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In reply to the discussion: Andrea Dworkin NEVER said "all sex is rape" [View all]zazen
(2,978 posts)He has a penis and had sex with her quite a bit, so perhaps his commentary could shed some light on these issues for you.
Me? I agree with her analysis about intercourse under conditions of patriarchy. I don't think it's inherently like that. Also, even if it is, I'm a heterosexual female and so I make compromises, and that's a human tradeoff I make as a price of being born into a conditioned society where there are some things that aren't going to change in my or my daughters' lifetimes.
Other people can make their own choices. I quite enjoy and revel in erections when they've been connected to the men I love (one man at present), so I never went much in for some of her critiques of intercourse, though I know where she's coming from.
Her entire corpus was so staggeringly honest, incisive, and beautifully written (even conservatives in National Review gave her that) that I really don't bother too much with the areas where I disagree.
I feel that way about most of the "great works." If I threw out every sexist philosopher, scientist, and artist because I disagreed with some of their work, I'd throw out all of civilization. It is possible to appreciate someone's brilliance and courage and not agree with everything (or sometimes, almost anything--eg, St. Augustine) they say.