapters concerning androgyny and the explanations on incest and bestiality. But an excellent radical feminist tome, regardless.
Just finished reading
I like to read things espousing extreme ideologies and have found some of the radical feminist stuff to be up the there with craziest.
In a nutshell she hates Fairy Tales and Christianity. Somehow Islam is not mentioned once in this tome of feminal oppression documentation. The chapters on Chinese foot binding and middle ages witch hunts from Christians were actually interesting and well written. The insanity of the foot binding reminds me of the insan ...more
I like to read things espousing extreme ideologies and have found some of the radical feminist stuff to be up the there with craziest.
In a nutshell she hates Fairy Tales and Christianity. Somehow Islam is not mentioned once in this tome of feminal oppression documentation. The chapters on Chinese foot binding and middle ages witch hunts from Christians were actually interesting and well written. The insanity of the foot binding reminds me of the insan ...more
This book is awesome if you never read the last chapter of it. The last chapter makes no sense and is quite disturbing to be quite honest, but the rest of the book is brilliant.
Finally. I feel like my eyes are bleeding. There was one useful chapter, the one in which she criticized Greer and the sexual politics of her contemporary leftists. The rest was a) dated b) just flat out BAD. Badly researched, bad science, bad sources. Intercourse is worth reading if you're interested in Dworkin. This is most definitely not, unless you like being told about outdated myths about matriarchal neolithic religion surviving into the middle ages and virgin birth being actually being a
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amazing. this cuts right to the heart of the issue with powerful language. a bit painful to read at times as it forces us to face just how much misogyny pervades our culture, but ultimately necessary to read. dworkin lays out the facts and describes the situation as the base for her conclusion which she establishes at the end of each section where everything seems to come together perfectly.
one problem i have with it is the "androgyny" section where everything seems to get a bit mudd ...more
one problem i have with it is the "androgyny" section where everything seems to get a bit mudd ...more
This is one of those texts that's so foundational to contemporary feminist discourse that parts of it may feel tired and obvious. Don't let that hold you back from reading it if you're working on developing your analysis; it will definitely help you ground yourself.
Some sections get hung up on gendered oppression through the lens of CASAB. Some of it is legit, some of it could stand to be a little bit more expansive (and probably would be if it were written today). To get the most ou ...more
Some sections get hung up on gendered oppression through the lens of CASAB. Some of it is legit, some of it could stand to be a little bit more expansive (and probably would be if it were written today). To get the most ou ...more
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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
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
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“Once upon a time there was a wicked witch and her name was
Lilith
Eve
Hagar
Jezebel
Delilah
Pandora
Jahi
Tamar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called goddess and her name was
Kali
Fatima
Artemis
Hera
Isis
Mary
Ishtar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called queen and her name was
Bathsheba
Vashti
Cleopatra
Helen
Salome
Elizabeth
Clytemnestra
Medea
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called witch and her name was
Joan
Circe
Morgan le Fay
Tiamat
Maria Leonza
Medusa
and they had this in common: that they were feared, hated, desired, and worshiped.”
—
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Lilith
Eve
Hagar
Jezebel
Delilah
Pandora
Jahi
Tamar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called goddess and her name was
Kali
Fatima
Artemis
Hera
Isis
Mary
Ishtar
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called queen and her name was
Bathsheba
Vashti
Cleopatra
Helen
Salome
Elizabeth
Clytemnestra
Medea
and there was a wicked witch and she was also called witch and her name was
Joan
Circe
Morgan le Fay
Tiamat
Maria Leonza
Medusa
and they had this in common: that they were feared, hated, desired, and worshiped.”
“As individuals, we experience ourselves as the center of whatever social world we inhabit. We think that we are free and refuse to see that we are functions of our particular culture. That culture no longer organically reflects us, it is not our sum total, it is not the collective phenomenology of our creative possibilities—it possess and rules us, reduces us, obstructs the flow of sexual and creative energy and activity, penetrates even into what Freud called the id, gives nightmare shape to natural desire.”
—
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