the feministscum kollective

As promised here is a link to the feministscum kollective

The feminist scum kollective is a non-heriarchical group which anyone can join. There isn't a particularly cohesive element to the group but I would say that we are largely queer, anarchist, and feminist. The idea of the group is roughly based on ideas proposed in Valarie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto. If you haven't read the SCUM Manifesto you really should. 

Feel free to submit any critical essays, art, anecdotal writings,  or music to feministscumkollective. If you read the manifesto that follows, there is a lot of emphasis put on publishing papers written in academic settings which would otherwise lie dormant on your hard drive. 

Also you can follow femscum on Facebook for regular updates! 

The manifesto, which exists as a wiki here, reads as of November 21, 2012: 

FEMINISTSCUM KOLLECTIVE WIKI-MANIFESTO:
“The veneration of `Art' and `Culture'… leads to the constant intrusion on our sensibilities of pompous dissertations on the deep beauty of this and that turn. This allows the `artist' to be setup as one possessing superior feelings, perceptions, insights and judgments, thereby undermining the faith of insecure women in the value and validity of their own feelings, perceptions, insights and judgments.” 
VALARIE SOLANAS

THE REVOLUTIONARY POTENTIAL OF A COLLECTIVE  

1. The act of publishing underneath an umbrella organization decentralizes a creative endeavor from a privatized/individualized/isolated/singularized pursuit to one that stems from a community. This credits the entire community with a creative product rather than just one persona. Why is this important? This is important because it reaffirms and creates community by allowing creative works to stem from the context of a community rather than an individuals isolated experience. This transference of creativity from the individual to the community is a revolutionary act that undermines the processes in which creativity is commoditized upon by being tied to one creative being  

i. In the words of Valarie Solanas, “The veneration of `Art' and `Culture'…leads to the constant intrusion on our sensibilities of pompous dissertations on the deep beauty of this and that turn. This allows the `artist' to be setup as one possessing superior feelings, perceptions, insights and judgments, thereby undermining the faith of insecure women in the value and validity of their own feelings, perceptions, insights and judgments.” At least I think that quote is applicable. Who really knows what Valarie Solanas is talking about.

 2. A collective allows for collaborations and creative projects that otherwise don’t have a home. (there are creative projects, rants, drawings, etc etc that all are growing dust in our hard drives and in storage. i think u r really talented and i think u should share ur work!!!)

a. Here is a personal anecdote: Sometimes I get really freaked out when I think about all of the amazing/radical manifestos and political statements that are written/embedded in my class papers. In my possession I have a number of academic texts that I have written that have never been read by anyone besides a professor. Where does all of that amazing information go? It just sits on my fucking computer wasting away and of no use to anyone. Granted, some of my papers belong deep within my computer but some of them are pretty good. 

b. Our private elite stuffy education has told us to bury all of this radical information- to separate out our idea about ‘academics’ and ‘politics.’ This collective website is a venue to break down that fake barrier between our beliefs as activists and political bodies and our academic selves. I mean, after all, didn’t they teach us that the academics can be a form of activism? 

i. I encourage you to think about this- do you have a paragraph from a paper that you are really proud of? How about an entire essay you wrote that you are super proud of? Why are you limiting access to that paper? Wouldn’t you want it to be shared with as many people as possible even if there are a few typos? (THINK ABOUT ACCESS AND EDUCATIONAL PRIVILEGE AND HOW PUBLISHING CAN BE A FORM OF SOCIAL JUSTICE) 

3. The Internet is an amazingly revolutionary medium that allows for widespread access to a huge body of information. This access becomes a revolutionary tool because it allows for democratized access to information rather than an elite structure of top-down access. Universal access is the keystone to ensuring that creative communities can grow and network despite physical, geographic, monetary, and temporal boundaries.  

a. By the end of four years of college your brain is worth almost 250,000 dollars, an amount of money that a lot of people wont ever see in their LIFE! You wrote papers, made art, and wrote poetry because you had the academic PRIVLEDGE and ACCESS to college classes. Wouldn’t the most revolutionary act be to publish and share every last bit of knowledge that you gained from your education?