Tuesday, August 22, 2006

i just started heartbreak: the political memoir of a
feminist militant
by andrea dworkin.

"women in western societies now take the following oath: my veil was made by revlon, and i will not show my face; i believe in free speech, which includes the buying and selling of my sisters in pornography and prostitution, but if we call it 'trafficking' I'm against it - how dare one exploit third world or foreign or exotic women; my body is mostly skeleton and if anyone wants to write on it, they must use the finest brush and write the simplest of haiku; i have sex, i like sex, i am sex, and while being used may offend me on principle or concretely, i will fight back by manipulation and lies but deny it from kindergarten to the grave; i have no sense of honor and, girls, if there's one thing you can count on, you can count on that. if this were not the common, current practice - if triviality and deceit were not the coin of the female realm - there would be nothing remarkable in who i am or how i got the way i am."

"so here's the deal as i see it: i am ambitious - god knows, not for money; in most respects but not all i am honorable; and i wear overalls: kill the bitch. but the bitch is not yet ready to die. brava, she says, alone in a small room."

2 comments:

Andi said...

I really liked that book. While I disagree with Dworkin on a number of issues, it was a REALLY interesting read.

sojourness said...

yeah... i was wondering if showing excitement about the book would cast me as entirely in agreement with her views, which i am not, but i am seriously enjoying it.