Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

abuses of forced entry, the devastating consequences of beingpowerless and occupied, suggested that the only conditionunder which women could experience sexual freedom in intercourse-realchoice, real freedom, real happiness, realpleasure—was in having real and absolute control in each andevery act of intercourse, which would be, each and every time,chosen by the woman. She would have the incontrovertibleauthority that would make intercourse possible:To woman, by nature, belongs the right o f sexual determination.W hen the instinct is aroused in her, then and then onlyshould commerce follow. W hen woman rises from sexualslavery to sexual freedom, into the ownership and control o fher sexual organs, and man is obliged to respect this freedom,then will this instinct become pure and holy; then will womanbe raised from the iniquity and morbidness in which she nowwallows for existence, and the intensity and glory o f her creativefunctions be increased a hundred-fold. . . 17The consent standard is revealed as pallid, weak, stupid,second-class, by contrast with Woodhull’s standard: that thewoman should have authority and control over the act. Thesexual humiliation of women through male ownership was understoodby Woodhull to be a concrete reality, not a metaphor,not hyperbole: the man owned the woman’s sexual organs.She had to own her sexual organs for intercourse to mean freedomfor her. This is more concrete and more meaningful thana more contemporary vocabulary of “owning” one’s own desire.Woodhull wanted the woman’s desire to be the desire ofsignificance; but she understood that ownership of the bodywas not an abstraction; it was concrete and it came first. The