In works such as Woman Hating (1974) and Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981), Dworkin had argued that pornography (this includes erotic literature) in patriarchal societies consistently eroticized women's sexual subordination to men, and often overt acts of exploitation or violence.

Extensively discussing works such as The Kreutzer Sonata (1889), Madame Bovary (1856), and Dracula (1897), and citing from religious texts, legal commentary, and pornography, Dworkin argued that the depictions of intercourse in mainstream art and culture consistently emphasized heterosexual intercourse as the only or the most genuine form of "real" sex; that they portrayed intercourse in violent or invasive terms; that they portrayed the violence or invasiveness as central to its eroticism; and that they often united it with male contempt for, revulsion towards, or even murder of the "carnal" woman.

are made in the context of discussions of the way in which intercourse is depicted "the discourse of male truth—literature, science, philosophy, pornography",[4] and the enforcement of those terms through men's social power over women.

[5] Her followers cite an interview with editor, critic, and writer Michael Moorcock for the New Statesman & Society, in which Dworkin claimed, "In Intercourse I decided to approach the subject as a social practice, material reality.

Since the paradigm for sex has been one of conquest, possession, and violation, I think many men believe they need an unfair advantage, which at its extreme would be called rape.

The article, published in The Guardian, was titled "'She Never Hated Men'": John Berger once called Dworkin 'the most misrepresented writer in the western world'.