Andrea Dworkin is the subject of discourse today, and you’ll never guess why.
Actually that’s 1000% a lie. You can totally guess why. A fair amount of radical feminist activists and writers from the 1970s and 80s haven’t aged particularly well in the present day, especially those who were open about their TERF sentiments long before the phrase “TERF” was a common acronym.
Today on Twitter, people are discovering Andrea Dworkin anew, and learning about her not-so-amazing past as a supporter of transphobic reactionaries like ur-TERF Janice Raymond.
It began when Moira Donegan retweeted a wall of Dworkin text (from her 1983 work Right Wing Women) calling it prescient:
Andrea Dworkin on how the 1960s version of the sexual revolution wound up creating sexual entitlements for men that were matched by sexual obligations for women. Really lucidly anticipates contemporary feminist critiques of sex positivity. https://t.co/PXx3mdOnD1
— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) December 5, 2022
Trans folks immediately took issue and started showing receipts.
Heterosexuality borrowing tired traumatized lesbian thinkers to critique their own desires is wild
— Ex_Wife_Material (@thepplsbottom) December 6, 2022
Gretchen Felker-Martin laid down what should really be the first and last word on the subject:
I refuse to have any part in the rehabilitation of Andrea Dworkin as a thinker or an activist. She was a sick, vicious person whose suffering at the hands of patriarchal society drove her to reactionary fascist violence.
— Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) December 5, 2022
i love when people are like “omg this is just like this Andrea Dworkin quote” because it means i can stop listening to them
— laura (1944) dir. otto preminger (@ernst_lubitch) December 6, 2022
Why do people keep trying to get me to read Andrea Dworkin. When I’m done with my brain, I’ll dispose of it in the proper recycling unit, thank you
— Killjoy McCoy (@letsgoayo) December 5, 2022
Whatever Andrea Dworkin was, she was definitely not Valerie Solanas. Entirely different person.
really enjoying this interaction in the replies to a tweet about andrea dworkin pic.twitter.com/wygFZls26q
— roche (@kvetchkween) December 6, 2022
*Sopranos voice* “you know, Quasimodo predicted all this.
the dworkin one already happening … gonna be a scary year everyone ❤️ https://t.co/Po7xRaaue8
— ria (@personaguk) December 6, 2022
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