The SCUM manifesto

[sethstarkaddersmum]

anyone want to talk about this, after it came up on another thread?

The SCUM Manifesto

Some background. It is basically an anti-male rant written in 1968. It is, fairly clearly IMO, a parody of the anti-woman stuff found in authors like Freud. However, people often think it is real and it is sometimes used to prove that feminists actually hate men and want to kill them (SCUM stands for Society for Cutting Up Men.)

I'm a bit about the fact that the Wiki article on the author doesn't mention that it's a joke, and the article on the manifesto itself writes as if there is serious academic debate about it.

Personally I think it's very funny.

I'm interested in what people think about it - was anyone aware of it? Anyone think it's serious?

In any case it's useful for feminists to be aware of it so they can spot when it is being misused.

and if anyone knows anything else about it I would be really interested

Just looked at the wiki entry it does say that some people say it's a parody etc.

OK I think.

I mean what one woman said, whether she meant it or not.... I don't see what that's got to do with much really. Earlier I ate a burger, and I am a feminist. Doesn't mean that feminists as a whole are a carniverous bunch who laugh in the face of veggies or something...

Shit forgot this is MN.

Make that a fortnums fillet steak.

Better not be ISNT

the Wiki article on the author doesn't mention it being parody, the one on the manifesto itself does.
how does Wiki work? Do people have to be signed up as an editor to add bits?

the text at the top says:
'She wrote the SCUM Manifesto which encouraged male gendercide and the creation of an all-female society.'
then a bit further down:
'During the late 1960s, Solanas wrote and self-published her best-known work, the SCUM Manifesto, a text which reads as a scathing, misandric attack on the male sex. SCUM is generally held to be an acronym of "Society for Cutting Up Men", although it does not appear in the manifesto itself, and is actually a backronym.'

I mean, the piece on Swift goes to the trouble of mentioning that A Modest Proposal is a satire - 'In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, a satire in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque logic, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich.'

Oh i see I looked up the manifesto.

I think anyone can add bits to wiki, there's an edit button at the top of the article, I clicked it but it looks a touch confusing. theoretically yes I think the whole point is that anyone can add or amend content.

Whether or not it was intended as a satire (and I think it probably was, satire is often vitriolic rather than gigglesome), certainly no one is suggesting that it's a set of instructions to be followed literally.

Well, except for a few mental anti-feminists I suppose.

I'm amazed that so many of you think it's satire. It's not.

Valerie Solanas is the one author who frequently gets thrown back the the face of feminists. Youz should all be aware of her if at least to be ready when she gets quoted at you. She is at the core of many of the 'man hater' insults that get bandied about.

I advise you ll need to read further back than the amazon 'new in' list you'll find there is a massive canon of feminist literature out there.

This is intended to be as patronising as it sounds

kisses
'not really one of us BlackBess'

xoxo

I am not suggesting that Solanis is part of any canon. She is however tied in with feminist history, if only by negative association. The SCUM manifesto is what many non-feminists associated with feminism in the 70's and 80's

The case of Valarie Solanis got more airtime in that period of history than many of the feminist campaigners of the time because her case was so sensationalist. The papers were full of her and a swathe of anti feminist cartoons, articles and jokes blew up because of her. She was seen by many people who no knowledge of feminism to be representative of what feminism was about. Valarie Solanis was massively damaging to the feminist movement whereas in reality she was a mentally ill woman who would never have got airtime had she not put a bullet in Andy Warhol.

Has nobody ever quoted 'all men are scum' at you? It's a misquote of Valarie Solanis. She never actually said this although she might as well

Er I assumed BB's first post was a bit of a joke. Second one was straight.

'who had no knowledge of feminism"

No joke. I write flippantly sometimes because I am flippant.

Mmm, BlackBess, why assume we don't know any of this stuff?

Many a truth is said in jest.

I've always assumed she was both mentally ill and writing satirically.

'I'm amazed that so many of you think it's satire. It's not. '

and your reasons/evidence for that assertion?