Intercourse

Andrea Dworkin, once called Feminisms Malcolm X, has been worshipped, reviled, criticized, and analyzedbut never ignored. The power of her writing, the passion of her ideals, and the ferocity of her intellect have spurred the arguments and activism of two generations of feminists. Now the book that shes best known forin which she provoked the argument that ultimately split apart the feminist movementis being reissued for the young women and men of the twentyfirst century. Intercourse enraged as many readers as it inspired when it was first published in 1987. In it, Dworkin argues that in a male supremacist society, sex between men and women constitutes a central part of womens subordination to men. (This argument was quicklyand falselysimplified to all sex is rape in the public arena, adding fire to Dworkins already radical persona.) In her introduction to this twentiethanniversary edition of Intercourse, Ariel Levy, the author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, discusses the circumstances of Dworkins untimely death in the spring of 2005, and the enormous impact of her life and work. Dworkins argument, she points out, is the stickiest question of feminism: Can a woman fight the power when he shares her bed?