Shortly after publishing her manifesto, titled “Society for Cutting Up Men,” Valerie Solanas' feminism spiraled out of control, and she attempted to assassinate famed artist Andy Warhol.
Bettmann / Getty ImagesValerie Solanas being hold after shooting Andy Warhol .
Valerie Solanas ’ story may be the near link between a period of play and an assassination since Lincoln ’s fatal daylight at the theater .
She was unsuccessful in her attempt , but on June 3 , 1968 , Solanas came close to assassinate famed artist Andy Warhol after she shoot him with a .32 revolver . It come about at Warhol ’s notable New York City studio , the Factory , where Solanas waited for him , the weapon hold back in a brown theme cup of tea .
Bettmann/Getty ImagesValerie Solanas being arrested after shooting Andy Warhol.
Once he arrived and invited her in , she pulled out the gun and fire at him three times . The first two shots missed , but the third go through his lungs , spleen , esophagus , stomach , and liver .
Warhol fell to the ground and was ask to the hospital , where he was pronounced dead . Doctors were capable to execute an emergency surgical operation that resurrected him . Still , he never fully recover and had to wear a surgical corset for the remainder of his life .
So who is the would - be assassin and why did she shoot one of history ’s most cherished artists ?
Marc Wathieu/flickrValerie Solanas’ own copy of the SCUM Manifesto.
Though she was n’t well bang at the time , Solanas was a radical feminist and source . She had a rough upbringing before going on to experience a degree in psychology at the University of Maryland . She then moved to Berkeley , California followed by a move to New York in the 1960s .
Valerie Solanas’SCUM Manifesto , which she originally self - publish in 1967 , is viewed as one of the most polarizing and notorious pieces of feminist literature . As divisive as it was , the declaration mostly fly under the radar until the assassination attempt placed both Solanas and her manifesto in the spotlight .
The manifesto begin with :
Wikimedia CommonsValarie Solonas’ grave
“ Life in this society being , at best , an utter aegir and no aspect of society being at all relevant to cleaning lady , there remains to civic - minded , responsible , thrill - seek female only to overturn the authorities , eliminate the money system , institute consummate mechanization and ruin the male sex activity . ”
Marc Wathieu / flickrValerie Solanas ’ own copy of the SCUM Manifesto .
The contents of the manifesto would suggest that they were her reason behind shooting Andy Warhol – after all , SCUM stand for the “ Society for trim down Up Men , ” of which Solanas was the founding ( and only ) member – however , that was n’t the case .
When she first got to New York in 1965 , Solanas gave Warhol a script she had write and asked him to produce it . He seemingly ignored the playscript , and when she call to tick off up on it , he arrogate he had lost it .
That was around the time Valerie Solanas began to lose it . While the precise events of the sidereal day have n’t been definitively pinned down , it ’s report that she charge of Warhol stealing her oeuvre and that her anger at his rejection led her to buy the gun and plan the character assassination .
Several hours after the shooting , she deform herself into William Shemalix , a traffic copper in Times Square . She is quote as having said that Andy Warhol “ had too much command in my biography . ”
The trial that conform to her arrest include : an rules of order for Solanas to be admitted for psychiatric rating at Bellevue Hospital where she was hold mentally unstable ; a stint at prison house hospital ward of Elmhurst Hospital ; several charge including try murder and illegal self-will of a gun ; a stay at Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane ; a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis , and ultimately a three yearprison sentence .
While all this was go down , Olympia Press release theSCUM Manifesto , taking the phrasal idiom “ there ’s no such affair as bad mechanical press ” to a whole unexampled floor .
Wikimedia CommonsValarie Solonas ’ grave
Valerie Solanas died in 1988 when she was 52 geezerhood former .
Even today , herSCUM Manifestois include in the canon of feminist literature . It ’s been praise and denounce . It ’s been analyzed and reviewed . It ’s been used in soda water culture . And it has been reissue at least 10 sentence and translated into 13 unlike languages .
Feminist icon or criminally insane , the story of Valerie Solanas is one that continues to charm people . It also stand as a leading model that a potentially paranoid schizophrenic convicted of essay murder can still write .
After learning about read about Valerie Solanas , the woman who almost kill Andy Warhol , Mata Hari , the feminist the existence was n’t ready for , then watch outthe development of Madonna ’s feminist message .
