Andrea Dworkin

Woman Hating

i can’t lie she was making very valid points but a quick google told me she was a zionist so….

mary

this is like the best book of all time until you get to the last chapter

Pavonini

This one's a real mixed bag, I thought. Her strengths definitely lie in literary analysis and interesting writing. She's spot on when she talks about witch hunts and foot-binding. What she often excels at is presenting horrific facts in quite a dispassionate fashion, which for me increases their impact. 

The "facts" about fairies... well, I'll have to read up on what was accepted at the time, but right now I have no idea where she got that from. I found the second half of the book started to break down a bit with the sections on "androgyny". I'm not entirely sure why she decided to defend bestiality, but it's not a choice I would have made. I wasn't sure about the scientific material she used. I think Disorders of Sexual Development (DSDs) (intersex conditions) are becoming better understood now, and deserve a more rigorous approach and a whole book (to deal with scientific, ethical, social issues and present opposing theories). 

This was her first book, so I'm not sure what I was expecting - obviously someone so full of fire would be dynamic and changing during her life. What's interesting about reading her writing chronologically is hopefully I'll see the various changes over time (vs. seeing them in random contradictory excerpts). This is definitely worthwhile in building up a fuller picture of Dworkin, but it's not my favourite work of hers.

Woman Hating

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