By: Charlie Buckreis
SCUM was definitely an interesting read. Solanas definitely made some good points, but some of her language, and some of the ideas she advocated for, were a bit off-putting. She states a few times that men are worthless and that they wish they were women. Now, when she says men wish they were women, she is talking more psychologically than biologically. She says that males take all of their inherent personality traits and emotions – deceit, shame, vanity, among others – and impose them on women while taking all of the inherent personality traits and emotions of women – drive, resourcefulness, compassion, among others – and claiming them as male. In doing so, Solanas says, men create an environment in which women feel lesser, put down, and not valued as people. Solanas’ main suggestion for fixing this is to kill all men. She says that science has advanced enough for women to be able to reproduce without men — which is true — meaning men are not needed for anything.
Everyone’s opinions and ideas are valid, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how extreme, but I do think hers are a bit far-fetched. For one thing, according to a survey by Gallup, approximately 15% of the American adult population self-identifies their sexual orientation as lesbian. So if all the men were killed, we can estimate that approximately 85% of women would be lonely and unable to find a partner. If we factor in the bisexual category (around 60% of U.S. adults), then assuming about half of those are women we get approximately 45% of women who feel attracted to other women, meaning around 55% of women would still be without a partner in this new men-free world. That sounds pretty lonely and sad to me.