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Sex and Violence
John met her in 1974, when he was 29 and she 27, and he fell in love. They've lived together almost since that time. She is fighting for the recognition and consequent abolishment of violence against women; including in the home, on the streets and in pornography. She researched pornography - violent depictions of women in magazines, books and film, including Asian women strung from trees; women hung from doorways; and 'Holocaust pornography' - for several years and has been called as an expert witness in court cases. Some things John admires her recognition of multiple sexualities - as many sexualities as there are humans; and her courage not only in her thinking, but in researching and publishing her findings . She is Andrea Dworkin. With respect to pornography in particular, her work has received widespread criticism: By mothers - "women are old enough to look after themselves, she should be working against child pornography"; by capitalists "she's trying to stop free trade"; by pornographers "she harms freedom of speech"; by consumers "the women get paid"; by liberals "men also are exploited in the sex industry"; by pragmatists - "that's life, there's nothing you can do about it"; and even by wankers "you want to stop us having fun". I won't consider the personal attacks. To take the above criticisms in turn; firstly, children already have protection not only under the law but because of the strength of public opinion. Public opinion considers women 'fair game' because they're adult. As to the second point, the answer is 'yes, when it harms women'. Taking the third point, pornographers tried to cite the right to free speech to enable them to publish porn, including gagged women, but, as Dworkin pointed out in court, whose free speech? Women are being mis-represented in pornography as enjoying, needing, asking for and submitting to mistreatment, including mutilation and even death. It's not a case of free speech but of censorship: the gagged woman has been censored and objectors are censored, being dismissed as 'authoritarian' and labelled 'pro-censorship'. As to pay received by workers in the sex industry, women are by far the lowest paid. The fortunes are made by the producers. And yes, men do get exploited in the sex industry, too, but that doesn't negate Dworkin's argument that we need to stop violence against women. As for shrugging and saying "that's life" yes, it is life, unfortunately. People have hard lives, boring or stressful jobs or are jobless, but a man can access pornography, see some woman more powerless than he is, and take great pleasure in it, schadenfreude - experiencing a thrill of joy at others' misfortunes. And in that frame of mind he obtains sexual relief. People often criticise Dworkin, but few help address the problem she has named. Pornography is not part of sex, it's part of violence. By sex, I mean an intimate action or thought whose both intended and usual outcome is sexual gratification or pleasure. By pornography, I mean a commercial enterprise the aim of which is the maximum profit for the owner of the finished goods - up the ante and more money can be made. Pornography is sold to us in the same way as most 'stuff'-we-never-knew-we-wanted is - by marketing; by creating a need that wasn't there, and by making us feel inadequate and incomplete without it. Sex is a need, yes, but we do not 'need' pornography to fill it. The socially acceptable and promoted sexual 'standard' is intercourse (ie male-female, penis thrusting in vagina until male ejaculation) and many people's imagination and self-knowledge is stunted by trying to measure themselves against this 'norm'. Shere Hite has pointed out that, historically, intercourse was only one of many socially acceptable sexual acts until, in one tribe, intercourse became promoted - and all other acts denigrated - for the purposes of both increasing the reproductive rate and giving a sense of 'specialness' to that particular tribe. This restriction on men's and women's sexual behaviour by means of social control and self-policing continues to the present day through those same Judeo-Christian mores. Further, through her scientific surveys, Shere Hite proved that, although the 'norm' says that men orgasm through penetration and subsequent thrusting and women orgasm by being penetrated; when they masturbate, the majority of men prefer to use friction (eg rubbing a fist up and down over the penis) rather than by penetration and thrusting, whilst the majority of women do not orgasm through intercourse at all . We (everyone) could actively explore our own unique sexualities and discover what suits us best. To further explore your capacity for pleasure, try "Sex for One" (the artwork for this article - regrettably defaced here due to Draconian UK censorship laws - is taken from that book) or "Femalia" and choose from the latter's bibliography and accompanying Down There Press/Yes Press Books booklist. Let's consider three other 20th Century innovators. Firstly, Wilhelm Reich (died in prison, 1957 in the 'Land of the Free') discovered that in an authoritarian upbringing, forbidden feelings and impulses do not