“Why would a militant feminist under this kind of pressure stop off on her
way to the airport to say hi to 500 men?”
Andrea Dworkin’s speech was an
impassioned plea for men to assist in stopping rape. I chose not to read this
speech as an angry woman yelling at and accusing men but as a woman so tired of
carrying around her pain and the pain of women she has known.
Dworkin states, “Why are you so
slow to understand the simplest things; not the complicated ideological things.”
This quote stood out to me because initially I found it to be slightly
reductive but then as I began to think about what she is asking I found it to
be completely true. She is merely asking for men to stop assaulting women or
for men to stop other men from assaulting women. That is not a difficult task.
Dworkin is obviously frustrated with the state of society but it is not mere
frustration it is also fear; “Some of us don’t have another week or another day
to take time for you to discuss whatever it is that will enable you to go out
into those streets and do something.” In group discussion today we talked about
how irritating it is that when a male celebrity says he is a feminist there is
almost a fanfare for how wonderfully amazing he is but when a female celebrity
says she is a feminist she is dubbed a ‘feminazi’ or worse. This male
validation of feminism is interesting in relation to Dworkin’s call for men to
stop rape. The ending of rape is something that inherently needs men to be a
part of or else Dworkin would probably not have bothered begging those 500 men
for a truce.
The next point of Dworkin’s I will
engage with is: “I name an abuse and I hear: “Oh, it happens to me too.” That is
not the equality we are struggling for. We could change our strategy and say:
well, okay, we want equality; we’ll stick something up the ass of a man every
three minutes.” This reminded me of reading any comment section in an article about
sexual assault. People will constantly say “men get raped too, why aren’t you
feminists doing anything about that” or some variation and I think Dworkin’s
quote above would be a perfect response to those people. Feminists do not want
to be equal with men in the pain we feel, we want to be equal in the pain that
men do not feel. Feminists do not want to take away power, we just want power
too.
I did also have some problems with
Dworkin’s speech but since I am very close to going over the word count I will
keep this a positive piece. I think that if you read this speech generously, as
Randi mentioned, Dworkin is just a women asking for some respite.
Your way of connecting a male celebrity feminist to Dworkin's statement makes it relatable and demonstrates how men do need to be a part of feminism in order for a solution to occur. As men are a huge part of the problem, they are the one's who need to change and/or assist in stopping rape as women can't solely fix the issue. As you mentioned, it is very unfortunate that we do need the validation of a men in order for a statement to be taken realistically. It just displays how even with all the progress that feminism has achieved, society still relies on the leadership of men to legitimize issues.
ReplyDeleteAlso, men are always praised for speaking out on "a women's issue" when in reality, this is a societal issue that needs to be fought by by all genders, side by side.
I think this Dworkin piece can be taken many ways, as her anger, her hurt, and definitely in the way you read her, as her exhaustion. Because I think in a sense, we're all exhausted with this constant battle against abuses and lack of power. In one part she talks about carrying the weight of women, all women who had had abuse done to them. When you think of this literally, there is no way one person could ever take on this issue alone, and that is where she is calling to men. Yes, I think there is no denying she blames the male population for committing violence against women, because in the binary, as we know, it is in a majority this way. Yet she is also calling towards the men who don't to help stop it, and to help carry the weight that is on her shoulders, and the shoulders of other women. I think you're right, in that it should not be a minor victory ever man we 'win' over to speak up, it should be a welcomed and then he should be called upon to act. To call over other men, and to help form this truce that Dworkin is calling for. They shouldn't want to be a feminist for the fan fare, but to be a good person.
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