Ariel Levy: “With the possible exception of the Shakers, it is difficult to think of an American movement that has failed more spectacularly than anti-pornography feminism. In the late seventies, when a prominent faction of the women's-liberation movement—including [Susan] Brownmiller, [Andrea] Dworkin, Audre Lorde, Robin Morgan, Grace Paley, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Steinem—turned their attention to fighting pornography, porn was still something marginalized, as opposed to what it is now: a source of inspiration for all of popular culture. (See Jenna Jameson, almost any reality-television show, Brazilian bikini waxes, and go from there.)”
Levy argues that the anti-pornography movement and its failure “divided, some would say destroyed, the women’s movement”.
The article is about Andrea Dworkin, anti-pornography activist and, a woman that Marty Beckerman regrets not being able to “masturbate all over the wrinkled/twisted face of her rotting corpse before dancing upon her freshly dug grave and singing 'Joy to the World'.”
Some commentary on the article at Noli Irritare Leones and One Good Thing.
