A Feminist Joan of Arc

Re: Janice Mall’s review of Andrea Dworkin’s “Intercourse” (The Book Review, May 3): Radical feminist Mary Daly has said that “one of the most dispiriting experiences imaginable is to encounter in a woman an apparent inability to experience moral outrage at the atrocities perpetrated against her sex.” Andrea Dworkin’s book is about the atrocities done to women through the practice of intercourse, yet Janice Mall wishes the book were about the violence among men. (Good heavens, they might hurt themselves!)

Dworkin’s essay on Joan of Arc recounts the creation of France by Joan (through her vision and her military daring) and her execution at the stake for wearing male clothing and exercising a freedom of movement allowed only to men. Mall calls the essay on Joan “engaging.” “Intercourse” is a profound and powerful book. It deserves a feminist review.

DIANE R. HOLMAN

South Pasadena