Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

direct: “The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and sheconceived and gave birth to Cain” (Genesis 4: 1).Eve’s curse is in the pain of childbirth and in feeling desirefor her husband; they are her punishments. The rule of thehusband over the wife is in sexual intercourse itself; his sovereigntyover her is in the fuck. The New Testament is less directbut not at all ambiguous in saying the same: “ For the manis not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither wasthe man created for the woman; but the woman for the man”(I Corinthians 11: 8-9). According to one Christian writer ofthe modern era, this means that the wifewillingly accepts the fact that man is the head o f the womanand submits to her husband’s authority not grudgingly and infear, but willingly, freely, and in joy. 27In Christianity, attitude is everything; in Judaism, simple complianceis. In each faith, the man’s authority means that he hasa right supported by law—divine law—to fuck his wife; her legalduty is to submit; and intercourse itself is a legally definedhierarchy in which the one who fucks has sovereignty over theone who submits. Human codes of law replicate the hierarchyin intercourse established by divine will; intercourse is thelegally prescribed right of a man over his wife. In The TotalWoman, Marabel Morgan, who never disappoints, providedher own unique biblical exegesis when she wrote: “ God understoodwomen. He knew they would probably use the prizedpossession of sex to manipulate men, and He warned againstrationing it out. ”28A Mrs. Ellis, in 1846, despite her Victorianupbringing, was more straightforward in language and also hada keener appreciation of sexual politics when she wrote: