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Quote by Andrea Dworkin

“I want to bring us back to basics. Prostitution: what is it? It is the use of a woman's body for sex by men, he pays money, he does what he wants. The minute you move away from what it really is, you move away from prostitution into the world of ideas. You will feel better; you will have a better time; it is more fun; there is plenty to discuss, but you will be discussing ideas, not prostitution. Prostitution is not an idea. It is the mouth, the vagina, the rectum, penetrated usually by a penis, sometimes hands, sometimes objects, by one man and then another and then another and then another and then another. That's what it is.”

Quote by Andrea Dworkin

Book:Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women
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Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women

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Author

Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin was an American writer and activist known for her work in feminist theory and activism. She focused on issues of pornography, violence against women, and the intersection of gender and politics. Her influential works include 'Intercourse' and 'Pornography: Men Possessing Women'. more

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“While the churches, bringing the sweet smell of piety for the soul, came in prancing and farting like brewery horses in bock-beer time, the sister evangelism, with release and joy for the body, crept in silently and gravely, with its head bowed and its face covered. You may have seen the spangled palaces of sin and fancy dancing in the false West of the movies, and maybe some of them existed—but not in the Salinas Valley. The brothels were quiet, orderly, and circumspect. Indeed, if after hearing the ecstatic shrieks of climactic conversion against the thumping beat of the melodeon you had stood under the window of a whorehouse and listened to the low decorous voices, you would have been likely to confuse the identities of the two ministries. The brothel was accepted while it was not admitted.”

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“Agreeing to something does not make that thing any less harmful for our bodies or minds. It is psychologically exhausting, damaging and toxic to fake a connection to someone, especially a sexual connection. Not being free to be yourself in such a vulnerable and intimate situation is physically and psychologically exhausting. Being paid to have sex on someone else’s terms is the farthest thing from sexual autonomy that exists.”

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“If the men who paid me weren’t rapists, if this was all consensual sex, why am I traumatised by it? Why do I experience flashbacks with the same tone and texture as flashbacks I have had from being raped? I have had a lot of sex I regret having which I am not traumatised by. There is sometimes sadness, but not trauma. I experience trauma and flashbacks only in relation to sexual exploitation. Sex that didn’t involve money, in which I’ve felt dissociated, or didn’t feel like it, or when I didn’t stop something I wasn’t comfortable with has not traumatised me in the way sex-trade sex has – sex to which I ‘consented’.”

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“Prostitution ist Sexualität, die den Bedingungen des Marktes und damit der Nachfrage und den Kundenwünschen unterliegt. Ja, vielleicht gibt es Frauen, die einzelne Kunden oder Praktiken nicht machen müssen. Aber dann verdienen sie auch kein Geld. Der Markt bestimmt, was angeboten wird. Die Frau kann sich dem anpassen oder leer ausgehen: Bietet sie französisch ohne Gummi an oder nicht? Zungenküsse ja oder nein? Anal ja oder eher nicht? Je nachdem wie sie sich entscheidet, verdient sie mehr oder weniger. Irgendeinen Freier wird sie machen müssen und irgendeine Anpassung an die Kundenwünsche hinsichtlich der Praktiken wird stattfinden müssen. Freie Sexualität findet in der Prostitution nicht statt.”

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