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Men Possessing Women

Pornography

‘Pornography is the orchestrated destruction of women’s bodies and souls … it is war on women’ 
 
Pornography, Andrea Dworkin argued in this landmark work, is about power: the power of owning, of money, of sex. It is not merely violence against women, but the essential DNA of male dominance. As images of women’s bodies continue to be manipulated and consumed, her searing, fearless critique of pornographic media is more urgent and discomfiting than ever. 
 
‘A major text for our time’ Adrienne Rich 
 
‘Dworkin writes with power, anger, daring – and from a great care and love of womankind’ Alice Walker 
 
‘The woman who showed us the dark core of pornography, the punishing hatred of women that pervades it’ Guardian

Unnervingly prescient... If her first book, Woman Hating, and the later Pornography: Men Possessing Women, speak to a culture that has only grown the more violently misogynistic since they were published – their arguments have new urgency in a world of “incels” and 24/7 porn

Bold, courageous and erudite... It is in Pornography that Dworkin’s exploration of male power is most fully formed and convincing

She is a genius: her words leap from the page into 2025 and demand we expect more... Andrea Dworkin, this flawed, abhorred, ruthless woman bellows down the decades to shock us out of our stupor; you’d be a fool not to listen

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) was an American radical feminist activist and writer, and leading thinker in the second wave feminist movement. She is the author of 12 books, including Pornography, Right-Wing Women, Woman Hating, Intercourse, and more.

Woman Hating

‘This book is an action, a political action where revolution is the goal’ 
 
Andrea Dworkin’s blazing, prophetic debut argued that a deep-rooted hatred of women has been ingrained in society for centuries – and still governs us today. From fairy tales to erotic novels to witch-burnings, she uncovers the ways in which male violence and oppression have been normalized throughout history, and points the way to liberation. 
 
‘To see where we are going we must understand where we have been. Woman Hating is a much needed and long overdue addition toward that understanding’ Audre Lorde 
 
‘A singularly powerful voice … Dworkin [gave] definitive expression to the radical feminist tenet that sexual domination was the beating heart of patriarchy’ Amia Srinivasan, LRB

Bold, courageous and erudite... the fierce feminist prophet we need to counter the masculine Maga madness that’s hurtling us ever-faster towards our own demise

Andrea Dworkin

Unnervingly prescient... Right-Wing Women has plenty to say inadvertently about the devotion of Donald Trump’s female supporters, even after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him

Dworkin is methodical and learned but, unlike so many philosophical writers, she is also humane. This shines through especially in Right-Wing Women

I sorely wish I had encountered Right-Wing Women as a teenager. For any future daughters of my own, it will be required reading

‘Feminism is hated because women are hated’ 
 
Why do some women support Right-wing movements, even though they curtail their freedoms? Andrea Dworkin’s timeless, visionary analysis goes to the heart of this contradiction, exploring the Right’s positions on abortion, sexuality, racism and antifeminism, and showing how it attempts both to exploit and to quiet women’s deepest fears of male violence. The Right-wing woman, Dworkin contends, acquiesces to male authority for protection and some semblance of power: because ‘survival depends on it’. 
 
‘Groundbreaking’ Bella Abzug 
 
‘Her razor-sharp analysis of why so many women are attracted to a politics that despises their rights is more relevant today than ever’ Guardian

Andrea Dworkin

Books by Andrea Dworkin

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The classics making waves on TikTok

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