JenniferRuth's Reviews > Intercourse

This book has a serious reputation. It has been both derided and lauded. It's touted as the pinnacle of man-hating radical feminism. It is claimed that within the book, Dworkin says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. With a reputation such as that, how could I resist reading it?

First things first. Dworkin never says that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. She just asks the question - how does our culture, our politics, our society, our feminism intersect with the act of intercourse? Can intercourse ever be removed and set free from misogyny and patriarchy? A lot of people - don't like the fact that Dworkin dared to ask that question. But Dworkin does dare. Further than that, she refuses to mince her words or hide her anger. She does not make the journey into critically examining the act of intercourse easy and she will not take "just because" as an answer. The result is not pretty - sometimes it is horrendously upsetting. But it talks about the act of intercourse with a truth that you will not find anywhere else encompassing many, many topics and deep analysis.

This book will not, however, give you answers. Dworkin lays it out bare but she does not make it easy on her reader and tell you how it is. She gives you the information, the reasoning, the situation but she offers no conclusion. This is because the conclusion should be yours - especially with such an intimate act as intercourse. This is not a lecture, the book is an opportunity for you to look at the act of intercourse in a different way; for you to question the world and yourself. You can take that opportunity or you can reject it and learn nothing. I found that I did not agree with all of Dworkin's analysis but other parts of the book were moving, enlightening and powerful.

Overall though there is one part of Intercourse that is hardly ever mentioned by it's detractors (and I do wonder if these people have ever read it). Underlying all the anger is a pleading, a passion for what the physical intimacy of intercourse has the potential to be and a sadness for how often we fall short. If anything, the book is pro-sex. It's just anti-violence, -oppression and -bitterness. It calls for both men and women to have the freedom to be fully human. I think that is a message we all still need to hear.