Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

movement, freedom from physical domination); and to havewhat men have one must be what men are. Joan’s unselfconsciousand unrepentant assumption of a male role (both martialand heroic) was the crime against male supremacy that cost herher life. She was killed for the freedom she took, the status sheusurped, her defiance of the determinism of gender. By repudiatingher female status, she repudiated a life of being heldhostage by male sexual desire. She became an exile from genderwith a male vocation and male clothes, the clothing especiallyan outrage and eventually a capital crime.Essentially seen as a transvestite by scholars and artists whocame after her and took her as a subject, Joan’s defiance, her rebellion,is trivialized as a sexual kink, more style than substance,at most an interesting wrinkle in a psychosexual tragedyof a girl who wanted to be a boy and came to a bad end. Joan’sinstability, it is suggested, was so great that she committed suiciderather than wear women’s clothes; she, the Inquisition’svictim, becomes her own executioner. Romantics, especiallythe filmmakers, seem to see the male clothing as an estheticchoice, the beauty of her androgyny highlighted by the gracefulboylike look. No woman can want freedom and have it dignified.The clothes made her life of high adventure and martialbrilliance possible; she needed them, a sword, a horse, a banner,a king, a cause, all of which she got with an intransigencethat is the mark of genius. The male clothing— the signifier andthe enabler, signifying rebellion, enabling action—became theemblem of her distinct integrity for those who hated her.Her male clothing was both symbolic and functional. It wasappropriate clothing for her movement and praxis. It protectedher bodily privacy even as it declared it. Her body was closedoff and covered; between her legs was inaccessible. In armor,