Valerie Solanas was one of the most controversial writers of the 20th century. She wrote radical feminist manifestos during the 1960’s. She had a degree in psychology and strove to promote female supremacy to an extreme degree.
Her work was often disregarded and even mocked by other feminist authors. Eventually she began to exhibit signs of mental illness that would later explode into violence. In June 3, 1968 she shot famous artist Andy Warhol, as well as the art critic Mario Amaya. Warhol never fully recovered from his wounds.
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lanos was given a 3 year sentence and also received psychiatric testing which diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia. She died in San Francisco in 1988. Her most notable work is the SCUM Manifesto. She self published this political document. It goes into detail on Solanos’ views on the male sex, as well as her version of an ideal society. The manifesto urges the women of America to overthrow the government and reject capitalism. The extreme nature of this work has led most critics to assume that it is largely a piece of satire. Despite this it is still influenced by serious social concerns that Solanos expressed throughout her life as a writer.