Scapegoat; The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation

New York: The Free Press, 2000. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xi, [1], 436 pages. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Erasure on front endpaper. Black mark on bottom edge. Some soiling and sticker residue to DJ. Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 - April 9, 2005) was a US radical feminist philosopher, activist, and writer. She is best known for her analysis of pornography, although her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 40 years. They are found in a dozen solo works: nine books of non-fiction, two novels, and a collection of short stories. The central theme of Dworkin's work is re-evaluating Western society, culture, and politics. She does this through the prism of men's sexual violence against women in a patriarchal context. She wrote on a wide range of topics including the lives of Joan of Arc, Margaret Papandreou, and Nicole Brown Simpson; she analyzed the literature of Charlotte Brontë, Jean Rhys, Leo Tolstoy, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin, and Isaac Bashevis Singer; she brought her own radical feminist perspective to her examination of subjects historically written or described from men's point of view, including fairy tales, homosexuality, lesbianism, virginity, antisemitism, the State of Israel, biological superiority, and racism. She interrogated premises underlying concepts such freedom of the press and civil liberties. While alive, two books were written with consideration and analysis of the body of her work. Andrea Dworkin, by Jeremy Mark Robinson, first published in 1994, and Without Apology: Andrea Dworkin's Art and Politics, by Cindy Jenefsky in 1998. An anthology of her work, Last Days at Hot Slit, was published in 2019. Throughout history, argues feminist critic Andrea Dworkin, women and Jews have been stigmatized as society's scapegoats. In this stunning and provocative book, Dworkin brings her rigorous intellect to bear on the dynamics of scapegoating.

Derived from a Kirkus review: Feminist writer Dworkin exploits a common analogy between the inferior status of diaspora Jews and women to highlight the function of both groups as scapegoats. Dworkin draws on an extensive bibliography to demonstrate how, for thousands of years, marginalized groups have been systematically abused, violated, and deprived of human dignity. Her tendentious narrative rapidly deteriorates into a one-sided, angst-filled generalization of Dworkin’s own bitter personal feelings. As a result, she ends up committing the very sin she seeks to expose, “scapegoating” all men for all injustice in every period of history. She declares, for example, that it is degrading for a woman to hear the words “I love you” from a man, because these words are “a sign of appropriation.” The reader is left to wonder whether men should be equally insulted by women’s declarations of love. Furthermore, Dworkin completely ignores the force of the female libido, instead portraying women as passive prey to men’s desire. Both pornography and high art depicting the female form are declared equally hostile to women, with no attention paid to paintings and statues of nude men or the purely aesthetic value of the human body. Dworkin even advocates sending Israeli women to the front lines for the sake of her cherished principle of equality. This deplorable piece of man-hating propaganda ultimately does a disservice to women as well. Inciting them to violence against men, Dworkin contributes to furthering the rift between the sexes, making the dream of a truly humane society based on mutual respect as elusive as ever.
Condition: Very good / Good.

Keywords: Scapegoats, Anti-Semitism, Feminism, Auschwitz, Concentration Camps, Rape, Genocide, Holocaust, Nazis

ISBN: 0684836122

[Book #30845]

Price: $35.00