Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

Occupation/Collaborationhe might not like: “ they feel ashamed of their origin. . . theyact like persons who are wearing disguises, who are afraid of astranger’s look because it could strip them and leave them starknaked. ” 10Women hide, use disguises, because fear has compromisedfreedom; and when a woman has intercourse—not hiding,dropping the disguise— she has no freedom because hervery being has been contaminated by fear: a grain, a tidal wave,memory or anticipation.The fear is fear of power and fear of pain: the child looks atthe slit with a mirror and wonders how it can be, how will shebe able to stand the pain. The culture romanticizes the rapistdimension of the first time: he will force his way in and hurther. The event itself is supposed to be so distinct, so entirelyunlike any other experience or category of sensation, that thereis no conception that intercourse can be part of sex, includingthe first time, instead of sex itself. There is no slow opening up,no slow, gradual entry; no days and months of sensuality priorto entry and no nights and hours after entry. Those who learnto eroticize powerlessness will learn to eroticize the entry itself:the pushing in, the thrusting, the fact of entry with whateverforce or urgency the act requires or the man enjoys. There isvirtually no protest about entry as such from women; virtuallyno satire from men. A fairly formidable character in DonDeLillo’s White Noise, the wife, agrees to read pornography toher husband but she has one condition:“ I will read, ” she said. “ But I don’t want you to choose anythingthat has men inside women, quote-quote, or men enteringwom en. 4I entered her. ’ ' He entered me. ’ W e’ re notlobbies or elevators. 41 wanted him inside me, ’ as if he couldcrawl com pletely in, sign the register, sleep, eat, so forth.