We know that she shot Andy Warhol in 1968, and that she wrote S.C.U.M. Manifesto, or Society for Cutting Up Men, an incandescent political tract and founding text of radical feminism. But who was Valerie Solanas? Why did she stun the Factory? What was her relationship with men and society in general? Where did her anger, her visions, and her searing intensity come from?

She boldly claimed responsibility for shooting the pop art icon, but justice soon portrayed her as a crazy woman, which did not help us grasp the reasons behind her actions. To better understand, we have to go back to 1960s New York, the Mecca of the cultural avant-garde, which turns out to be as fearsome to intellectual, ambitious, fanciful, rebellious women as the most rigid patriarchal systems that still rule a large part of the US.

Discovering Solanas’ life means shedding light on the mysterious S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a misandrist text that hinders many feminists, but continues fueling their debates and struggles. No, Solanas did not really want to eradicate men; her entire life proves it. Instead, she wanted to persuade women of their superiority, to live without men, and to create another world, far from capitalism—a system made by and for men. In this caustic polemical tract, as in her daily life, Solanas tears apart American family ideal—children, a dog and a suburban home—as well as utopian hippie ideals, both of which she saw as alienating for women.

This biography paints the portrait of a rebellious woman who never submitted, an intellectual who sold her body to fund her university studies, a tough cookie who only lived for her texts, a woman unjustly institutionalized and sterilized. She was the complete opposite of a daddy’s girl and left an unforgettable impression on those who crossed her path.