Feminist Andrea Dworkin Dead at 58

RIP, Andrea Dworkin. I left the following message on the Memorial Message Board at Dworkin's website, and I'm placing it here because it is how I feel, and I do not have more to add. If Dworkin's work meant something to you, I hope you'll consider leaving a message. 

I read Dworkin's Pornography with great interest many years ago while researching my thesis, and I was struck by Dworkin's fierce eloquence and strength of conviction on such a polarizing subject. I believe she was, above all, one who held us to be our better selves in defense of others, and not just when we felt like it. The resistance she faced speaks volumes about how precious, how guarded, and how fraught our most private moments are.

I am sad to hear of Andrea's passing, and I send my deepest condolences to those who loved her. I wondered many times if we would have had her voice if she had had more peace in her life. I thank her for her unwavering commitment to women's sexual safety and expression and hope that she has peace now. I will revisit some of her writings now to remember why I sought her out in the first place.

Dworkin's partner of 30 years, John Stoltenberg, wrote a beautiful essay in 1994 about their life together. It reads now as a moving obituary of a shared life -- mindful, loving, mutually reinforcing and challenging, as all good partnerships should be. Knowing the pain Dworkin suffered, I was happy to be reminded by Stoltenberg that Andrea was able to share in the security of a rich partnership for most of her life. Upon Dworkin's death, Stoltenberg released information prepared by Dworkin, the catalogue of her life's efforts. I don't have an outside link, because it was sent to me via a listserv. I have placed her Lifetime CV, as I call it, here. Sincerest condolences to John Stoltenberg, a loyal friend, comrade, and partner.

[P.S. So, why did I have to learn about this from Pen-Elayne? Rhetorical question. The MSM just got wind of this story a couple of hours ago. Apparently news of influential feminists' deaths travels first across the pond.]

UPDATE: Donations in honor of Andrea Dworkin's life and work can be made to:

The Schlesinger Library
The Andrea Dworkin Fund
Radcliffe Institute
10 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138-3600

or to the domestic-violence shelter or rape-crisis center of your choice.

(Contributions to The Schlesinger Library designated for The Andrea Dworkin Fund will go toward processing the Andrea Dworkin papers and creating an on-line searchable guide.)

Comments

[anonymous]

Just FYI, add husband to John's list. They married in 1998.

[ae]

db, quit signing in as "anonymous"! And quit making points about people who've been partnered for years and aren't married (ahem). ;-D

[Elise]

What a nice message. Dworkin is hard to write about, since she tended to be such a polarizing figure. It's good to remember the effect she had on all of us, and the intentions behind much of her work - to make the world a safer place for all women.

[ae]

Welcome, Elise. I believe some good can come of the public mourning (at least in some feminist circles) of Dworkin. I hope that we can get back to an analysis of the structures that limit women's access and expression. A critique of mass consumerist culture would be a start. A critique of anything predicated on the consumption of women as sexual objects would be fine by me. (Bye, bye, Madison Avenue!)

There have been very thoughtful essays about Dworkin's import and influence in the British press. Worth reading for a reasoned perspective. They seemed to understand her role as a thinker and as an uncompromising advocate for victimized women. Like you said, she wanted to make the world a safer place for women. And she did it the best way she knew how -- with her kindness to the women who sought her out and with her fierce mind. That's pretty damn revolutionary.