The SCUM Manifesto has been described as a satire or parody, especially due to its parallels with Freud's theory of femininity, though this has been disputed, even by Solanas herself.

[13][14] Solanas signed a publishing contract with Maurice Girodias in August 1967 for a novel and asked him to accept the SCUM Manifesto in its place later that year.

It includes a preface by Maurice Girodias and an essay titled "Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter" by Paul Krassner.

[21] The SCUM Manifesto has been reprinted at least 10 times in English and translated into Croatian, Czech, Finnish,[22] French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish,[23] Portuguese, Dutch,[16] and Danish.

[28] Jon Purkis and James Bowen describe the SCUM Manifesto as a "pamphlet which has become one of the longest surviving perennials of anarchist publishing".

[30] The Manifesto opens with the following declaration:[31] 'Life' in this 'society' being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of 'society' being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex.Solanas begins by presenting a theory of the male as an "incomplete female" who is genetically deficient due to the Y chromosome.

[32] According to Solanas, this genetic deficiency causes the male to be emotionally limited, egocentric, and incapable of mental passion or genuine interaction.

They are divided into the following sections:[35] Due to the aforementioned grievances, the Manifesto concludes that the elimination of the male sex is a moral imperative.

[46] Feminist critic Germaine Greer said that Solanas argued that both genders were separated from their humanity[47] and that men want to be like women.

[74] Rich described Solanas as a "one-woman scorched-earth squad"[45] and Siegel says the stance was "extreme"[75][e] and "reflected a more general disaffection with nonviolent protest in America overall.

Laura Winkiel, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argues that the "SCUM manifesto parodies the performance of patriarchal social order it refuses".

[79] Similarly, sociologist Ginette Castro states: If we examine the text more closely, we see that its analysis of patriarchal reality is a parody [...] The content itself is unquestionably a parody of the Freudian theory of femininity, where the word woman is replaced by man [...] All the cliches of Freudian psychoanalytical theory are here: the biological accident, the incomplete sex, "penis envy" which has become "pussy envy," and so forth [...] Here we have a case of absurdity being used as a literary device to expose an absurdity, that is, the absurd theory which has been used to give "scientific" legitimacy to patriarchy [...] What about her proposal that men should quite simply be eliminated, as a way of clearing the dead weight of misogyny and masculinity?

[3]Writer Chavisa Woods presents a similar opinion: "The SCUM Manifesto is a masterwork of literary protest art, which is often completely misread.

He states, "Like other feminist satires, the 'SCUM Manifesto' attempts to politicize women by attacking particular masculine myths that are embedded in American popular culture."

He adds, "As a work of satire, the 'SCUM Manifesto' is rhetorically effective in that it deconstructs the reader's received notions of masculinity and femininity.

"[80][f] English professor Carl Singleton notes the "outrageous nature" of the manifesto and Solanas' increasing mental instability, which, he argues, led many people to trivialize the text.

"[81] Similarly, Jansen compared it to A Modest Proposal, describing it as having "satiric brilliance"[16] and calling Solanas "cool and mordantly funny".

[45] Winkiel said, "The humor and anger of satire invites women to produce this feminist script by taking on the roles of the politically performative SCUM females.

"[86] Paul Krassner, who was a personal acquaintance of Solanas, called the manifesto a "dittoed document of pathological proselytization with occasional overtones of unintentional satire".

[87] Solanas' first publisher, Maurice Girodias, thought of it as "a joke"[88] and described the manifesto, according to J. Hoberman, as "a Swiftian satire on the depraved behavior, genetic inferiority, and ultimate disposability of the male gender".

[j] The Manifesto, according to Lyon, is "notorious and influential" and was "one of the earliest ... [and] one of the most radical" tracts produced by "various strands of the American women's liberation movement".

[72] According to a 2012 article by Arthur Goldwag on the Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch blog, "Solanas continues to be much-read and quoted in some feminist circles.

[101] Harding suggests that "there is no clear indication in Solanas' ambiguous statement to reporters that the contents of the manifesto would explain the specifics of her actions, at least not in the sense of providing a script for them.

"[109] Winkiel argues that revolutionary Roxanne Dunbar moved to the U.S. "convinced that a women's revolution had begun",[13][110] forming Cell 16 with a program based on the Manifesto.

"[47] According to Prof. Davis, the Manifesto was a "forerunner"[114] as a "call to arms among pragmatic American feminists"[114] and was "enjoy[ing] ... wide contemporary appeal".

[121] The SCUM manifesto was presented as a plot device in the FX television series American Horror Story: Cult, first seen in the episode "Valerie Solanas Died for Your Sins: Scumbag", which first aired on October 17, 2017.

In 2006, Swedish author Sara Stridsberg published a semi-fictional biography of Valerie Solanas, Drömfakulteten (The Dream Faculty), in which the Manifesto is referred to on several occasions.

[124] Liverpool punk band Big in Japan composed the song "Society for Cutting Up Men" directly inspired by the manifesto.

[125] The Italian progressive rock band Area - International POPular Group devoted a song to Solanas' manifesto, called SCUM, which appears in their fifth album Maledetti (Maudits).

[126] On Matmos' 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast, one of the tracks is "Tract for Valerie Solanas", which features excerpts of the SCUM Manifesto.