A World without Men: Valerie Solanas and the Feminist Uses of Violence

Abstract

Turning to Valerie Solanas, the second wave writer famous for shooting Andy Warhol, this paper reconstructs a forgotten argument for the feminist use of violence. In the SCUM Manifesto, Solanas calls for women to commit gendercide against men to build a feminist utopia. Solanas rejects separatism because it cedes the world to men, instead arguing that women must use violence to reclaim and change the world. Solanas thus sees violence as a world-making project. During the second wave, Solanas’ shooting of Warhol fractured feminism into liberal and radical camps: liberals rejected Solanas, and radicals embraced her. Both sides of the feminist divide, however, turned away from violence as a political tactic. Even sympathetic radicals adopted separatist agendas that sanctioned violence only for the purpose of self-defense. I argue that the reaction to Solanas by her contemporaries, and the erasure of her from history, is symptomatic of a feminist allergy to violence. Returning to Solanas’ work and life raises once again the question that remains suppressed in feminist thought: is violence a justifiable means to achieve feminist ends?