Male dominance in society always means that out of public sight, in the private, ahistorical world of men with women, men are sexually dominating women.
Andrea DworkinRead
Women are an enslaved population - the crop we harvest is children, the fields we work are houses. Women are forced into committing sexual acts with men that violate integrity because the universal religion - contempt for women - has as its first commandment that women exist purely as sexual fodder for men.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the systemic oppression and objectification of women in society.
Andrea Dworkin's quote powerfully articulates the deep-seated misogyny that leads to the subjugation of women, portraying them as an enslaved group exploited primarily for reproduction and sexual gratification. It underscores the need for societal change by criticizing the pervasive contempt for women, which results in their dehumanization and reinforces harmful gender dynamics.
Themes
WomenOppressionMisogynySexualityChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about gender equality, one might quote this to stress the importance of women's rights.
More from Andrea Dworkin
All quotes →Romantic love, in pornography as in life, is the mythic celebration of female negation. For a woman, love is defined as her willingness to submit to her own annihilation.... The proof of love is that she is willing to be destroyed by the one whom she loves, for his sake. For the woman, love is always self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of identity, will, and bodily integrity, in order to fulfill and redeem the masculinity of her lover.
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I have been asked, politely and not so politely, why I am myself. This is an accounting any woman will be called on to give if she asserts her will.
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We are born into a world in which sexual possibilities are narrowly circumscribed. . . . We are programmed by the culture as surely as rats are programmed to make the arduous way through the scientist's maze, and that programming operates on every level of choice and action.
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Institutionalised in sports, the military, acculturated sexuality, the history and mythology of heroism, violence is taught to boys until they becomes its advocates.
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In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived. In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then. In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society. And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.
Andrea DworkinRead
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