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SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas
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SCUM Manifesto (original 1971; edition 2004)

by Valerie Solanas (Author)

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8312126,067 (3.56)11
Skip the tedious introduction from Ronell which adds nothing and go straight to the hilarious, furious and strangely prescient (in places) manifesto. Just watched the excellent I Shot Andy Warhol and it reads better if you have the harsh New Yawk accent in your head. ( )
1 vote arewenotben | Jul 31, 2020 |
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Wow. I am frankly blown away by how someone can be so incisive and laser focused on some things, while just so horrifically, wildly off on everything else. This got an extra star for some good ideas and making me genuinely laugh out loud a surprising amount. Credit where credit is due, this is definitely a manifesto.

Cards on the table, I am an anarchist intersectional feminist who is also Queer, Genderqueer (as it seems relevant, transfemme), as well as having chronic physical and mental conditions and disabilities. Take what you will from that and my perspective on this.

Currently, I don't see myself as an insurrectionist, though I do understand and agree with a number of insurrectionist ideas, of which there are a whole bunch on display here to the point where if you took some of the more ridiculous stuff out, this would read as a pretty basic anarcho-feminist insurrectionist manifesto. The problem is it is filled with utter hateful nonsense that targets and ignores a whole lot more than just males side by side with some seriously important truths and ideas.

There seems to be a confusion of meaning or specificity that, if she meant the patriarchy I would be more on board, though still not with the indiscriminate (regardless of how she describes it) killing of men and the what amounts explicitly or otherwise to the killing of all other genders and women not on board with this manifesto.

It's the bioessentialism that really does it for me, along with the ignorance and erasure of LGBTQIA and what amounts to explicit transphobia and homophobia, ableism and calls for eugenics, and no mention at all of race and culture and the specific ways in which all of this effects BIPOC, which gives this whole thing a feel of radical suffragettes or certain modern radicals who exclude transgender people, sex workers, and have yet to reckon with white supremacy.

Smash the system. Topple the state. Do away with money and the concept of work. Move forward with automation to help all, not just reduce overheads for the wealthy. Destroy the patriarchy, white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and all other prejudices and marginalisations that effect people in our societies. Fuck yeah. But the idea that men and inherently bad and women are inherently good is fucked. People are people. Authority corrupts and if our history was that of matriarchal societies, rather than patriarchal we would still be fucked.

To ask the ludicrous question of one of the avatars of the evils of patriarchy, what is a woman? Easy. Someone who fucking tells you she is. That's it. Same with men, non-binary, agender, or any other gender or element of identity.

All men are conveyed a privilege under patriarchy (as well as difficulties everyone faces from toxic masculinity), just as all white, able bodied, neurotypical people, etc. are also conveyed privilege in the majority of the world. This does not make all of these people inferior or evil, and it doesn't go anyway to show what intersections of marginalisation anyone from these groups have and how that effects their life. It's not a numbers game, but we all have individual needs and difficulties. I'm Queer, trans, disabled, neurodivergent. I am also white and my sex and assigned gender at birth were male, regardless of my rejection of any of this aspects and/ or the ideologies behind them. There are privileges, marginalisations, and experiences I have that others won't. It doesn't make me any better or worse a person as anyone. The most privileged person could be one of the nicest people, no one chooses the circumstances of their birth. Equally, the most marginalised person doesn't mean they will be the nicest. Actions, rather than circumstances or labels determine a person's character. There might be honus on those with privilege to not allow passivity to make them culpable in the harm done by the systems that benefit them. But thinking any element of identity confers inherent good or bad is just fashism--noone has to care for their oppressors, but generalisations of any intrinsic element is fucked. Landlords and cops are all bastards, but anyone can stop being that.

As much as I laughed, this shit is just depressing, both for how close, but so far it is, but because I totally see how somone could get so twisted as to get lost in this sauce. I don't want to have to waste time arguing and fighting with people who think like this when the people in charge are the actual issue. It's just sad and scary just how many people who should be comrades we have to keep an eye on and make sure they don't kill us, before the system does.

