Her Way

TATYANA MAMONOVA PRESS CONFERENCE FEATURE PRESENTATION CORINTHIA NEVSKIJ PALACE HOTEL.
JULY 20, 2005



I decided to put the portrait of Andrea Dworkin on the cover of the recent issue of the Almanac Woman and Earth. The more I think about Andrea, the more I feel the loss. I didn’t do this even for Bella Abzug, the Congresswoman whom I admired and whose video interview given to me I treasure. Andrea was closer to my age than Bella, even thought the personal qualities of both were equally impressive.

I prefer to concentrate on everything positive in life and I’ll tell you why it was important to me in contact with Andrea. I was introduced to her during my first tour of the U.S. in 1980 by Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem. Andrea was already well-known internationally and her modesty surprised me.

When I asked her to write a “blurb” for my upcoming publication she thought more about my future than her own. Andrea told me, “I’m not sure it will be good for you. I’m not loved by critics here.” She wrote a “blurb” thought and we stayed in correspondence for years. I took an interview in 1990 with videographer Chandra Folsom in Park Slope of Andrea where she and John lived in a well kept, two-story brownstone. Expressing her beliefs, Andrea was gentle but honest and very clear. She made me fell welcomed and unthreatened in her house despite her reputation as a “difficult opponent.”

Her books, including Mercy, Intercourse, Pornography, and War Zone, are in my library , along with others of the beginning of the 21-st century. John Stoltenberg published his book Refusing to be a Man thanks to his deep connection with Andrea. He said that her publication Woman Hating saved his life. The conclusion of his book: “It’s not about gender, it’s about a person.”



In 1995, Andrea wrote a piece for our Almanac titled “A Message for Russian Women:” “Many of us want to stand with you… we can find strength and love in each other.” Her grandfather was from Hungary. Many of her relatives were victims of the Nazi’s and anti-Semites. Andrea was against any type of oppression of freedom, including sexual slavery. She herself suffered from abuse: she was raped and was a victim of prostitution for a while. Andrea warned quite presciently in her special message for Woman and Earth, “I beg you, Russian sisters, not to accept sexual assault as something natural. It is a crime that needs to be exposed.”

I remember Andrea at the Conference in Brighton, England in 1996. We both were invited to give keynote lectures against violence. Andrea looked and spoke like a prophet. Our Almanac published a review of Andrea’s book of 2002 Heartbreak. She said that her way to feminism was paved with compassion for those who became victims of phalocratic manipulations.

Andrea Dworkin didn’t lose her fight for women. She transformed pornography. She raised the whole generation of girls who know how to fight for their rights and how to get pleasure from life. Bravo to your way, Andrea, which was tough, yet dignified!