SCUM Manifesto Revisited: Juliet Jacques, Ray Filar and Sophie Mayer

Originally published in 1967, Valerie Solanas' incendiary SCUM Manifesto called for a Society for Cutting Up Men and declared war on capitalism and patriarchy.

Today, the controversial tract has a complex relationship with contemporary landscapes of feminism and gender politics. Juliet Jacques and Ray Filar join Sophie Mayer to discuss the treatise from critical and contemporary perspectives. Taking a historical view on its problematic elements, they discuss the violence and gender essentialism of the text, as well as Solanas' visions of work and automation and why the text still thrills today.

Juliet Jacques is the author of Trans: A Memoir and a phd student in Creative and Critical Writing at University of Sussex.

Ray Filar is a writer, editor and performance artist. They tweet @RayFilar.

Sophie Mayer is author of Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema, poet and a member of queer feminist curators Club des Femmes. She tweets @tr0ublemayer.

SCUM Manifesto voice: Sam McBean, academic and feminist and queer critic. She tweets @s_mcbean