This is hateful bullshit spewed by a broken person who wants something better for her and hers, but wr can only truly make something better for all. I just wish more of us broken folx could stick together.

Edit: I kinda think whether or not this is satire becomes moot based on her actions and sole of the truly terrifying stuff I've seen taking this extremely seriously. As satire, the inversion of the the last two thousand years is striking and definitely makes you think. Perhaps, this hit different when it was first published, but in 2023 with manosphere, TERFs, SWERFs, and the rise of LGBTQIA , particularly trans, hatred and legislation, it reads as real and as scary as I think it was mostly meant.

The women who want men dead are scary, as the men are likewise, though I understand why they feel that way. The men in the comments and replies being chauvinist pricks, as much I as I have issues with this, you are the reason this exist in the first place. Shut the fuck up because the rest of us aren't that bothered if you get plugged full of Warhols. ( )
  RatGrrrl | Dec 20, 2023 |
most rational work i have ever read ( )
  milanagt | Sep 27, 2023 |
The Manifesto opens with the following declaration:[
"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 eliminate the male sex.
Solanas begins by presenting a theory of the male as an "incomplete female" who is genetically deficient due to the Y chromosome. According to Solanas, this genetic deficiency causes the male to be emotionally limited, egocentric, and incapable of mental passion or genuine interaction. She describes the male as lacking empathy and unable to relate to anything apart from his own physical sensations.
The Manifesto continues by arguing that the male spends his life attempting to become female, and thereby overcome his inferiority. He does this by "constantly seeking out, fraternizing with and trying to live through and fuse with the female." Solanas rejects Freud's theory of penis envy, and argues that men have "pussy envy". Solanas then accuses men of turning the world into a "shitpile" and presents a long list of grievances.
The bulk of the Manifesto consists of a list of critiques of the male sex. They are divided into the following sections:
• War
• Niceness, Politeness and "Dignity"
• Money, Marriage and Prostitution, Work and Prevention of an Automated Society
• Fatherhood and Mental Illness (fear, cowardice, timidity, humility, insecurity, passivity)
• Suppression of Individuality, Animalism (domesticity and motherhood) and Functionalism
• Prevention of Privacy
• Isolation, Suburbs and Prevention of Community
• Conformity
• Authority and Government
• Philosophy, Religion and Morality Based on Sex
• Prejudice (racial, ethnic, religious, etc.)
• Competition, Prestige, Status, Formal Education, Ignorance and Social and Economic Classes
• Prevention of Conversation
• Prevention of Friendship and Love
• "Great Art" and "Culture"
• Sexuality
• Boredom
• Secrecy, Censorship, Suppression of Knowledge and Ideas, and Exposés
• Distrust
• Ugliness
• Hate and Violence
• Disease and Death
Due to the aforementioned grievances, the Manifesto concludes that the elimination of the male sex is a moral imperative. It argues that women must replace the "money-work system" with a system of complete automation, as this will lead to the collapse of the government and the loss of men's power over women.
In order to accomplish these goals, the Manifesto proposes that a revolutionary vanguard of women be formed. This vanguard is referred to as SCUM. The Manifesto argues that SCUM should employ sabotage and direct action tactics rather than civil disobedience, as civil disobedience is only useful for making small changes to society. In order to destroy the system, violent action is necessary: "If SCUM ever marches, it will be over the President's stupid, sickening face; if SCUM ever strikes, it will be in the dark with a six-inch blade."
The Manifesto ends by describing a female-dominated utopian future with, eventually, no men. There would be no money, and disease and death would have been eliminated. It argues that men are irrational to defend the current system and should accept the necessity of their destruction.
  petervanbeveren | Mar 23, 2023 |
lido com distanciamente, maravilhoso na sua virulência. ( )
  henrique_iwao | Aug 30, 2022 |
"There is no human reason for money or for anyone to work more than two or three hours a week at the very most." I agree. Can we make that happen? ( )
  Koralis | Jul 12, 2022 |
This is one impressive train wreck. If I didn't know the background, I'd say this is great, amusing satire that does a good job poking fun at the more extreme feminists.

