<nettime> Remembering Andrea Dworkin

["Pam Sykes" <pam@ingenium.co.za>]

Much of what Andrea Dworkin had to say made me profoundly uncomfortable. 
For that, and for her courage in continuing to say it, she has my 
gratitude and my respect. She also had a deep understanding of and respect 
for the power of words -- still and always our primary medium of 
intellectual exchange, most especially in this space. The currency of 
words is so profoundly debased in political life & in much of the media 
that it's especially important to rememember that:


"...words matter. Words can be used to educate, to clarify, to inform, to 
illuminate. Words can also be used to intimidate, to threaten, to insult, 
to coerce, to incite hatred, to encourage ignorance. Words can make us 
better or worse people, more compassionate or more prejudiced, more 
generous or more cruel. Words matter because words significantly determine 
what we know and what we do. Words change us or keep us the same. Women, 
deprived of words, are deprived of life. Women, deprived of a forum for 
words, are deprived of the power necessary to ensure both survival and 
well-being."

  --
"The Power of Words, 1978"






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