Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

PREFACEWhen I finished writing Intercourse one colleague advised meto add an introduction to explain what the book said. That way,readers would not be shocked, afraid, or angry, because theideas would be familiar—prechewed, easier to digest; I wouldbe protected from bad or malicious readings and purposefuldistortions; and my eagerness to explain myself would showthat I wanted people to like me and my book, the quintessentialfeminine pose. At least one knee would be visibly bent.Other colleagues— probably more to the point— told mestraight-out to publish it under a pseudonym. I would not; andIntercourse became— socially speaking— a Rorschach inkblotin which people saw their fantasy caricatures of me and whatthey presumed to know about me. First published in theUnited States in 1987— simultaneously with my novel Ice andFire—Intercourse is still being reviled in print by people whohave not read it, reduced to slogans by journalists posing ascritics or sages or deep thinkers, treated as if it were odious andhateful by every asshole who thinks that what will heal this violentworld is more respect for dead white men.My colleagues, of course, had been right; but their advice offendedme. I have never written for a cowardly or passive or