However, I did look into Valerie Solanas' history beforehand. Wow. It blows my mind to think this is supposed to be taken seriously. So, if I need to evaluate its value as a worthwhile piece of information with a reliable opinion... blech.

But if I were to evaluate its entertainment value, tis much higher. It's very memorable and quotable, but likely not in the way Solanas had intended. This is so terrible in so many ways... and I would recommend it. ( )
  Allyoopsi | Jun 22, 2022 |
When I 1st reviewed this bk I gave it a 2 star rating & the following review:

"The edition shown isn't the one I have. There are many editions for 2 obvious reasons: the subject matter is sensational & she shot Andy Warhol. She's dementedly angry but so am I so I don't hold that against her. Shooting Warhol was a pretty stupid thing to do though. In the 1980s I tried to find her in NYC to interview her. I didn't succeed. I probably didn't try hard enuf. By then, I'm told, she was a street person. The edition I have is published by the "Matriarchy Study Group" from London & I'm tempted to believe that that's a joke - even though it probably isn't."

Now I've changed the review to show the cover of the edition I have. This edition claims to be a copy of one "published by the Matriarchy Study Group, as reprinted from a recent edition produced by AIM and Phoenix press, London." I've changed the rating to 3 stars just b/c the bombastic entertainment value is so high. The 1st 2 paragraphs:

"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 to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.

It is now technically possible to reproduce without the aid of males (or, for that matter, females) and to produce only females. We must begin immediately to do so. Retaining the male has not even the dubious purpose of reproduction. the male is a biological accident: the y (male) gene is an incomplete x (female) gene, that is, has an incomplete set of chromosones. In other words, the male is an incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage. To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency disease and males are emotional cripples."

It never ceases to amaze me that anyone imagines a future in wch automation will do all the work. How do these people think the machines will be maintained? Automation has in no way reduced human labor, it's just changed its focus. At some level, human labor will always be involved.

At least Solonas mentions the possibility of reproduction w/o females - as W. S. Burroughs had also done - somewhat to the end of declaring women obsolete. Those 2 wd've made an interesting pair.

Having seen Solonas in the only movie of Warhol's I can remember her being in, "I, A Man", I can't say that she appeared to have much of a sense of humor. & most, if not all, people I know who are likely to read & enjoy the "SCUM Manifesto" are likely to read it for its humor value. Interestly, "I, A Man" creates as good case as any for reinforcing Solonas's take on men. The main character is an idiot male trying to fuck every woman he crosses paths w/ (& he does succeed from time to time) - something he does w/ a primitive logic that's utterly w/o charm. The nature of Solonas's resistance to him in the movie impresses me that the 2 of them are on par w/ each other. Both of them are people I wd've probably avoided if we'd been in the same social circles. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
"There's no reason why a society consisting of rational beings capable of empathizing with each other, complete and having no natural reason to compete, should have a government, laws, or leaders."
I wish I had run across this flaming manifesto much earlier. I would love to quote it at inopportune times for the rest of my life.
"Self-forgetfulness should be one's goal, not self-absorption." ( )
  et.carole | Jan 21, 2022 |
Skip the tedious introduction from Ronell which adds nothing and go straight to the hilarious, furious and strangely prescient (in places) manifesto. Just watched the excellent I Shot Andy Warhol and it reads better if you have the harsh New Yawk accent in your head. ( )
1 vote arewenotben | Jul 31, 2020 |
“Every man, deep down, knows he's a worthless piece of shit.” ( )
1 vote Jetztzeit | May 15, 2020 |
“SCUM Manifesto” is a fascinating and well-written manifesto that I believe all people would find entertaining. While extremely disturbing, for it discusses eliminating the entire male sex in order to better society, it is definitely an interesting read. We can see the complex and deep intricacies of Valerie Solanas’ mind. This radical feminist text is continuously shocking, even if written in the 1960s. Whether you agree or disagree, empathize with the author or become incredibly infuriated, it is a worthwhile read. While the content is problematic in its hatred towards men and reinforcement of a rigid gender binary, it portrays an fascinating moment of feminist history. -Nicole S.
  muwomenscenter | May 31, 2013 |
i wanted to give this piece 1 star because you can pull some good ideas and concepts out of her ranting, but i couldn't equate it with the other books that i've given even 1 star on this list. and i'm not cool with something so motivated by hatred, so i can live with the .5 star rating for this one. (was she for real, or could this have been a swiftian satire? i have trouble believing that she's for real, but evidence from her life suggests she is, so...)

