by Unglid Paul
According to Merriem-Webster, a manifesto is defined as “a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer.” (Merriem-Webster) In critical theory, a manifesto takes its role a step further. Scholars and activists alike have treated manifestos as manuals; an instructive guide to achieve the goals it sets forth. Luciano Conchiero states in his work, “A Theory of the Manifesto,” that, at its core, a manifesto wants to create new realities because it believes in humanities capabilities to “transform reality” since “it is man who sets the course of history.” (Conchiero, 13) The shape of the manifesto is both “creatively destructive and destructively creative” (Conchiero, 1) as it is filled with the unabashed youthfulness of a possible tomorrow, unbounded by the socially constructed limitations of today. This energy leads Concheiro to argue that through the manifesto, “technological innovations and social transformation means the rift between today and yesterday broadens and becomes wider.” (Concherio, 22) Manifestos provide us with hope as well as instructions to evolve society into a future we desire.
Teresa Ebert expanded on manifestos in her article, “Manifesto as Theory and Theory as Material Force: Toward a Red Polemic.” She emphasizes the existence of manifestos as a response to the norm, centering their presence as a struggle against the established social structures. Where Conchiero speaks of the shape and possibility of a manifesto, Ebert focuses on its purpose: she states that “the manifesto is writing in struggle” by “confronting established practices, in order to open up new spaces for oppositional praxis.” (Ebert, 553) She agrees that the space is creative and limitless, because it “is the space in which concrete social contestations are articulated as abstract ideas”; Thus, it denies the idea of “revolution” as a historical artifact, instead, “revolution” is used as the manifesto’s tool to transform established, social systems. (Ebert, 554) She also emphasizes that a manifesto is created out of legitimate anger and concerns produced by historical conditions and are not simply the result of “will” or the ideas of a rebel individual. (Ebert, 555) It speaks for the collective since it is only through connection and collaboration that these instructions can transform into action. A manifesto is, simply, “struggle-text and change-writing.” (Ebert, 555)
The feminist discourse has allowed for diverse accounts of manifestos, ranging from inspiring to radical. Amongst them is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Dear Ijeawele, or, A feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions.” As a response to a letter she received from a childhood friend who asked her how she could raise her daughter to be a feminist, Adichie offers her fifteen suggestions to empower her to be a strong and independent woman. Her first suggestion goes to her friend: “be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift but do not define yourself solely by motherhood.” She emphasizes that as her friend finds her identity outside of motherhood, it would highlight to her daughter that a woman can be more than a reproductive entity. (Adichie 9) Another powerful suggestion in her manifesto that gives instruction, but also sound reasons is her eighth point in which she suggests that her friend “teach her to reject likeability. Her job is not to make herself likeable, her job is to be her full self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people.” (Adichie 36) What her work also speaks to is the accessibility of a manifesto. Although written and expanded in a novel, she also posted all her suggestions of Facebook, a major social media platform where people can share and like ideas, which aided in her message to spread.
Another example of an accessible manifesto: the Pussy Riot’s Manifesto. Pussy Riot is “the world’s most prominent feminist protest art collective, which focuses attention on human rights violations at home and abroad.” (Pussy Riot) Posted on their website, Pussy Riot’s founder and Russian conceptual artist, Nadya Tolokonnikova, created a visual manifesto for her followers. Like Adichie, she lists 10 goals the group aims to achieve. Amongst them are compassionate reflections, such as, “you’re capable of making miracles, you just have to believe in them,” to direct instructions, “Move.”
On the more radical side of feminist manifestos exists Valerie Solanas’s “S.C.U.M. Manifesto: (Society for Cutting Up Men).” In it, she controversially claims that “the male is an incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage,” furthering her stance, she states, “To call a man an animal is to flatter him; he's a machine, a walking dildo.” (Solanas 1) In her feminist rage, she satirically describes all of men’s failures and goes in-depth into their jelousy of women because of their incapabilities to connect. Garnering heavy criticism, she unapologetically states that the “SCUM will kill all men who are not in the Men's Auxiliary of SCUM. Men in the Men's Auxiliary are those men who are working diligently to eliminate themselves.” (Solanas, 14) This is indeed a manifesto because this violent imagination is in response to a violent femme reality. It is a direct response to the patrichatral system that aims to shape our lives, our futures, and even our protests. It sparked a conversation in it’s written wake, and left an unsettling impression of where our lives might head if we don’t address the disconnection and tension between manhood and womanhood.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Dear Ijeawele, or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. First edition, Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.
Conchiero, Luciano. A Theory of the Manifesto. Gato Negro Ediciones, 2016.
Ebert, Teresa L. “Manifesto as Theory and Theory as Material Force: Toward a Red Polemic.” JAC, vol. 23, no. 3, 2003, pp. 553–562. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20866585. Accessed 11 Mar. 2021.
Tolokonnikova, Nadya“A Manifesto by Pussy Riot.” WePresent, wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/a-manifesto-by-pussy-riot/.
Place, Vanessa, et al. SCUM Manifesto. Oodpress, 2010.