Letters from the War Zone

For outspoken feminist Dworkin, pornography, prostitution, incest, wife-beating and rape are the most visible signs of men's need to control and do violence to women. Contempt for women, she asserts, is the bedrock of our male-supremacist culture, and in these 37 impassioned, often angry essays, speeches and reviews from the last decade or so, the author of Women Hating and Intercourse is confrontational and thought-provoking. Included are feminist appreciations of Tennessee Williams's plays, of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights , and of the novels of Jean Rhys; an interview with Margaret Papandreou, American-born wife of the Greek prime minister, and a piece on oppression of women in the Middle East lend an international perspective. But mostly, Dworkin sticks close to home, analyzing the subordination of women in marriage and the workplace, and waging a battle against civil libertarians who oppose restrictions on pornography. (Oct.)