Feminist writer Andrea Dworkin has died at the rather young age of 58. As a man who enjoys sex and pornography, I never quite shared Ms Dworkin’s political views.

However, the pro-sex-feminist backlash couldn’t have happened without the previous generation’s efforts: the first lot pointed out that the 1970s paradigms (for porn and, to some extent, relationships) were fundamentally misogynistic; the second lot redefined porn and relationships so that they *weren’t* fundamentally misogynistic. Ms Dworkin even changed her tack on porn in later years, as it became clear that obscenity laws were being used more to harrass gays and lesbians than to protect women. Good call.

Society still needs a great many more Ms Dworkins before we reach anything approaching gender equality, however. Can you imagine a major newspaper running an article on Bertrand Russell’s death headlined "Lord Russell, anti-nuclear campaigner, dies"? Or one on Richard Feynmann, "Richard Feynmann, humorist, dies"? No.

(David T and Susie Bright also have interesting things to say on the subject)