Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin
"Intercourse" by Andrea Dworkin is a provocative examination of sexuality within a repressive cultural framework, specifically critiquing traditional gender roles and power dynamics in sexual relationships. Dworkin portrays modern American society as one where sex is often perceived as morally positive, yet she challenges the notion that sexual intercourse, defined strictly as vaginal penetration, is inherently fulfilling or egalitarian. Instead, she argues that it frequently reinforces a narrative of male dominance and female subservience, framing the act of intercourse as a hostile invasion that strips women of their individuality and sense of self.
Dworkin's analysis extends beyond heterosexual relationships to highlight that even in same-sex interactions, women may still objectify one another, perpetuating cycles of domination. Her work reflects on the concept of personal boundaries, expressing that true individuality is compromised when one's body is treated as a mere object for another's pleasure. Throughout "Intercourse," Dworkin delves into the complexities of female sexuality, scrutinizing societal norms that dictate acceptable sexual behavior and the implications these norms have on women's experiences and identities. This book invites readers to reconsider the deeper meanings behind sexual acts and the societal structures that shape them, making it a critical read for those interested in feminist thought and sexual politics.
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Subject Terms
Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin
First published: 1987
The Work
Intercourse, one of Andrea Dworkin’s most powerful books on sexuality in a repressive culture, is about self-disgust and self-hatred. Dworkin’s “Amerika” is the modern world, or rather, the world that lives within the modern American. In “Amerika,” sex is good and liking it is morally right. In “Amerika,” sex is defined solely as vaginal penetration. In “Amerika,” women are happy to be passive and accepting while their men are aggressive and demanding. Intercourse attempts to question the rigid sexual roles that define the male as literally and figuratively on top of the woman and the symbolic implications of sexual contact—entry, penetration, and occupation.
Intercourse, documenting a series of literary excerpts and comments by and for women, develops Dworkin’s theory that sexual congress is an act in which, typically, men rape women. The book’s theory is that because the penis of a man goes inside a woman during the sexual act, intercourse is a hostile act of occupation, ready to degenerate into gynocide and cannibalism. Dworkin describes a woman’s individuality as being surrounded by her body and bordered by her skin. The privacy of the inner self is essential to understanding exactly who one is. Thus, having no boundaries between one’s own body and the body of another makes one feel invaded and skinless. The experience of being skinless is the primary force behind “Amerika’s” sexuality, since “Amerikan” sexuality relies so heavy on the man being superior or on top of the woman.
Strictly speaking, however, it is not only the act of heterosexual penetration that causes one to lose one’s sense of individuality. In Intercourse, even lesbianism seems to be no answer to the repressive society that Dworkin describes. The “real privacy” of the body can be as violated by another woman’s objectification of her lover as it can be by a heterosexual rape. So long as women can stay outside each other’s skins, metaphorically speaking, then and only then will they escape sexual domination of one another. One of Dworkin’s earlier books, Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality (1974), describes heterosexual contact as being acceptable so long as men do not insist on the superiority of an erect penis. In Intercourse, even a flaccid member does not negate female suppression in the sexual act. Dworkin’s preoccupation is the obscenity of the ordinary; one finds oneself closely examining what one had originally thought to be harmless, even trivial.
Bibliography
Assiter, Alison. Pornography, Feminism, and the Individual. London: Pluto Press, 1989. Assiter dedicates two chapters to examining works by Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women and Intercourse. She argues that Dworkin’s rhetoric is impressive but that her theories are flawed, mainly because they rely on individual action for change and deny the need for collective responsibility.
Booker, M. Keith. Literature and Domination: Sex, Knowledge, and Power in Modern Fiction. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993. This text is for those well versed in literary criticism. Issues of domination are examined in works including Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955). Types of domination range from female-male relations to class relations.
Brittan, Arthur. Masculinity and Power. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Although making no reference to Intercourse, Brittan does mention two of Dworkin’s earlier works. This feminist author explores connections between masculinity and social and political power, what men could do about imbalances, and why they do so little.
Ferguson, Ann. Blood at the Root: Motherhood, Sexuality, and Male Dominance. London: Pandora, 1989. In this text, the author’s theory “weaves together . . . key insights of radical feminism, Marxism and Freudianism while avoiding some . . . problems.” Ferguson devotes six pages to an analysis of the Dworkin/MacKinnon antipornography ordinance, passed in Minneapolis and later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rosen, David. The Changing Fictions of Masculinity. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Like Dworkin, Rosen examines literature for what it can “tell about men.” Using an “Anglo-American feminist perspective,” he explores works from English literature, including Beowulf, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600-1601), John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674), and Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (1854), garnering stereotypes about masculinity in general rather than in female-male relationships.
Russell, Diana E. H., ed. Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography. New York: Teachers College Press, 1993. In this collection, many articles refer to Dworkin’s work on pornography. Some reactions are negative; most, however, are extremely positive. Although Intercourse is never referred to, here is a mostly appreciative audience for Dworkin’s ideas about pornography. Contains an extensive bibliography of feminist works.
Segal, Lynne. Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990. The author explores “masculinities” in the hope that understanding differences between men will assist in the “struggle for change” in male behavior toward women and one another with reference to women’s liberation and gay liberation. Segal refers to Dworkin and other radical feminists and finds their work lacking because of its emphasis on sexual power and the penis as the basis of male dominance.