Analysis - "Feminism: An Agenda"

Mary Peck

Women's Studies  210

1/29/98

In her speech, "Feminism: An Agenda", Andrea Dworkin addresses many issues of concern to women today while defining the women's movement and its goals. She states that, like any political movement, the women's movement believes that there are certain painful situations that no person should be subjected to and that it is concerned with the belief that women are biologically inferior. She claims that feminism is a movement toward knowledge, which creates ideology and is against human suffering.

Dworkin goes on to explain in detail certain causes and effects of women's oppression. She presents the arguments for women's inferiority and rebuttals to these arguments, including the theory that God created woman to be submissive and inferior and the theory that it is by pure biology that women are these two things. Dworkin herself believes that women's oppression is caused by a lack of physical integrity for the female body. In this she includes sexual and reproductive integrity. I believe that this explains much in the way that conventional beauty standards oppress women through the gross industry of high fashion and modeling. Certain elements, or occurrences, are presented as important to understanding the condition of women. The first thing she describes is sexual assault by incest. Dworkin sees this factor as having a profound emphasis on women because as a little girl, the victim of incest experiences such terror, from which she will never fully recover, committed by someone she loves. She often loses the capacity to form attachments or have any self-respect.

Dworkin also sees rape, in particular marital rape, as an important factor in understanding a woman's position. She recounts how many men feel that it is impossible for a woman to be raped by her husband when in actuality a woman's home is one of the most dangerous places for her. She points out that the physical damage a woman endures from marital rape is no less than that of a woman raped by a total stranger. I cannot conceive of any violation more emotionally traumatic than to be raped, but to be attacked in such a manner by a man that you trusted enough to share a life and family with and have to live with that memory is unimaginable to me. I am appalled at the suffering that wives go through because their husbands believe that the certificate of marriage is a contract that binds their wives to giving up her rights to her body.

On the subject of rape Dworkin gives a shocking statistic on gang rapes. Close to half of all rapes committed are by three or more people. I must admit that this is something I knew nothing about. I never realized that gang rape was so prevalent and I cannot understand how a group of men can behave like this without even one speaking up to say that it is wrong. Dworkin brings up an interesting point here. She says that while not all men rape, all men benefit from rape. They benefit because the fear that is instilled in women keeps them out of the world that men are so dominant in. Forced sex often results in forced pregnancy, which brings up the topic of abortion. Dworkin says that the killing involved in abortion is killing by forced sex. I see this as a very empowering statement for women reclaiming their reproductive rights. Of course, she is not negligent in reminding us that abortion is only for those who can afford it.

Her final topic is prostitution, which is later linked to pornography, linked to freedom of speech. Dworkin sees women's forced economic dependence on men as prostitution within marriage. Though it is difficult to picture a woman as a prostitute for her husband, this is a valid analogy. If a woman has no means for economic independence, which was even more common fifteen years ago when this was written, she is given food, shelter, and perhaps a small income, for her services which go beyond cooking and cleaning. It is then shown how close prostitution and pornography are. Dworkin also shows us that pornography has spurred much violence toward women by portraying scenes where women enjoy being raped. Yet the First Amendment protects pornography. I find it incredible that something that has been shown to be detrimental to a woman's health can be protected in our constitution.

Though some of her ideas are radical, Andrea Dworkin presents a strong case for feminism. She clearly outlines what the movement is working against and what we must consider to understand women's condition.