A metaobservation on misogyny » « There ain’t no misogyny on the internets

Never forget

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

The killer, 25-year-old Marc Lépine, was armed with a legally obtained Mini-14 rifle and a hunting knife: he had earlier told a shopkeeper he was going after "small game". Lépine had previously been denied admission to the École Polytechnique and had been upset, it later transpired, about women working in positions traditionally occupied by men. Before he opened fire, Lépine shouted: "You’re all a bunch of feminists, and I hate feminists!" One student, Nathalie Provost, protested: "I’m not feminist, I have never fought against men." Lépine shot her anyway.

The gunman then moved through the college corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. By the time Lépine turned the gun on himself, 14 women were dead and another 10 were injured. Four men were hurt unintentionally in the crossfire.

I remember following the events of that day intently, horrified that there are people who will kill women simply because they are women. And these anonymous monsters on the internet who shriek affrontedly about women and feminists and moan that any feminist allies are ‘manginas’ — to me, every one of them has the name Marc Lépine, and is just hiding it in shame and fear and hatred and cowardice.

Since it was mentioned in the comments, here are the names of the murdered women:

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

A metaobservation on misogyny » « There ain’t no misogyny on the internets

Comments

  1. strange gods before me ॐ says

    Also from Wikipedia:

    A year after the attacks, Lépine’s three-page statement was leaked to journalist and feminist Francine Pelletier. It contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine apparently wished to kill because he considered them feminists.[21] The list included Pelletier herself, as well as a union leader, a politician, a TV personality, and six police officers who had come to Lépine’s attention as they were on a volleyball team together.[22]

  2. No Light says

    SGBM – Well no real woman would play volleyball, would she? You can’t play while pregnant, with a suckling infant at your breast, or while making sandwiches. Ergo, sport is for manly mens.

    Tony:

    I’m in an incredibly shitty mood (feeling like a failure at pretty much everything will do that) right now,

    I’d like to offer you hugs, and Thorntons’ chocolate cake. I’ve been having a bad time lately but your comments always make me smile, or want to give you righteous “Hell yeah!” fistbumps.

    That is extended to all the regs. Hell, even the chewtoys have renewed my spark.

    Feel better soon Tony.

  3. says

    SG:

    I know others have mentioned it already, but I can’t get over this.

    I know the feeling. The excerpts I posted in #886 are shocking as hell to me. That degree of hate seems to me to suck every ounce of energy out of the air itself. I also know that the garden variety misogynists most likely wouldn’t go out and gun women down, but it’s scary enough that there’s at least a few of them who would and will.

  4. Crip Dyke, MQ, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Ugh. Part of me hates to be the one to start a page 3, but I feel compelled to weigh in on pronouns and dehumanization.

    Just as using the existence of and names for women’s genitals to insult others is inherently tied to sexism – whether the insult is aimed at women *or* at men, the use of a genderless pronoun to insult by implication of subhumanity absolutely f*ing relies on the idea that being conventionally gendered is a prerequisite to humanity.

    Every time I see *any* person referred to as “it” – even Scott f*n Lively – I am hurt and pissed off.

    Do. Not. Want.

    Take any such assumptions and insults elsewhere.

  5. Beatrice says

    Crip Dyke,

    Agreeing with you and everyone else who expressed their strong dislike of using “it” to refer to people.

  6. says

    @No Light, #999:

    SGBM – Well no real woman would play volleyball, would she? You can’t play while pregnant, with a suckling infant at your breast, or while making sandwiches. Ergo, sport is for manly mens.

    That was my initial reaction, too, and I almost posted something to that effect, but on consideration I think it was more “Lepine hated these people because they were police officers (which of course he felt women had no business being) and had six of them on his list at once because they were all players on a volleyball team together, which is how he found out about them in the first place”. That is to say, the volleyball is included not as an explanation for his hatred but as an explanation of why there were six police officers on his list.

    (Not that that’s better, but it’s more consistent with my experience of the non-specifically-religious misogynist — I have yet to meet one who isn’t in favor of women playing volleyball, preferably in public and wearing as little as possible.)

  7. Pteryxx says

    Right on time:

    /www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/marc-lepine-is-a-feminist-hero

    Marc Lépine is Taslima Nasreen’s hero. But he’s also a fictional character.

