Andrea Dworkin Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres

SOURCE: "Why Feminists Should Read Andrea Dworkin," in Sojourner, Vol. 15, No. 10, June, 1990, pp. 16-7.

In the following essay, Russo and Torres provide a positive overview of Dworkin's feminist perspective and political activism through analysis of Letters from a War Zone.

The following retrospective essay provides an analysis of Andrea Dworkin's work from 1976 to 1989. It is based on Dworkin's newest book, a compilation of essays and speeches entitled Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976–1989, which covers subjects ranging from Hedda Nusbaum's experience of battery to the ACLU's stand on pornography.

Dworkin has devoted her life to fighting violence against women in all its manifestations, particularly pornography. She co-authored, with attorney Catharine MacKinnon, an antipornography ordinance (known as the Minneapolis ordinance), which defines pornography as a violation of women's civil rights. The ordinance allows those who are hurt by pornography to sue for damages….

Women, according...
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