disappear but become thwarted. Secondary feelings (eg of bitterness and resentment) and impulses (eg to hurt or strike out) develop. The resultant ill-effects on society Reich termed the emotional plague . As a remedy he prescribed self-regulation , where sexual activity is determined by the individual and not by internalised moralistic strictures (eg, 'masturbation is wrong') or by social pressures (eg 'you're not a real man/woman if you don't experience/enjoy intercourse'). Secondly, John Lennon (assassinated, 1981, U$A) proposed "All You Need is Love". Thirdly, Valerie Solanas (died homeless, 1988, San Francisco ) advocated that we "overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation" to provide support and freedom for individuals and communities. Well, OK, she did also think that in order to end the submission of women we need to eradicate men but I, along with Dworkin, do not agree with her on this. Solanas was raped as a child by her father and this influenced her views. Pornography hasn't made us more relaxed and open about sex, it's made us more salacious. People are scandalised but titillated by others who appear sexually fulfilled. In England, May 2002, news of the war was swept off the front page for an exposé of a man and woman who had had sex. In the 1960s there was some pretence that such invasion of private lives was necessary because of the risk of blackmail, or loss of state secrets. Now, no explanation is proffered. It is printed because it will, by exploiting both the emotional plague and schadenfreude, sell papers. Pornography hasn't made us better informed about sex, either, as it perpetuates intercourse as the sexual 'norm'. Until the advent of an anarchist society, what can we do to begin to halt violence against women? As a small start, we could DIY. By DIY (do-it-yourself) I mean create your own erotica (with camcorder, camera or sketchbook). Gloria Steinem distinguishes between pornography and erotica: "Perhaps one could simply say that erotica is about sexuality, but pornography is about power and sex-as-weapon - in the same way we have come to understand that rape is about violence, and not really sexuality at all". If we DIY in this way we no longer need pornography. We would effectively boycott it. Some of you may have noticed that I answered all the criticisms listed against Dworkin above, bar one. That's right - the one by the wankers who said she wants to stop them having fun. I'll deal with that point now. I'm a wanker and I don't want to stop having fun. But I'm also against pornography. There is a correlation between sexual fantasies and the reality of women's standing in the porn industry, the sex trade and in everyday life. In addition to the long-term recommendations above (DIY, boycotting pornography, self-regulation), I propose we all do something right now to set us on the path to s/hedonism. In June 2002 in England, the official Golden Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II included a 'musical beacon' where Lennon's song "All You Need is Love" (mentioned above) was initiated in Slough, with the chorus taken up by other groups across the nation and subsequently abroad - an act of informality unheard of during her Silver Jubilee. Your Majesty, it was a spiffing idea. But let's go one better. How about an 'orgasmal beacon' where orgasms begin from us and radiate across the universe? So put this aside for a while, or use the illustrations provided, and join in, either singly or with friends/lovers, and let's all practice some self-love. Go on, you know you want to. Those of us who are multi-talented could even try singing, simultaneously, "All You Need is Love". JOY WOOD
1 Dworkin, Andrea "Life and Death. Unapologetic writings on the continuing war against women" UK: Virago 1997 2 Stoltenberg, John "Living with Andrea Dworkin", Lambda Book Report May/June 1994, reprinted at www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/LivingWithAndrea.html 3 Hite, Shere "Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change" UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd 1993 4 Dodson PhD, Betty "Sex for One. The Joy of Selfloving" New York: Three Rivers Press 1996 5 Blank, Joani (Editor) "Femalia", San Francisco: Down There Press 6 Reich, Wilhelm "The Mass Psychology of Fascism" London: Souvenir Press (E&A) Ltd 1972* 7 Reich, Wilhelm "The Sexual Revolution. Towards a Self-Regulating Character Structure" New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1974 8 Muscio, Inga "Cunt. A declaration of independence" Seal Press 1998 9 Solanas, Valerie "SCUM Manifesto" Phoenix Press** 10 Steinem, Gloria "Erotica and Pornography: A Clear and Present Difference" in Take Back the Night Laura J Lederer (Editor), New York: William Morrow 1980 11 with acknowledgement to the fantasy US-millennium celebrations of Betty Dodson, op cit
Other reference books not previously mentioned: Bright,
Susie, "Susie Sexperts Lesbian Sex World" San Francisco: Cleis Press
1998 Stoltenberg,
John, "The End of Manhood, Parables on Sex and Selfhood" UCL Press 2000
Short, Clare, "Dear Clare…. This is what women feel about Page 3" Radius London 1991
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