baskı"nın karşısında ortaya çıktığında, kurumsallaşmış şiddetin bir reddidir. Böyle eylemler kahramanlıktır... ti-grace atkinson” 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.” To get a full read of SCUM, it is important to consider not only what was written but who wrote it and why. It is something to read carefully and critically, which is easy to do since it is relatively short. It should be read both as a product of its time and as a product that was written off as “crazy” and therefore did not get enough attention in its time.

SCUM manifeso - this is what feminism is ACTUALLY about SCUM manifeso - this is what feminism is ACTUALLY about

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.”The largest problem with SCUM is that is in very binary around gender and excludes trans folks. As Michelle Tea writes in the intro, “Valerie’s understanding of gender was limited by her place and time.” The flaws come in her assumptions of gender essentialism in referring to people as the sex they were assigned at birth. These issues are complicated by the fact that Solanas did not conform to femininity in a number of ways so her own definitions of gender stray from the standard binary. Valerie Solanas is most well known as “the woman who shot Andy Warhol.” But as with all underrated women, there is a lot more worth knowing about her than her relationships with, and to, men. In doing research about her, a lot of what I found wrote her off as “crazy” or “insane,” and while there may be truth to her suffering from mental illness, there were reasons behind what she did that are worth examining. All of the following information I gathered from SCUM Manifesto, its introduction, and the film I Shot Andy Warhol which was based on her life (and definitely worth watching for anyone interested in knowing more).

SCUM Manifesto Quotes by Valerie Solanas - Goodreads SCUM Manifesto Quotes by Valerie Solanas - Goodreads

The copy that I have includes an introduction by Michelle Tea about her own experience with SCUM Manifesto. She ends her introduction by saying, “And to those of us who ‘who think a certain way’ SCUM Manifesto will always be a fascinating confusing document: a product of a place and time that remains sadly relevant; a piece of political literature, pre-riot grrrl, pre-punk punk, prescient and perturbing and revelatory. For all of its enduring controversy, or perhaps because of it, this work will be with us for the ages, to be wrestled with and fought over and never quite figured out.” Tea is right that SCUM represents a specific time and place. It is cathartic, problematic, brilliant, and ignorant all at the same time. O yüzden çözüm kadınları özgürleştirecek olan para-iş sisteminin tamamen ortadan kaldırılmasıdır; erkeklerle iktisadi eşitlik sağlanması değil.” Valerie was known to be a butch lesbian, often wearing baggy masculine clothing, cursing, and smoking. In 1977 when Village Voice wrote that she was not a lesbian, she said, “I consider the part where you said, ‘she’s not a lesbian’ to be seriously libel.” Solanas was college-educated but filled her writing with a lot of crassness which isolated her from academia and made her more in line with artists and proto punks. Solanas was not respected amongst her feminist peers, and was mostly unheard of until she shot, and nearly killed, Andy Warhol in 1968. 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.” The male claim that females find fulfillment through motherhood and sexuality reflects what males think they'd find fulfilling if they were female.”SCUM Manifesto is a great read if you are looking for a cathartic rant about the shortcomings of cis men, and there are many to be sure. The political climate we are living in is incredibly frustrating for women and gender non-conforming folks. SCUM Manifesto makes it clear that many of these same frustrations have been present and wrestled with for decades. But this work is more than rambling misandry—it was also anti-capitalism at a point where those thoughts were not as widespread as they are today. Her lawyer, Florence Kennedy, who was a radical feminist of the time referred to her as “one of the most important spokeswomen of the feminist movement.”