SCUM Manifesto
Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.
So says Valerie Solanas at the beginning of her SCUM Manifesto. The manifesto itself is violent, twisted, and disturbing--but the frustration and anger Solanas exhibits is, given the society in which she lived, understandable. She identifies some serious problems with American society and its attitude toward gender roles, war, and economics. The trouble is that in her identification of the problem, she frequently seems to mis-identify the cause as well as the solution.
According to Solanas, the cause of America's problems is that men are nothing more than incomplete females; she says the male is "a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage" (35). The male, she continues,is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, of love, friendship, affection, of tenderness. . . . He is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes. (36)
Men are purely physical, incomplete, and just generally fucked up. As a result of this and as a result of their efforts to complete themselves and deny their "pussy envy," Solanas argues, men are responsible for war, hypocrisy, the money system, mental illness, "Great Art" (which she sees as a bad thing), sexual obsession, prejudice, social and economic inequalities, boredom, hatred, and even disease and death.
The solution? Well, the solution is simple. Get rid of the men and let the women--the "dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe," not the "nice, passive, accepting, 'cultivated,' polite, dignified, subdued, dependent, scared, mindless, insecure, approval-seeking Daddy's Girls" (70)--rule the world. Solanas says, after all, that "A small handful of SCUM can take over the country within a year by systematically fucking up the system, selectively destroying property, and murder" (71). Through "unworking" (getting jobs and subverting them), destroying useless objects (like Great Art), and killing all men who are not part of SCUM themselves, Solanas hopes to remake the country into a utopia in which men are nothing more than spectators to the world created by women, in which much work is automated and education is streamlined, and in which sex and reproduction both are unnecessary.
Solanas's manifesto is fascinating precisely because she is so wrong on so many counts but she still compels one's attention and gives voice to an anger (if not a philosophy) that still has a precarious and uncertain role to play in feminist politics.
About Avital Ronell's essay on Solanas's manifesto, I would say simply that it is unnecessary. Ronell engages in post-structuralist linguistic play based on Solanas's life, name, and text, but offers little in the way of concrete analysis or useful historical context.
So says Valerie Solanas at the beginning of her SCUM Manifesto. The manifesto itself is violent, twisted, and disturbing--but the frustration and anger Solanas exhibits is, given the society in which she lived, understandable. She identifies some serious problems with American society and its attitude toward gender roles, war, and economics. The trouble is that in her identification of the problem, she frequently seems to mis-identify the cause as well as the solution.
According to Solanas, the cause of America's problems is that men are nothing more than incomplete females; she says the male is "a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage" (35). The male, she continues,is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, of love, friendship, affection, of tenderness. . . . He is trapped in a twilight zone halfway between humans and apes. (36)
Men are purely physical, incomplete, and just generally fucked up. As a result of this and as a result of their efforts to complete themselves and deny their "pussy envy," Solanas argues, men are responsible for war, hypocrisy, the money system, mental illness, "Great Art" (which she sees as a bad thing), sexual obsession, prejudice, social and economic inequalities, boredom, hatred, and even disease and death.
The solution? Well, the solution is simple. Get rid of the men and let the women--the "dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe," not the "nice, passive, accepting, 'cultivated,' polite, dignified, subdued, dependent, scared, mindless, insecure, approval-seeking Daddy's Girls" (70)--rule the world. Solanas says, after all, that "A small handful of SCUM can take over the country within a year by systematically fucking up the system, selectively destroying property, and murder" (71). Through "unworking" (getting jobs and subverting them), destroying useless objects (like Great Art), and killing all men who are not part of SCUM themselves, Solanas hopes to remake the country into a utopia in which men are nothing more than spectators to the world created by women, in which much work is automated and education is streamlined, and in which sex and reproduction both are unnecessary.
Solanas's manifesto is fascinating precisely because she is so wrong on so many counts but she still compels one's attention and gives voice to an anger (if not a philosophy) that still has a precarious and uncertain role to play in feminist politics.
About Avital Ronell's essay on Solanas's manifesto, I would say simply that it is unnecessary. Ronell engages in post-structuralist linguistic play based on Solanas's life, name, and text, but offers little in the way of concrete analysis or useful historical context.