The eXile
Exterminate The Men
Honoring America’s Only Genuine Feminist By John Dolan ( dolan at exile.ru )
The recent death of Andrea Dworkin didn't even make the small print news in Russia. Feminism, at least the feminism of the kind Westerners take for granted, never caught on. Patronizing Westerners often see that as a sign that Russians are culturally too primitive. Russians, particularly Russian women -- and particularly the Russian female intelligentsia -- literally laugh and roll their eyes when you mention feminism of the American or West European brand. The reason is fairly simple: Russians haven't quite learned the Western art of sloganeering for radical philosophy without meaning a word of what they say. A Russian woman would assume that if you're a feminist, you'd actually have to live out the philosophy. In that sense, Andrea Dworkin was, in her own way, the only "Russian" feminist in America -- and that is why she was so hated.
There was a strange undertone of smug satisfaction in the obituaries for Andrea Dworkin. The fact that she died relatively young, at 58, got a lot of space, followed by long descriptions of her obesity and the medical problems that supposedly resulted from it. In other words, she was fat, fat, fat. Case closed.
Then there were her stories of rape and abuse, which the London Times called "probability-defying." American papers were more sly and cowardly, of course, but managed to imply that she was crazy as well as fat.
Feminists more comfortable in the meanstream had some very strange comments on her. Elaine Showalter, a sleek Princeton gender commissar, said, "I don't wish Andrea Dworkin any harm, but I doubt that many women will get up at 4 am to watch her funeral."
If you know anything about the verbal habits of upper-echelon academics, this is easy to translate: "Die, you bitch! Shut up and die so I can dance on your XL grave!"
http://www.exile.ru/2005-April-22/exterminate_the_men.html
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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