Valerie Solanas, in his Manifesto SCUM in 1968, proposes the disappearance of men, arguing for the damage they do to society. If you read the biography of Solanas, you will understand that he had many reasons to be angry with men (among others, having suffered sexual violence by a father). However, he explained that the intention of the manifesto was literary and satirical, with the aim of provoking a debate.

 

Rather than writing that text, Andy Warhol became a famous one for trying to murder Warhol. He accused him of stealing a film script from Warhol. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent half of his life in a psychiatric hospital. Although many claim it to be insane by an extremist, many literary critics and scholars praise the originality of his work, his strength, his pungent criticism of patriarchal society and his leadership in punk. Today, it has become the reference of radical feminism.

 

I have to confess that in the face of any feminist expression with a violent tone, my first reaction is discomfort. When referring to the virtues of feminism, it is always said that it is the social movement that has achieved the most changes in society without spilling a drop of blood. I identify with that pacifism, but it gives me some concerns.

 

The women of a generation who have grown up in the dream of equality continue to experience sexual harassment, ill-treatment and many discrimination. In the Spanish State there are more than 50 women killed each year and the response of society is very lukewarm. They have taught us to normalize and silence the aggressions with despair.

 

In self-defense courses, it is common for more than one to express his compassion for the aggressor by proposing a strategy to deal with the aggressor. “In the face of doubt, you widow/If you have doubts, better widow” is a feminist motto in which people are indifferent. Anger and self-defense don't respond to the model of femininity, but compassion does.

 

On television or in film violence appears everywhere. Women often appear in the role of victims unable to defend themselves, but few recognize the influence of these representations, which say it is fiction. In works like Kill Bill or Millenium, when women exert violence – often to quench the thirst for revenge after having suffered male violence – we feel more uncomfortable than we do with Stallone. If the use of violence appears ironically in a feminist video, it is not perceived as fiction, but as an invitation to violence.

 

It's not the feminists, it's the Machistan men, who rape, beat and murder people. But our ability to anger must be kept out so that it controls us. We seem to be more dangerous to this society than the Machistan aggressors, because our aggressive gestures are a threat to patriarchal power.

 

The feminists are faced daily with sexist aggressions and resistance to overcome them. We have, like Solanas, a thousand reasons to be angry. When we live in an attack, it is not the time to do pedagogy, but to scream. Repressing rabies is neither fair nor healthy. We could discuss how to approach that emotion, but I am clear that, until we really accept the right to get angry and defend ourselves, we will not be able to comply with the motto No aggression or responses. A motto that causes so much fear, but so much need.