One of the most famous US radical feminists of the second half of the 60s, the creator of the Society for the Complete Destruction of Men (SCUM), Valerie Gene Solanas, became famous for trying to shoot Andy Warhol's pop art icon. Why did Valerie become a feminist, what was her life like before meeting with Warhol, and what made the woman commit an attempt on the life of a famous artist?
Biography
Valerie Solanas was born on April 9, 1936. She grew up in a dysfunctional family, was subjected to sexual abuse by her father and moral oppression by her mother - a religious fanatic. Valerie studied very well at school, but was distinguished by an aggressive, explosive character - she fought with teachers, with students and even with parents of students.
At the age of 15, Valerie left home, having managed that same year, literally living on the street, to graduate from high school and enter the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland.
At 17, Valerie returned to her mother, announcing that she was pregnant. The father of the child was the married brother of her friend at the university. The girl’s mother, who was afraid of religious shame, took her daughter to distant relatives, where, immediately after giving birth, her child was taken away and sent to a foster family. After that, Valerie again left the family, this time forever.
She graduated from the university in 1958, for some time moved from city to city, earning begging and prostitution. Then she settled in a camping tent on the banks of the river, where she lived with her lover Steve. From this guy she became pregnant again and almost died after an underground abortion. Steve disappeared, and Valerie became embittered on the entire male floor. Having recovered after an unsuccessful abortion, she began her journey in the feminist movement.
OPUM Manifesto
In 1967, the thirty-year-old Valerie released her radical feminist work. It was called the "OPUM Manifesto" (in English SCUM Manifesto). This is a pseudoscientific essay that describes men as an intermediate between a monkey and a woman and calls for the destruction of all men who do not benefit women, and then create a Women's State.
After the release of the "Manifesto" society was divided into supporters and opponents. Opponents basically said that SCUM is an absolute concentrate from all Freudian writings, in which the word "man" is only replaced by "woman". Solanas herself, and her supporters, said that the text of the Manifesto should not be taken seriously, it is hyperbolic, satirical, and written to attract attention and further discussion.
Warhol assassination attempt
Since 1965, Solanas began to regularly visit the "Factory" - a mixture of art gallery and film studio, which Andy Warhol founded for his work. At that time, Andy temporarily tied to painting, discovering the art of cinema. So Valerie Solanas decided to bring her script to Warhol. The artist appreciated her work, promising to soon begin filming. Since then, Valerie began to come to the Factory every day, hoping to see how the film was made according to her script, but this did not happen, but they became quite close friends with Warhol. Solanas even admitted that Andy is an amazing male exception.
However, the radical feminist was disappointed. At one of the usual parties, continuing at the Factory without end, Valerie noticed in one of the rooms Edie Sedgwick - the then muse and Andy's mistress, lying in a drug outage with a lit cigarette, from which pillows had already started to light up. A little more - and she would have burned right in bed. Solanas pulled Edie from the blazing bed, putting out the fire with great difficulty. When she told Warhol about this, he did not blink. It was then that Valerie dawned: Andy Warhol was not special, he was simply indifferent to everyone and everything except himself.
This thought did not leave Valerie for several days. On June 10, 1968, she took out a revolver somewhere and headed for the Factory. When Warhol appeared, Solanas fired three shots right in the stomach of the artist. Andy survived and even refused to testify against Valerie. She herself surrendered to the police that day, going up to the first police officer she met, handing him a revolver and announcing that she had shot Andy Warhol.
Prison and death
Valerie Jean Solanas was sentenced to three years in prison and forced psychiatric treatment. Leaving the prison, she described in detail the inhumane attitude and bullying experienced by all female prisoners, and this work even helped to make some adjustments to the disorder that actually prevailed in women's prisons at that time.
The imprisonment greatly affected Valerie's condition: she began to drink a lot and got addicted to drugs that she had never used before. Valerie Solanas passed away on April 25, 1988. The cause was lung disease, which began in prison.
