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Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 26, 1988) was an American radical feminist writer who struggled to be recognized for her writing but became famous for having shot the artist Andy Warhol in 1968. She wrote the SCUM Manifesto, a misandrous attack on patriarchal culture.
Early life Born in Ventnor City, New Jersey to Louis Solanas and Dorothy Bondo, Solanas was regularly sexually abused by her father. Her parents divorced during the 1940s, and by the age of 15 she was homeless. In spite of this, she completed high school and earned a degree in psychology from the University of Maryland. On March 31, 1953, her son David was born. Other details of her life until 1966 are unclear, but it is believed she traveled the country as an itinerant, supporting herself by panhandling and prostitution. New York City and The Factory Solanas arrived in Greenwich Village, New York City in 1966, where she wrote a play titled Up Your Ass about a man-hating prostitute and a panhandler. In 1967, she encountered Andy Warhol outside his studio, The Factory, and asked him to produce her play. Intrigued by the title, he accepted the script for review. According to Factory lore, Warhol, whose films were often shut down by the police for obscenity, thought the script was so pornographic that it must be a police trap. It was never returned to Solanas. Warhol did give Solanas a role in a scene in his film "I, A Man" (1968-1969). In that film, she and the film's title character (played by Tom Baker) haggle in an apartment building hallway over whether they should go into her apartment. Solanas dominates the improvised conversation, leading the bewildered actor through a dialogue about everything from "squishy asses," "men's tits," and lesbian "instinct." Ultimately, she leaves him to fend for himself, explaining "I gotta go beat my meat" as she exits the scene. During this period (the late 1960s), Solanas wrote and self-published the work for which she is best known — a call for destruction of men and men-loving women, as well as the liberation of women, called the SCUM Manifesto. SCUM is generally held to be an acronym of "Society for Cutting Up Men," although this acronym does not appear in the manifesto itself, and some believe that Solanas's "S.C.U.M." had no other meaning than the word scum. SCUM gained Solanas a following among some feminists, who regard her provocative text as a wake-up call and a source of reflection. Later in 1967, Solanas began to telephone Warhol, demanding he return the script of Up Your Ass. When Warhol admitted he had lost it, she began demanding money as payment. Warhol ignored these demands but offered her a role in I, A Man perhaps as compensation. In his book Popism, Warhol would write that before she shot him, he thought Solanas was an interesting and funny person. However, her constant hassling (bordering on stalking) made her difficult to deal with and ultimately drove him away. Attempted assassination of Andy Warhol On June 3, 1968, she arrived at The Factory and waited for Warhol in the lobby area. When he arrived with a couple of friends, she fired 3 shots from a handgun at Warhol. She then shot art critic Mario Amaya and also tried to shoot Warhol's manager, Fred Hughes, but her gun jammed. Just then, the elevator arrived. Hughes suggested she take it, and she did, leaving the Factory. Warhol barely survived. He never fully recovered and had to wear a corset to prevent his injuries from worsening for the rest of his life. Years later, his wounds would still occasionally bleed after he had overexerted himself. That evening, Solanas turned herself in to the police and was charged with attempted murder and other offenses. Solanas made statements to the arresting officer and at the arraignment hearing that Warhol had "too much control" over her and that Warhol was planning to steal her work. Pleading guilty, she received a three-year sentence. Warhol refused to testify against her. The attack had a profound impact on Warhol and his art, and The Factory scene became much more tightly controlled afterwards. For the rest of his life, Warhol lived in fear that Solanas would attack him again. While his friends were actively hostile towards Solanas, Warhol himself preferred not to discuss her. Interestingly, few people were aware of Warhol's shooting, due to the fact that, three days later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. The flood of publicity caused Warhol's story to be pushed aside. Release from prison Feminist Robin Morgan (later editor of ''Ms.'' magazine) demonstrated for Solanas' release from prison. Ti-Grace Atkinson, the New York chapter president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), described Solanas as "the first outstanding champion of women's rights."• Another member, Florynce Kennedy, represented Solanas at her trial, calling her "one of the most important spokeswomen of the feminist movement." After her release from prison in 1971, she was regarded by some as a martyr. She persisted in stalking Warhol and others over the telephone, however, and was arrested again. An interview with her was published in the Village Voice in 1977. She denied that the SCUM Manifesto was ever meant to be taken seriously. Solanas drifted into obscurity and was in and out of mental hospitals. During the 1980s, it is believed she was living in California, supporting a drug addiction through prostitution. In 1988, at the age of 52, she died of emphysema and pneumonia in a welfare hotel in San Francisco. A copy of the script for Up Your Ass apparently survived and is still performed today. Solanas in popular culture Selected works | ||||||||
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