Valerie Solanas & The SCUM Manifesto

Although feminism still survives, the divide between men and women has narrowed and is not as vehement as it was in the 1960s and 1970s and in the meantime, with women taking a more active role in the workforce and becoming more financially independent, many rising to executive positions in major corporations, and despite all the scientific advances that have indeed allowed women to become mothers without the need of sexual intercourse with a male, things have not quite turned out as Solana depicted them in her Manifesto. Money has not become obsolete, though it is replaced by plastic in many transactions, we still reproduce our kind, and all the men have not become part of a Men's Auxiliary, "working diligently to eliminate themselves" (Solanas).

The SCUM Manifesto is a mixture of satire and deep insight, and is Solanas's imaginary revenge for the powerlessness she feels over her life.

The paper will look first at the reasons for the SCUM Manifesto. Why did Solanas write it? Who was it intended for? Did she intend it as satire or was it meant to be taken seriously?. Parts of it indeed seem like satire, while others, in retrospect, bear a lot of truth - the dominati

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ived for the shootings, and said she would have also shot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, if it wasn't for a faulty gun. Schaub questions why the book has been rereleased, but finds the book a fascinating account of what he considers must have been a severe mental illness affecting Solanas, and considers it worth reading as 'an interesting historical artifact,' and admits that it is an impossible book to forget. According to Suzanne Moore, writing a review of the new verso version of SCUM Manifesto, "you either happen to think this is a work of unadulterated genius, or you dismiss it as the ravings of a loony psycho-bitch, not understanding that this is exactly what makes it so compelling and so charged with insight" (Moore). Moore says the book has been given an introduction by a respected academic which puts the work in context and takes it seriously. However, Moore believes it is the kind of thing that should be published as a pamphlet, and distributed in anarchist bookstores, where it would be available 'dirt cheap and scuzzy'(Moore). Moore believes that now, when feminism is ruled by "social-worker smiles of fembot Blairites, when we all lurve and respect men and are happy working together in the 'equal' partnership o
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3960
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page)