Looking at Andrea Dworkin, it's easy to see how stereotypes are born.

Clad in denim overalls and a black leather vest with her hair in wild disarray, Dworkin, one of the most radical and influential founders of the women's movement, shouted and sneered her way into the hearts of those who trekked to 108 Forum to hear her speak Friday night.

Dworkin, a feminist theorist, activist, author and diehard anti-pornographer, kicked off last weekend's "The Politics of Sexuality: Multicultural Feminist Voices" conference. Dworkin expressed her views about intercourse to the mostly female crowd that packed the 400-seat lecture room.

"Intercourse is your training," she said. "You know how you train a dog? First, you do it on paper. Then you teach it about the curb. Then the tree. Intercourse is your training to be compliant in a man's world."

Intercourse, Dworkin said, is the pinnacle of male domination over women.

"Why is intercourse the central sexual act in our society?" she asked the rapt audience. "There are different alternatives. Most of them bring women to orgasm more successfully than intercourse. The question is: Why is intercourse central?

"It is, in our society, the quintessential act of male domination, the sexual act most polarizing to men and women. His ability to get an erection depends on her ability to conform to his idea of what a woman should be."

Shaking her fists, Dworkin chastized audience members for being complacent in a sexist world.

"If you cannot find a way to translate the beauty of the dream you have into social reality, what you have in your head does not matter," she said. "It won't stop the rapist from raping you, it won't stop your daddy from fucking you and it sure as hell won't give you equal pay."

Dworkin also criticized feminist academics for not putting their knowledge to practice.

"What we learn when we do nothing is useless," she said. "You do not have to understand it down to its final little twist and turn of the curve in order for you to go out and do something about it."

Audience members gave Dworkin two standing ovations and bought several stacks of her books, sold by the Penn State Bookstore on campus after the speech.

"One of the wonderful things about her is that you sit there and she talks and you really get this feeling of empowerment," said Jae Sim (sophomore-pre med).

Financial consultant Rose Weber traveled four hours from Philadelphia to see Dworkin after a client mentioned Dworkin's scheduled appearance here.

"She's a fabulous speaker," Weber said. "I think she's very angry and she gets her anger across but without turning people off."

But Ravi Pachigolla, one of the few men in the audience, called some of Dworkin's views extreme and said Dworkin sometimes resorted to man-bashing.

"(Intercourse is) a natural biological act that both people enjoy," Pachigolla (sophomore-pre med) said. "The only way to overcome these stereotypes is to work with men, not to work against men. She made it out to seem that it's only you, you women, out there against the men."