I knew nothing about Andrea Dworkin except her name and the fact that she was a militant feminist. This biography introduced the individual and her work to me, and it’s a comprehensive, detailed and thoroughly researched work which is both illuminating and engaging. It’s an affectionate and sympathetic portrait of a difficult and conflicted woman, and perhaps felt a little too partisan at times, but overall I didn’t feel that this was a fault as it made Dworkin much more human and approachable. This rather subjective approach in fact enhanced the reading for me. All in all, an excellent and highly recommended biography of a key figure in the women’s movement.

Historian, biographer, celebrated gay activist and prolific author, Martin Duberman has written a well-balanced biography of late feminist activist, Andrea Dworkin (1946-2005) in Andrea Dworkin: The Feminist as Revolutionary. Dworkin’s history of activism began in earnest in 1965 during an antiwar protest at the United Nations. Scarcely 18 years old and a freshman at Bennington College, Dworkin was swiftly sent to the New York Women’s Detention Center for her participation in the protest, where she was underwent a roughly administered pelvic exam by a male doctor. She bled for weeks following. Duberman begins the biography in 1965 when Dworkin’s career as an activist begins.

Duberman recounts Dworkin’s personal ife including two marriages to Dutch anarchist Iwan DeBruin in the late 1960s and much later to John Stoltenberg, who she retained a largely sexless marriage with. The marriage to DeBruin was short-lived as she suffered much domestic violence at his hands. Later, the relationship with Stoltenberg lasted several decades, though Dworkin identified as a lesbian and Stoltenberg, also a staunch feminist, as a gay man.

Much of the book focuses on Dworkin’s prolific writing career spanning more than three decades and including more than 12 publications in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. As a her biographer and lifelong friend, Duberman is even-handed with his characterization of her as she had conflicts with Gloria Steinem over lengthy pieces she submitted to the magazine, for example. Duberman notes that Dworkin was a prolific writer beginning with Woman Hating (1974). However, it was her activism in the antipornography movement begun in 1976 that put her on the map. She published her most famous work Pornography: Men Possessing Women in 1981, arguing that pornography dehumanizes women both in terms of its production and consumption by men. Her activism in the antipornography movement continued through work on the antipornography civil rights ordinance.

The book is a comprehensive tour de force and a must-read for those interested in feminism and the life of Andrea Dworkin.

Great beginning chapters, what I was here for - Dworkin’s life story. As it proceeded, however, Duberman seemed more intent on apologizing for Dworkin rather than letting her words speak for themselves - which I suppose is the biographer’s job to an extent. He shoehorns in trans people when in reality, Dworkin could never have imagined the phenomenon the movement has evolved into today - her comments in the 80s really have no application. He also consistently conflates sex and gender without acknowledging that when Dworkin was writing and lecturing, they were synonyms - not so much these days. He seems more focused on defending his old friend from accusations of transphobia and racism than dealing with the material we do have. These irritating personal agenda items for Duberman aside, I really enjoyed getting inside Dworkin’s head via her numerous correspondence the author had access to. What a woman.

Due to the length of the book and the shortness of time for reviewing, I am having to review this book at the halfway point.

Despite knowing Dworkin’s name and having some understanding of her work, I did not know anything about her.

Dworkin’s childhood was at a time when boys were valued above girls and so were privy to more freedom. However, her parents allowed her the room and time to grow ”Harry Dworkin was a considerable oddity, a man who (as Andrea would later put it) ‘valued learning and intellectual dialogue’ and vowed that his children—his daughter as well as his son—‘would become whatever they wanted’.” And her mother was equally liberal in some respects “ Sylvia who gave Andrea permission to take out Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place from the public library.“

In her early days, Dworkin was subjected to sexual abuse and assault, but was too naive or indoctorated to realise she was a victim. The book describes, in detail, the horrendous sexual assault carried out on her whilst she was held in a women’s prison. It goes on to describe her leaving the US for Europe and her violent and abusive marriage to Iwan Du Bruin. This marriage had a profound effect of Dworkin “ At age twenty-five, the brilliant, dynamic Andrea had become (as she subsequently described it) ‘a woman whose whole life was speechless desperation. . . . Smothering anxiety, waking nightmares, cold sweats, sobs that I choked on were the constants of my daily life. . . . I was nearly dead, catatonic, without the will to live’.” Yet, she was stuck in a country not of her birth and she lacked the support of her parents who, essentially, victim-blamed Dworkin for her position “Sylvia said something along the lines of Andrea’s having made her own contribution to the upset (blaming the victim was an attitude the neighbors had already made familiar).”

