Precis on SCUM Manifesto

My first impressions on Valerie Solanas's SCUM Manifesto were that it was a ludicrous, bizarre, and fallacious attack on the male sex. I have undertaken this precis to see what kind of sense I can garner from this essay.

The essay begins by bringing up the inherent advantage that women have over men because of an increased number of chromosomes, and then goes to show how this causes men to want more than anything else in their lives to be female. However, men, in an attempt to hide this jealousy of females, instead indulge in an elaborate scheme to hide their true ambitions, so that they seem "manly". This includes them architecting an economy in which they are the male breadwinners, mainly so they feel as they have a purpose in life. After it has been established that males are completely lacking and have only one superiority over females (to convince females that men are women and women are men), it moves on to demonstrate how SCUM will work to change this and create a society where women are the leaders and citizens, while males are allowed to "sit back, relax, enjoy the show, and ride the waves to their demise."

Solanas was an interesting character, a schizophrenic woman best known for her attempt to murder Andy Warhol. Sexually abused as a child, she lived as a prostitute and beggar, and years after writing SCUM Manifesto claimed that it was not to be taken literally. Based on her murder attempt and other stalker acts that earned her many years in prison and that demonstrate her mental instability, it is difficult to ascertain whether she truly meant that SCUM Manifesto was to be taken literally, or merely to kindle discussion over feminism.

SCUM Manifesto is an entreaty to all women that they realize the current domination that the inherently unsuperior male race has over them, and for this reason, I would assume that the audience she wishes to attract is any and all women. At one point she elaborates upon the Men's Auxiliary of SCUM "who are working to diligently eliminate temselves," so one may assume that she also would like to attract a male audience. However, if men are endowed with the great power of convincing women otherwise of whatever womenconceive, perhaps she does not wish to attract a male audience so that they cannot work against the SCUM movement, which is supposed to be "furtive, sneaky, and underhanded."

Solanas makes this argument to more than call into question the female's role in society, but rather, to impress upon the audience female superiority. She is taking feminism to a whole new level, and rather than advocating for equal rights, she is advocating for a society in which women are the only worthwhile part.

The thesis that Solanas provides for the work is conveniently provided in the first sentence: "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 moneysystem, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex." Solanas argues for the need for females to seize governmental power and institute a female-dominated system, as the current system is centered around the concept that men are trying to hide their want and need to be female.

Solanas' argument revolves around the general warrant that males are a biological accident, "a walking abortion," who are missing a chromosome. She states, "maleness is a deficiency disease." Taking this as truth, she goes on to describe how this deficiency in chromosomes causes men to be unfit for any role in society. However, this argument cannot be taken as truth. It could just as easily be said that females are overdeveloped males, who rather than have a deficiency in chromosomes, have an excessive number. It is of note that people with down syndrome suffer from an extra chromosome. Using this argument, one could say that females too suffer from a smaller mental capacity and inherent disadvantages. A second assumption made by Solanas is that the only superiority that males have over females is that to be able to convince the population that men are women and women are men. If men have this ability to convince with such success that our whole society revolves around this one simple superiority, it seems to imply that the superiority of being able to convince others is the most important of them all, as it ultimately decides how our society functions.

Although Solanas' piece could be seen as a crazy interpretation of the ills in our society, it is very well organized, with a step by step argument that does seem coherent with the basic assumptions she sets forth in the beginning of this piece. It seems to be influenced by Adorno and Horkheimer, especially in the realm of automation to create more leisure time; she states, "There is no human reason for money or for anyone to work more than two or three hours a week at the very most. All non-creative jobs (practically all jobs now being done) could have been automated long ago, and in a moneyless society everyone can have as much of the best of everything as she wants." She proposes a society wherein money has been eliminated, and machines take a prominent role.

However, it is interesting that Solanas also proposes a true democracy, where "it will be possible for every woman to vote directly on every issue by means of an electronic voting machine in her house." She is proposing equality among all females.

Finally, I think it is interesting to compare SCUM Manifesto with the movie "They Live." In "They Live," those who wear the glasses see that the zombies are not fit for their society and must be killed. They respond to the problem of the zombies by violent shooting and attacks. In the same way, those who understand that women are inherently superior to men and that men must be eliminated from society, join SCUM, who will "keep on destroying, looting, fucking-up, and killing until the money-work system no longer exists and automation is completely instituted or until enough women co-operate with SCUM to make violence unnecessary to achieve these goals." Regardless of the men who perhaps are not aggressively supporting the current society, until completely control has been established by SCUM, violence will be used to control the male population and men will be endangered. SCUM is also sneaky like the Zombies were in "They Live," as SCUM "will always aim to avoid detection and punishment."

Another interesting comparison to draw is that of males with the spectacle. In the same way that the spectacle causes people to move farther away from being to seeming, in the same way, males cause females to lose track of who they are and lets them fall into the role of Daddy's Girl. Spectacle, when seen under the eyes of mass culture, is deceptive, working towards people forgetting and denying what they are truly involved in. Males have caused females to be convinced that they are not superior, losing in the same way what they are for what seems to be.

SCUM Manifesto was a fascinating read, even if it revolved around untrue assumptions and was a bizarre read. Like "The Pyschotic Doctor Scherber," even though it teetered on the edge of being acceptable as an argument, it was very entertaining despite its horrific attack on the male sex.