Never Enough Contradictions Department

I just found out that Andrea Dworkin died. As a transgendered feminist, I feel such contradictory feelings about this. On one hand, as a feminist pioneer, she raised a lot of questions and inspired much healthy debate on the nature of gender and patriarchy. On the other hand, she infuriated many who needed to join that debate. She advocated an end to gender, and yet attacked the transgendered for emulating and embracing genders to which they were not born or socialized. She demanded equality and dignity for women, while insisting that pornography and prostitution de facto stripped said dignity away from even those women who proudly indulged or participated in the same. She inspired new generations of women who felt that it was well within their rights to be bold and proud in their sex, gender, and sexuality, all the while often giving men the kind of stimulus they sought all along.

I was never a fan of Dworkin, but she made me think. For me, the true tragedy is: Dworkin is dead. And Schlafly is still alive.