The Montreal Massacre - in memory
Dec. 6th, 2011 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eponymous_roseOn this day in 1989, a man walked into a mechanical engineering classroom at the École Polytechnique in Montreal with a legally obtained rifle and told all the men to leave the room. He claimed he was fighting feminism: "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then shot all nine women in the room, killing six of them, then moved through the hallways and killed another eight women. Fourteen women killed, ten women injured, and four men injured.
This is not an event that's well-known outside of Canada - I was still a baby when it happened, but as a woman studying science in Montreal, this is a tragedy that looms large. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of articles today pointing out the dangerous idiocy of the Conservatives tearing down the very same gun-control laws that emerged as a response to this massacre, and while it's important to keep in mind the political consequences of this tragedy and the political motivators behind it, that's not what any of this is really about. This is about the fourteen women who were killed for the crime of studying engineering while female.
Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing
If this isn't something you'd heard of, please consider reposting on your own journal. These women - and the circumstances of their deaths - deserve to be remembered. In Canada, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. You can read more here.
Edit: Holy shit, please remind me never to read comments on articles about something like this. "The vast majority of violence that occurs in the world is against men. Why is there no day of action on violence against men?" Nononononono. I think I just broke my back-button, I hit it so hard. And so many otherwise solid articles saying "But these women may not even have been feminists!", apparently ignorant of the implication that if they were feminists, the violence was justified. What the shit.
This is not an event that's well-known outside of Canada - I was still a baby when it happened, but as a woman studying science in Montreal, this is a tragedy that looms large. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of articles today pointing out the dangerous idiocy of the Conservatives tearing down the very same gun-control laws that emerged as a response to this massacre, and while it's important to keep in mind the political consequences of this tragedy and the political motivators behind it, that's not what any of this is really about. This is about the fourteen women who were killed for the crime of studying engineering while female.
Geneviève Bergeron, 21, civil engineering
Nathalie Croteau, 23, mechanical engineering
Anne-Marie Edward, 21, chemical engineering
Maryse Laganière, 25, budget clerk in school's finance dept
Anne-Marie Lemay, 22, mechanical engineering
Michèle Richard, 21, materials engineering
Annie Turcotte, 21, materials engineering
Hélène Colgan, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Daigneault, 22, mechanical engineering
Maud Haviernick, 29, materials engineering
Maryse Leclair, 23, materials engineering
Sonia Pelletier, 28, mechanical engineering
Annie St-Arneault, 23, mechanical engineering
Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz, 31, nursing
If this isn't something you'd heard of, please consider reposting on your own journal. These women - and the circumstances of their deaths - deserve to be remembered. In Canada, today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. You can read more here.
Edit: Holy shit, please remind me never to read comments on articles about something like this. "The vast majority of violence that occurs in the world is against men. Why is there no day of action on violence against men?" Nononononono. I think I just broke my back-button, I hit it so hard. And so many otherwise solid articles saying "But these women may not even have been feminists!", apparently ignorant of the implication that if they were feminists, the violence was justified. What the shit.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 03:49 pm (UTC)And ugh, today is shaping up to be One Of Those Days, when it comes to wanting to have a safe space as a woman, at least on the internet. I was just looking for the Avengers promo parody that was going around for a while, and came across this article. Everyone’s objectified in their own way? Really?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 03:55 pm (UTC)And... wow, that article is full of fail. Cutoff sleeves for dudes are just as objectifying as "booty shot" poses for women? Wow.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 04:44 pm (UTC)Yeah, I don't even know what to make of that article. Did you notice the tags? What a coincidence that the only ass he considered appropriate to go in a tag was Scarlett Johansson's.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 12:06 am (UTC)And so many otherwise solid articles saying "But these women may not even have been feminists!", apparently ignorant of the implication that if they were feminists, the violence was justified. What the shit.
Indeed. Stupid thoughtless male privilege. Those women were shot for the "crime" of being women in a male-dominated field, for the "crime" of thinking they could be equal to men; that's feminism in its most basic sense.
Sometimes I despair that women will ever be truly treated as equals. Then I remind myself that I have the vote.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 01:09 am (UTC)I'm going to go back and edit my post to remove the name of the killer - he doesn't deserve even that much recognition. This is about the fourteen women.