i refuse to accept or believe that all men are inherently bad, especially as bad as solaras portrays them, and that there's no chance of redemption. i understand her point, but i just don't believe that is true. maybe she'd say that i'm not a radical enough feminist (i think she'd use much cruder and offensive language to call me out) and maybe she'd be right, but i won't believe that the base humanity that can exist in people has been completely lost from the male gender. and i also won't accept her call to violence; i do not believe that is a constructive analysis of our society. i'm not a fan of such vitriol, whose only conclusion is gen(der)ocide.

that said:

"There's no reason why a society consisting of rational beings capable of empathizing with each other, complete and having no natural reason to compete, should have a government, laws, or leaders."

"No genuine social revolution can be accomplished by the male, as the male on top wants the status quo, and all the male on the bottom wants is to be the male on top. The male 'rebel' is a farce; this is the male's 'society,' made by him to satisfy his needs." ( )
  overlycriticalelisa | Apr 2, 2013 |
As a rant, it's an excellent one and very funny in parts.

I had issues with the ableism of it, and I'm not sure what to do with the anti-gay slurs. Which seem ... not to be slurs to Solanas? Which doesn't give her the right to use them.

Read as a parody of the typical women-hating rant found in an awful lot of books by Manly Man, it's brilliance. Read literally, it's horrifying in parts and very, very clever in others.

For a 60-page work, it's generating more thought than anything else I've read this year. ( )
1 vote JetSilver | Mar 31, 2013 |
intense. ( )
  velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |
SCUM is short for “Society for Cutting Up Men”, and the manifesto is Valerie Solanas’ infamous text about why the destruction of the male sex is necessary, and her visions about a society free of men. A Stockholm theatre has done a staged version of the manifesto, more or less just presenting the text as it is, causing huge controversy. Public anti-feminist voices have been overbidding each other in condemning the performance, and the actress (but not the male director, go figure) has received numerous death threats, forcing her to play several shows under police protection. A few weeks ago I went to see the performance, and it was really good. This prompted me to pick up the text itself, which I got for Christmas last year from my brother, and has been lingering on my shelf for a year.

There’s no doubt Solanas text is very strong medicine indeed. The male is presented as a genetic defect, incapable of any feelings and genuine relations to other, which has created a highly destructive society only to mask this fact.

It’s very much a shame that Solanas actually shot Andy Warhol – this act makes it hard to overlook the possibility to read her agenda literally. Otherwise this whole work can just as easily read as a sharp metaphor. But really, you need to have an extremely low degree of self-distance in order to be as offended by this as many white hetero men have been. Instead, if you dare to actually look past the verbal slugging and extreme positioning of Solanas, deranged at times, there are some genuine points made. There is stuff here for a western man to actually ponder. And then, reading this text actually becomes a rather liberating experience. Also, Solanas is funny as hell at times.

Absolutely not for everyone, but if you can stand getting slapped around a bit (or well, maybe more than a bit), this is a manifesto well worth reading. ( )
4 vote GingerbreadMan | Nov 28, 2012 |
I always view society as ever in a state of tension between mainstream views and more radical ones. That tension eventually resolves over time via the assimilation (and/or co-opting) of the less upsetting-to-the-mainstream ideas into society as a whole. Extreme views from all sides are necessary to shake up and wake up society.

