Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

exploiter is what he brings to the marriage bed and to the relationshipas a whole.The killer/husband, when engaged, showed his fiancee hisdiary (as Tolstoy did) with descriptions of women he hadknown, affairs he had had. He remembers “ ‘her horror, despair,and confusion, when she learnt of it and understood it. ’”38Ontheir honeymoon, he felt ‘“ awkward, ashamed, repelled, sorry... '"39It is necessary for the husband to ‘“ cultivate that vice inhis wife in order to derive pleasure from it. ’”40The narrator arguesthat there is no vice, that sex is natural. The killer/husbandmaintains that it is unnatural, and contrasts it to eating, whichis, he says, “ ‘from the very beginning, enjoyable, easy, pleasant,and not shameful; but this is horrid, shameful, and painful. ’” 41Asked by the narrator how the human race would continue, thekiller/husband says simply that the human race will cease—bothreligion and science say so and everyone knows that it is true. Ifthe goal of mankind is universal peace, “‘that the spears shouldbe beaten into pruning-hooks, ” ’42then the end of intercoursewould be an essential, utterly logical part of achieving thatpromised peace:“ O f all the passions the strongest, cruellest, and most stubbornis the sex-passion, physical love; and therefore if the passionsare destroyed, including the strongest o f them— physicallove— the prophecies will be fulfilled, mankind will be broughtinto a unity, the aim o f human existence will be attained, andthere will be nothing further to live for. ” 43This universal peace, following on the beating of the spearsinto pruning hooks or plowshares, requires not just occasionalchastity on the part of some, but a deep and committed