SCUM manifesto by Valerie Solanas

This would be the first feminist piece I've read and I have to say... you gotta love that enthusiasm. The first page had me smiling at the energy. As for the content itself... my feelings are somewhat mixed.
 
I found that I could relate to many of the aspects of society she chose to critique. I'm not very old... I'm not 25 yet, but I'd say I've lived a decent amount of time, enough to be able to make something of a judgement on my society, and it's sexist. Maybe not so much as it was 20, 50 years ago.. but it is. It would shock very few people if when they turned on the tv they hear something to the effect of 'go play with your dolls' when a girl wants to play with the boys, or... don't get me started with adult media... but lets say we can readily see the scarcity of a strong, intelligent woman who doesn't need to be validated by her sexuality or by a guy... it's just what our society is right now... sadly. So when reading some of the issues the author picked up on I thought to myself... ya I've noticed that as well, or ya that's nothing new. For example when she comments on how all of the presitigeous positions are mostly held by men (and it's sadly true... in 2008), or how we're so isolated from each other, there's no community anymore. I found myself agreeing with her a lot.
 
But, at the same time, as I agreed with her, this had to be taken with a grain of salt because the next line down she'd be off on how men are the problem and how we should do away with them. To summarize, the author doesn't like men. And she blames men for a lot of things because of this and makes her societal observations demonstrate how men are the problem. It's no more sexist than nietzsche or pop culture or any of countless other forums of sexist expression (granted in most sexist cases it's women being discriminated against and most people readily accept this), but is sexist all the same, and therefore problematic. She puts women on a pedestal, and they have been on one in the past, to keep them docile 'don't worry your pretty little head', but she puts women on the offensive. And she takes away humanity from men... ya they can be jerks I guess, but then again I can be one too (does this mean I want to be a man :P). it also doesn't take into account the people who don't define their gender through biology, but then she's speaking to a loud stereotype, so is creating a new 'stereotype-like' argument to combat it.
 
I think it's easier to read this book symbolically. It states problems in society, and proposes a solution, which is to exterminate the cause (which I don't think is possible, but anyway). 'Woman' could be the symbolical redeemer of society and 'man' could be the corruption, not specifically assigning anyone to either category, but having the categories to express certain ideas.
 
I thought she articulated what she wanted to well and got her point across effectively, but I think her discontent with the opposite sex limits her argument from what it could be. Interesting though.