The SCUM Manifesto is quite noticeably different from many of the other manifestos and pieces we’ve read this semester due to author Valerie Solanas’s ineffective rhetoric. While many of the authors of the other pieces we’ve read have been articulated, well-spoken, and educated on their topics, Valeria Solanas sounds like a ranting, raving lunatic in her manifesto. She begins her argument by making a false scientific claim: something along the lines of women being able to reproduce with stem cells without the need for sperm cells. However, although this is an extensively researched topic, it has not been finalized and is not yet possible. Because she begins her argument by making a false claim, her credibility is immediately diminished and, consequently, the validity of her argument is questionable. Additionally, her vocabulary and word-choice is unnecessarily vulgar which only convinces her audience of her mental instability rather than her passion for the topic. The most extreme aspect of this misanthropist manifesto is Solanas’s call-to-action, which makes the entire manifesto both unbelievably extremist and even comical to the reader. Solanas urges her readers to not only cut off all men and treat them as inferiors, but she says her ultimate goal is to literally kill all men. Hence, The SCUM Manifesto: The Society for Cutting Up Men. While one might initially assume that this insane call-to-action is merely a bluff, Valerie Solanas actually attempted to assassinate the famous artist Andy Warhol and succeeded in shooting him. Further research into Valerie Solanas’s life revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her father during her childhood, which is likely the root of her homicidal misanthropist ideology. However, it is very likely that she was also mentally ill in addition to her childhood trauma, because not everyone who has experienced sexual assault and childhood trauma experiences homicidal urges later in life. Either way, Valerie Solanas was a deeply troubled person and it is reflected in her writing.