This manifesto is as extreme as extreme can get in terms of what it suggests for the future of both capitalism men, but it's provocative and highly tongue-in-cheek. One line in it made me stop cold: "you've got to go through a lot of sex to get to anti-sex," a sentiment ever more relevant given the rise of pseudo-empowerment via raunch culture for women. Worth reading as a shake-up piece if not as a realistic basis for a worldview. ( )
  heinous-eli | Jun 7, 2010 |
The S.C.U.M. Manifesto is brief, sensationalist, witty, and extreme, and is about the desirability of the destruction of the entire male gender. It's easy to see why many people would find it offensive or insane, because that's basically what it seems to have been meant to be. But once I read not merely the Manifesto itself, but learned a little about Valerie Solanis herself, a different picture emerged. The brief bio of her in the back of this edition is sufficient to help understand her motivations. For those who accuse Solanas of being nothing more than a man-hater, consider that she was molested by her father, beaten by her grandfather, and panhandled and worked as a prostitute to support herself. She had good reason to hate men, but at the same time there's a distinct ambiguity to her anti-male rage, it seems odd to hear her taunt male sexuality by declaring it "incapable of zestfully, lustfully tearing off a piece", and at times she tries to rationalize complete disinterest in sex; "Sex is not part of a relationship; on the contrary, it is a solitary experience, non-creative, a gross waste of time". She even contradicts her own premise; "A woman not only takes her identity and individuality for granted, but knows instinctively that the only wrong is to hurt others, and that the meaning of life is love" (an odd sentiment in a Manifesto about the destruction of the male gender), but also seems consciously aware of it. The purpose of the Manifesto is, after all, to rant. To entertain. And since every sentence explodes from the page with the sort of intensity usually reserved for the most extreme of religious fundamentalists, but with profanity and irreverence that the religious could never condone, it succeeds wonderfully. And furthermore it successfully conveys a message, albeit an over-the-top, exaggerated one, of dissatisfaction with both gender relations and society in general.

Was Valerie Solanas insane? It certainly seems that she spent portions of her life that way. But it also seems that at times she was not merely lucid, but quite talented. If anything, the mental illness she suffered from should be viewed in the context of the traumas she endured in life. Given the nature of those traumas, her anger at men and mental instability seem entirely predictable. And the fact that she penned such an extraordinary work, one that has lasted nearly 20 years now beyond her own lifespan in spite of the troubles she had to endure, serves as evidence of a talent which couldn't be completely extinguished even by the harshest adversities. A highly recommended read for anyone who wants something that fearlessly challenges the norms of society as we know it. ( )
4 vote IbnAlNaqba | Apr 29, 2010 |
Why are manifestos so often written by crazies? This 50-page anti-male screed by the woman most famous for shooting Andy Warhol is, well, kind of hard to read. I can ignore the man hatred - that's a matter of opinion - but many of her suggestions for improving the world are simply batty. First, that her notion of communism would work. It's inconceivable that all the people of the world would work together towards Solanas's idea of the common good. Second, "automation" does not mean zero work. Machines must be created and maintained. (Of course, I suppose Solanas would expect men to take care of this.) Third, old age is not a disease, and scientists do not hold the secret to immortality. That's patently absurd. If they did, don't you think these supposedly selfish and insecure men would have made themselves immortal by now? So in short, while this was a reasonably entertaining read in parts purely for the novelty factor, it's not something I would recommend. They're not dangerous ideas, merely nonsensical ones. ( )
1 vote melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |
"Life in this society being, in the best of cases, a total bore, and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, it remains to civic-minded, responsible and thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, install complete automation and destroy compulsive heterosexuality." When I read that sentence I knew I had to have the book; it's a brilliant, excoriating expression of a radical feminism that I wouldn't want to see implemented any more than I would want to see Biblical law enforced. But I can enjoy both the Bible and the Manifesto for their amazing prose, and I feel sorry for those who can't separate the medium from the message. ( )
1 vote languagehat | Apr 13, 2006 |
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