Andrea Dworkin - Right-wing Women

dermined, rendered ineffectual and meaningless, by antifeminism:

by specious concepts of equality based on an evasion of what the

sex-class system really is. The refusal to recognize the intrinsic despotism of the sex-class system means that that despotism is inevitably incorporated into reform models of that same system: in this, antifeminism triumphs over the w ill to liberation. The refusal to

recognize the unique abuses inherent in sex labor (treating sex labor as if it were sex-neutral, as if it were not intrinsically part of sex oppression and inseparable from it) is a function of antifeminism; the acceptance of sex labor as appropriate labor for women marks the trium ph of antifeminism over the w ill to liberation. The

sentimental acceptance of a double standard of human rights, responsibilities, and freedom is also the triumph of antifeminism over the w ill to liberation; no sexual dichotomy is compatible with real

liberation. And, most important, the refusal to demand (with no

compromise being possible) one absolute standard of human dignity is the greatest trium ph of antifeminism over the w ill to liberation. W ithout that one absolute standard, liberation is mush; feminism is frivolous and utterly self-indulgent. Without that one

absolute standard as the keystone of revolutionary justice, feminism has no claim to being a liberation movement; it has no revolutionary stance, goal, or potential; it has no basis for a radical reconstruction of society; it has no criteria for action or organization; it has no moral necessity; it has no inescapable claim on the conscience of “mankind”; it has no philosophical seriousness; it has

no authentic stature as a human-rights movement; it has nothing to

teach. Also, without that one absolute standard, feminism has no

chance whatsoever of actually liberating women or destroying the

sex-class system . Refusing to base itself on a principle of universal

human dignity, or compromising, retreating from that principle,

feminism becomes that which exists to stop it: antifeminism. No

liberation movement can accept the degradation of those whom it

seeks to liberate by accepting a different definition of dignity for

them and stay a movement for their freedom at the same time.

(Apologists for pornography: take note. ) A universal standard of

human dignity is the only principle that completely repudiates sex-

class exploitation and also propels all of us into a future where the

fundamental political question is the quality of life for all human

beings. Are women being subordinated to men? There is insufficient dignity in that. Are men being prostituted too? What is human dignity?

Two elements constitute the discipline of feminism: political,

ideological, and strategic confrontation with the sex-class system—

with sex hierarchy and sex segregation—and a single standard of

human dignity. Abandon either element and the sex-class system is

unbreachable, indestructible; feminism loses its rigor, the toughness of its visionary heart; women get swallowed up not only by misogyny but also by antifeminism—facile excuses for exploiting women, metaphysical justifications for abusing women, and shoddy apologies for ignoring the political imperatives of women.

One other discipline is essential both to the practice of feminism

and to its theoretical integrity: the firm, unsentimental, continuous

recognition that women are a class having a common condition.

This is not some psychological process of identification with

women because women are wonderful; nor is it the insupportable

assertion that there are no substantive, treacherous differences

among women. This is not a liberal mandate to ignore what is

cruel, despicable, or stupid in women, nor is it a mandate to ignore

dangerous political ideas or allegiances of women. This does not

mean women first, women best, women only. It does mean that

the fate of every individual woman—no matter what her politics,

character, values, qualities—is tied to the fate of all women

whether she likes it or not. On one level, it means that every

woman’s fate is tied to the fate of women she dislikes personally.

On another level, it means that every woman’s fate is tied to the

fate of women whom she politically and morally abhors. For in-

stance, it means that rape jeopardizes communist and fascist

women, liberal, conservative, Democratic, or Republican women,

racist women and black women, Nazi women and Jew ish women,

homophobic women and homosexual women. The crimes committed against women because they are women articulate the condition of women. T he eradication of these crimes, the transformation of the condition of women, is the purpose of feminism: which means that feminism requires a most rigorous definition of

what those crimes are so as to determine what that condition is.

This definition cannot be compromised by a selective representation of the sex class based on sentim entality or wishful thinking.

This definition cannot exclude prudes or sluts or dykes or mothers

or virgins because one does not want to be associated w ith them.

To be a feminist means recognizing that one is associated with all

women not as an act of choice but as a matter of fact. The sex-class

system creates the fact. When that system is broken, there w ill

be no such fact. Feminists do not create this common condition

by making alliances: feminists recognize this common condition

because it exists as an intrinsic part of sex oppression. The fundamental knowledge that women are a class having a common condition— that the fate of one woman is tied substantively to the fate of all women— toughens feminist theory and practice. That fundamental knowledge is an almost unbearable test of seriousness.

There is no real feminism that does not have at its heart the tempering discipline of sex-class consciousness: knowing that women share a common condition as a class, like it or not.

W hat is that common condition? Subordinate to men, sexually

colonized in a sexual system of dominance and submission, denied

rights on the basis of sex, historically chattel, generally considered

biologically inferior, confined to sex and reproduction: this is the

general description of the social environment in which all women

live. But what is the real map of that environment? Which crimes

create the topography? Drawing 1 shows the basic condition of