What I learned today on DU:

[seabeyond]

120. This strong feminist voice was hardly a man-hater

Of all the lies told about feminists, one that always made me particularly angry and sad is the claim that Dworkin — and by extension, any woman with a similar critique of men's violence — hated men. Dworkin's prolific and powerful writings, particularly her critique of pornography, made her a target for some of the ugliest attacks leveled against any feminist over the past four decades, and the label man-hater was at the center of the campaign to marginalize her and her ideas.

how many times was i called a man hater yesterday. lmfao. thank you dworkin.

I am a man who has read all of Dworkin's books, and here is how it looks to me: I don't think she hated men. I think she loved us. I think Andrea Dworkin loved men because she loved people, and men are people — men are human beings — no matter how hard we sometimes seem to want to prove otherwise by our behavior.

"I don't believe rape is inevitable or natural. If I did, I would have no reason to be here. If I did, my political practice would be different than it is. Have you ever wondered why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It's not because theres a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence."

Dworkin wanted to help men claim our humanity, not just for our sake but because she wanted to stop men's violence against women. She wanted an end to the harassment, rape, battery, child sexual assault. And she knew that required men to change, to save ourselves. In that same speech, she challenged men to take that responsibility:

"[Women] do not want to do the work of helping you to believe in your humanity. We cannot do it anymore. We have always tried. We have been repaid with systematic exploitation and systematic abuse. You are going to have to do this yourselves from now on and you know it."

evil woman that she is. and so fuckin right on. and having men and boys i love, exactly what i have been saying for years. ya. a dworkinite here.

thanks x for kicking my ass in to finding out what the quote meant.

edit to add. this was another favorite talking dworkin. jensen.

http://www.andreadworkin.net/memorial/jenson.html