Was Andrea Dworkin a stark raving mad woman?

Question

Check out some of these quotes by this woman, and check out her pictures:

http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Andrea-Dworkin/1/index.html

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-501&va=andrea+dworkin&sz=all

They say every picture tells a story. I wonder if her looks explain why she went off her rocker and became a raving loon.

Allegra...here is a source from the Andrea Dworkin memorial website. I didn't scan all of the information in there, but along with the original quotes, I am sure one can find other outrageous Andrea Dworking quotes and beliefs she held dear.

http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/OnlineLibrary.html

Overall, Dworkin has left a black mark in the women's movement. Issues needed to be dealt with, and I am not questioning that. I just question why someone would be so radical about getting their point across.

Answer 1

She was clearly a raving loon and a moron. One of those people who don't actually want equality, because then they'd have to stop writing crazy books.

I checked out her Memorial page, where she blandly writes that the treatment of Palestinian Arabs by Jewish Israelis is MUCH better than the treatment of Jewish women in Israel.

Oh really? That is what is known in intellectual circles as a crock.

Answer 2

I don't agree with many of Dworkin's views, but I don't see what looks have to do with sanity; or for anything else for that matter. The site you listed with quotes have no sources, so I have no idea if those quotes are Dworkin's or not. She did say many outrageous things, but she also wrote fiction that has been quoted as "her views", and she has also been widely misquoted. Give a source for a quote, and I'll tell you what I think of it. Dworkin was very controversial, but I don't recall anyone saying she wasn't sane.

Answer 3

No, she was not - like most other intelligent women were not - "stark raving mad."

That's a nice web bibliography of her work. I suppose you didn't read a single centimeter of text from any of her writings listed. And Dworkin was a lesbian, probably another reason a person like you so rabidly dislikes her. Dworkin's voice is merely one in a plurality of feminist women's writings. Feminists do not throw in the trash feminist writings they don't like. They appreciate the work and its effort, take what is useful, and move on.

If you think being a 'radical' is such a horrible sin and crime that it's worth this unnecessary rant and all the other reprehensible punishments it has received over the ages, then you're so caught up in the system you probably have no idea what's going on around you. If you don't like living in countries where people are (sometimes, but not even always) free to be radicals, then you can move.

Answer 4

I wonder what Freud would have to say about her? She sounds much like some men that I've known who put down women constantly. Maybe it's a mom/dad issue as a child or something(or maybe boys were mean to her as a child).
I personally think that true strong people don't complain. They just try to make the best, because life is unfair to everyone. And we all play a role and need each other to survive.

Answer 5

No sane woman would go about looking like Dworkin did. I saw her in person. She claims she was raped. If so it must have been by the famous blind rapist .

Answer 6

She does come for the time of as eccentric! yet those 4 are consistently walking in the back of HM's with an imaginary knife of their hand! i admire the way she is "spinning" issues! I had a wager she could stir issues and he or she optimistic has have been given a number of them rattled in there! pass! pass! pass! BELINDA! BELINDA! BELINDA! loving it!

Answer 7

I won't bother to try to examine any psychological issues she may have had. I will say, however, that I have no respect for her views. There's a difference between feminism and misandry (though some may not believe it).

However, attacking her for her looks is just a bit pathetic, wouldn't you say? It's the same as Glenn Beck ranting about Hillary Clinton's voice. Attack the argument, not the arguer.

Answer 8

In my opinion, so with all due honesty she was a raving loon.
I recall I got a violation for saying that some should have put a gag in her mouth. The ways she looks he had to be desperate to even look at her - whoops I do tend to be cruel - it's a shortcoming.

Answer 9

If Andrea was mad then about every women studies class needs to be turned into an Asylum. That goes for the central of NOW too.