    I do not mean the shooting and massacre did not happen, or that there was no individual named Marc Lepine. I mean simply the story now universally known is a fictionalization. Marc Lepine was a man, and a sparkling pure demonstration that men are violent, that women are victims, that men hate women, and that probably it would be best for everyone if all male children were locked into cages at birth so that their razor sharp teeth and bullet-emitting penises couldn’t ever harm another innocent woman ever again.

    That’s the fantasy.

  9. Nepenthe says

    it would be best for everyone if all male children were locked into cages at birth so that their razor sharp teeth and bullet-emitting penises

    If male children really did have bullet-emitting penises, I think I’d be all for this proposal.

  10. strange gods before me ॐ rational skeptic seeking truth for friendship, possibly more says

    Skeeve said,

    I’ve been out as a gay man since 1985. I’ve experienced a variety of gay culture in the US and Europe, and outside of this recent use of calling male supporters of feminism that word, it has always referenced the anus of a gay man. And in all these years, I have never heard it used in a derogatory way, as such.

    That all may be true. But why was Skeeve so damned stupid that he didn’t even bother to google and see if other usages predominate? Because Skeeve is a ‘pitter, with over 300 posts there.

    +++++
    boxwithabrain,

    PZ, can’t you see what your disregard for rational thought has resulted in? We are all judged by your legacy

    Whew! I’d count myself lucky to be judged by PZ’s legacy as compared to other celebrity atheists.

    +++++
    omnicrom,

    Ducky1349 confirmed as blind.

    Could you please go with “oblivious” instead?

    +++++
    chad,

    #4 actually, I don’t really have a position of privilege. I have had to deal with racism and my colour does not go away.

    http://newblackman.blogspot.com/search/label/black%20male%20privilege

    http://changefromwithin.org/2011/03/16/the-relativity-of-privilege/

    You do not have white privilege. But race is not the only context in which privilege manifests.

    +++++
    Janine,

    Call a transgendered woman

    Reasonable guess, but not in this instance. He’s transmasculine and not self-identifying as a man or woman.

    +++++
    The Vicar,

    That is to say, the volleyball is included not as an explanation for his hatred but as an explanation of why there were six police officers on his list.

    I figure that’s right.

    It reminds me, idiots recently are passing around a photograph of a young man (probably Occupy protestor, possibly black bloc) wearing an (iirc) “end patriarchy” shirt, being arrested by a woman. There’s nothing wrong with the picture except the usual cop thing: an apparently peaceful protestor is being arrested. The idiots think it says something damning about men being feminists. What exactly they think it means? Even they aren’t sure, so they just added text that amounts to “lol feminism!”

  11. says

    SG:

    Whew! I’d count myself lucky to be judged by PZ’s legacy as compared to other celebrity atheists.

    I’m still curious as to what this legacy is and why I’m being all judged up in here over it. I’d be a noisy gnu with or without PZ, so that can’t be it. I was a noisy, uppity feminist long before I even knew PZ was on the planet, so that’s not it. I’ve been involved in social justice issues nearly as long as I’ve been a feminist, so that’s not it. I don’t suppose PZ is leaving us money, eh? ;)

  12. makeinu says

    That is just not in accordance with our community’s standards.

    Fair enough, and I apologize for, as a noob, violating community standards.

    There’s still no arguing rationally with bigots. The harder you try, the more you convince them their beliefs are right. Works the same with AGW deniers, creationists, et cetera.

  13. Tony ∞The Queer Shoop∞ says

    makeinu:
    I apologize for telling you to STFU.
    I stand by my belief that dehumanizing other people is wrong, but telling you to STFU was wrong.
    My apologies.

    ****
    SGBM:
    thanks

  14. anteprepro says

    Marc Lepine was a man, and a sparkling pure demonstration that men are violent, that women are victims, that men hate women, and that probably it would be best for everyone if all male children were locked into cages at birth so that their razor sharp teeth and bullet-emitting penises couldn’t ever harm another innocent woman ever again.

    MRAs really don’t grok what feminism is, do they?

    MRAs : feminism :: Creationists : evolution

  15. Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle says

    MRAs : feminism :: Creationists : evolution

    LOL perfection. Though, Creationists have a better grasp on reality.