Escaping this marriage and returning the UK, Dworkin’s friendships help her to regain her strength to become a ferocious fighter for human rights, particularly women’s rights “Andrea’s transition from abused hausfrau to formidably independent feminist, had been rapid—and astonishingly absolute.” She entered an America which is so similar to what is happening today, all over the world “The unfamiliar malaise of “stagflation” gripped the country: a mystifying mix of sluggish economic growth, high unemployment, and rising inflation. Real wages for the average male worker dropped by an alarming 10 percent, and the gap between rich and poor began to accelerate.” And where poverty lies, right wing ideologies flourish “At the 1976 Republican National Convention, the ERA plank made it onto the platform by a bare four votes—and a horde of new converts joined Phyllis Schlafly’s anti-abortion, “pro-family” crusade.“

And it was against this backdrop of right wing propaganda that Dworkin developed her ideas and arguments, and this book describes her reasons and rationales for these, which makes for very enlightening reading when compared to the responses from some of her critics.

I have not done enough research into whether Dworkin’s ideas were right or wrong, and this is a biography and not a critique of her work, so the author is biased towards Dworkin. However, it is interesting to see how some things never change: it is a shame that violent pornography has grown and flourished and has become ‘normalised’, including to children; that violence against women has also grown and flourished and is still normalised (you only need to look at the recent media coverage of the ‘rough sex’ defence to murder). The fact that it is still true that “religious beliefs still find much greater protection ... than does the argument for women’s equality” (although Dworkin was speaking about protection only in the courts, but there is a bigger issue with religious rights over women’s rights generally, considering the fight for ‘the women’s right to chose’ and issues with ‘honour-based violence’ and Sharia law).

The author knows Dworkin and his affection for her is clear though out the book. At the beginning (first quarter) I found that some parts of the book did not flow. It was too wordy or dry and I would lose interest as it felt that I was reading an overly long essay, rather than a biography. However, I’m glad I stuck with it and I will definitely finish it.

My review may well change when I finish the book, but may rating is based on the first 55% of the book.

Well-researched and well-written; Duberman's memoir is both exciting and hard to read at times and it definitely does Dworkin and her contribution to the modern/radical feminist movement justice.

“It’s the Nazism,” Andrea writes, that you “have to kill, not the Nazis. People die pretty easily, but cruelty doesn’t.”

Such an outstanding, emotionally raw and complex biography about one of our more brilliant, passionate and complicated feminist foremothers. As someone who has read most of Dworkin’s books (though not in years; I’ll have to rectify that) I was very pleased to see that the brilliance of her mind and the fire of her writing were fully depicted here.

The book starts with an intimate, upsetting but inspiring description of Dworkin’s foundations as a feminist, including a horrendous abuse at a women’s prison after a protest, a terrible abusive relationship, and more. This is all sensitively written and tied critically to many of her writings, and really helps the reader see how her brilliant philosophy was born.

The easy (and expected) way to go in this book would be to devote most of it to Dworkin’s controversial views and activism on pornography. I was so happy that this author clearly knows Dworkin was so much more than that one corner of her brilliant mind.

The book also has intriguing new (to me) and moving info on Dworkin’s lifelong relationship with John Stoltenberg. The two were in love in every way, mind, body and soul, for decades even though she identified as a lesbian and he identified as gay. I also loved, and lamented, some of the descriptions of the complexity of her relationships with other leading feminists of the era.

It also does a great job showing how particularly gross the word “feminazi” is as applied to Dworkin, who wrote a great deal of important work on anti-Semitism.

Oh - and! Now that the world knows who Allen Dershowitz REALLY is, hopefully people will see Andrea’s debates with him in a whole new way.

If anyone ever wrote a biography of me, I would want it to be every bit as intellectually rigorous, affectionate, and well-researched as this one. One of the best biographies I’ve read this year. Even if you think Dworkin might be a bit too radical for you, if you’re a feminist you should read this. She is it critical importance to the movement and perhaps even more relevant today, post #MeToo, than ever.

Thanks so much to Martin Duberman, The New Press, and NetGalley for the ARC of this beautiful work.