Dworkin, Andrea (1946–2005)

American feminist author and activist. Born Sept 26, 1946, in Camden, New Jersey; died April 9, 2005; sister of Mark Dworkin; Bennington College, BA, 1968; lived with activist John Stoltenberg, 1974–2005.

Controversial radical feminist who wrote numerous works on pornography, prostitution, male violence against women, class-based analysis of feminism and other topics, linking sexual issues to broader structures in society; organized grassroots crusade against pornography; co-authored, with feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon, Minneapolis and Indianapolis ordinances defining pornography as civil-rights violation against women (later overturned by courts); chronicled anti-pornography crusade in Take Back the Night: Women on Pornography (1980) and helped organize Take Back the Night; identified pornography as cause rather than symptom of sexist culture in Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981); taught at many universities including Smith and University of Minneapolis. Selected works: (nonfiction) Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality (1974), Possessing Women (1981), Intercourse (1988), Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females (1991), Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women (1997) and Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000); (short stories) The New Women's Broken Heart (1980); (novels) Ice and Fire (1986) and Mercy (1991); (essays) Letters from a War Zone: Writings, 1976–1987 (1988).

See also Andrea Dworkin, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant (Basic, 2002).