SCUM Manifesto is a manifesto by American radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas which was first self-published in 1967.; Sometimes described as a satire or parody, it declares male biological and moral inferiority the cause of the ills of humankind and advocates eliminating men, urging women to "overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex".
The term SCUM appeared on the cover of the first edition from Olympia Press, published in 1968 following Solanas's attempted assassination of Andy Warhol, as "S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men)". Solanas objected, insisting that SCUM was not an acronym, although the longer title appeared in a Village Voice ad she had written in 1967.
The SCUM Manifesto was little known until the attempt on Warhol's life by Solanas, which brought significant public attention to her and the manifesto.
Publication history Solanas wrote SCUM Manifesto between 1966 and 1967. In 1967, she self-published the first edition by making two thousand mimeographed copies and selling them on the streets of Greenwich Village, Manhattan. (Chronology) Solanas charged women one dollar and men two dollars each for a copy. and see p. 146 By the following spring, about 400 copies had been sold. Solanas signed a contract for a novel in August 1967 with publisher Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, but asked him to accept the SCUM Manifesto in its place later that year.
Following Solanas's attempted assassination of Andy Warhol in 1968, Girodias quickly published a commercial edition of SCUM Manifesto through Olympia Press. This edition included a preface by Girodias and an essay, "Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter", by the satirist Paul Krassner. The back cover included a reproduction of the front page of the New York Post with the headline "Andy Warhol Fights for Life". Solanas objected to the editorial changes made by Girodias, including the elaboration of SCUM as " (Society for Cutting Up Men)". In an interview with The Village Voice, Solanas commented that "none of the corrections ... [she] wanted made were included and that many other changes in wording were made—all for the worse—and that there were many 'typographical errors': words and even extended parts of sentences left out, rendering the passages they should've been in incoherent."Valerie Solanas Replies, in Smith, Howard, & Brian Van der Horst, Scenes, in The Village Voice, vol. XXII, no. 31, August 1, 1977, p. 29, cols. 1–2 (emphasis so in original). Following the bankruptcy of Olympia Press, the copyright reverted to Solanas, who self-published a new edition in 1977 stating, "This is the Valerie Solanas edition", and adding an introduction "by Valerie Solanas".
The SCUM Manifesto has been reprinted at least 10 times in English and translated into Croatian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Danish. It has also been excerpted in several feminist anthologies, including Sisterhood Is Powerful (1970), a collection of radical feminist writing edited by Robin Morgan.Morgan, Robin, ed., Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement (N.Y.: Random House, 1st ed. 1970), pp. 514–519. See also . (and see pp. 15–16), citing as excerpting SCUM Manifesto Kolmar, Wendy, & Frances Bartkowski, eds., Feminist Theory: A Reader (Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield, 2000), & Albert, Judith Clavir, & Stewart Edward Albert, eds., The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade (1984). The 1998 French edition, republished by 1001 Nuits in 2005, includes a preface by the French novelist Michel Houellebecq. The 1996 edition by AK Press included a biography by Freddie Baer, and was based on the 1991 Phoenix Press version, which was based on the 1983 Matriarchy Study Group, London, version.SCUM Manifesto, Valerie Solanas, AK Press 1997. Verso Books published an edition in 2004 based on Olympia Press's 1971 London edition and containing an introduction by the feminist philosopher Avital Ronell. Jon Purkis and James Bowen describe the SCUM Manifesto as a "pamphlet which has become one of the longest surviving perennials of anarchist publishing".
Solanas's sister, Judith A. Solanas Martinez, is the reported copyright holder of the SCUM Manifesto by 1997 renewal.
Contents
The 1967 self-published edition of the SCUM Manifesto opens with the following declaration:
The 1968 Olympia Press edition is slightly different:
Solanas begins by presenting a theory of the male as an "incomplete female" who is genetically deficient due to the small size of the Y chromosome. According to Solanas, this genetic deficiency causes men to be emotionally limited, egocentric, incapable of mental passion or genuine interaction, lacking in empathy, and unable to relate to anything apart from their 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 Sigmund Freud's theory of penis envy, and argues instead that men have "pussy envy". Solanas 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 any defense of the current system is irrational, and that "rational men" should instead accept the necessity of their destruction.
Reception Historian Alice Echols writes that members of New York Radical Women knew "next to nothing" about Solanas until her 1968 shooting of Warhol, but that afterward, Solanas's case became a among radical feminists, and SCUM Manifesto became "obligatory reading".
Various critics, scholars, and journalists have analyzed the Manifesto and Solanas's statements regarding it. James Martin Harding said she a "radical program". Dana Heller said the author had an "anarchic social vision" and the Manifesto had "near-utopian theories" and a "utopian vision of a world in which mechanization and systems of mass (re)production would render work, sexual intercourse, and the money system obsolete."
According to the Village Voice reviewer B. Ruby Rich, "SCUM was an uncompromising global vision" that criticized men for many faults including war and not curing disease; many but not all points were "quite accurate"; some kinds of women were also criticized, subject to women's changing when men are not around; and sex (as in sexuality) was criticized as "exploitative". According to Janet Lyon, the Manifesto "pitt[ed] ... 'liberated' women ... against 'brainwashed' women". and see p. 107.
The feminist critic Germaine Greer said that Solanas argued that both genders were separated from their humanity "Solanas argued that 'men and women [were "divide[d]"] from humanity'; '[to] allow ... women to move back to humanity[,] ... they exterminate men.'" and that men want to be like women. (Solanas said "that men covet all that women are, seeking degradation and effeminization at their hands.") and see p. 81, p. 99 n. 6 citing . The historian Alice Echols says the Manifesto articulates gender as absolute rather than relative.
Heller argued that the Manifesto shows women's separation from basic economic and cultural resources and, because of psychological subordination to men, women's perpetuation of that separation. Robert Marmorstein of the Voice said that SCUM's main message included that "men have fouled up the world" and "are no longer necessary (even biologically)". According to Laura Winkiel, the Manifesto wants heterosexual capitalism overthrown and the means of production taken over by women. Rich and Jansen said that technology and science would be welcome in the future. (Solanas favored science and technology and wanted computers distributed).
Jansen describes the plan for creating a women's world as mainly nonviolent, as based on women's nonparticipation in the current economy and having nothing to do with any men, thereby overwhelming police and military forces. If solidarity among women was insufficient, some women could take jobs and "unwork", causing systemic collapse; and describes the plan as anticipating that by eliminating money, there would be no further need to kill men. Opposing this Duong states that while the absurdity of what it describes might can cause people to ignore that at it's core "the SCUM manifesto endorses feminist violence".
Daily News reporters Frank Faso and Henry Lee, two days after Solanas shot Warhol, said Solanas "crusades for a one-sex world free of men". Winkiel says the Manifesto imagines a violent revolutionary coup by women. Prof. Ginette Castro found the Manifesto was "the feminist charter on violence", supporting terrorist hysteria. ("certainly" "the feminist charter on violence", "legitimiz[ing] ... hysteria as a terrorist force"). According to Jansen, Solanas posited men as animals who will be stalked and killed as prey, the killers using weapons as "phallic symbols turned against men". (Solanas posited men as animals who will be stalked and killed as prey, the killers using weapons as "phallic symbols turned against men") (emphasis so in original)) ("men are the real animals", per p. 148 and see p. 208).