Is that really a common assertion- that these men were supposed to stay and fight? Because if it is, well, I’d strongly disagree.
It’s an attitude I’ve seen expressed every time I’ve come across a discussion of this event, and each time part of me wants to cry and another wants to just scream with rage. I’m grateful that the term “toxic masculinity” has gained traction of late, because at least I finally have a way of labeling both the sort of extraordinary misogyny that led to the murders, and the all the more pervasive, if less imminently horrific, brand of thought that takes some storybook view of “what a man is” and then holds it up to those survivors as a way to shame them for not dying on the spot, as if they were not themselves a kind of victim who must now live with the memory of that day (and every day that followed as people feel free to spout off about what they, the victims, “should have done”).
The expression of disgust for the men not acting “like men”, in addition to I am sure aggravating the trauma experienced by those men in the aftermath, has the perverse effect of entrenching those stereotypical gender roles that the mass murderer in this case sought to reenforce with violence.
Wow, I’m sorry to hear that.
I had never heard about this. It is one more reason to be very, very angry about the injustices of the world.
A year on, and another anniversary.
Story about plans for remembrances in a virtual world:
And an interesting excerpt from a book, analysing the initial press reports, and the fact that the initial coverage did not mention that all the dead were women:
I do remember this horrible, shocking event. At the time, I thought people had made peace with women getting an education, taking their places in the working world, etc. Now of course, I know we are still fighting for our equality even to maintain the progress we have made, much less further it.
Proud to fight for my sisters. Sorry that we still have to fight this fight.
Like I said earlier in this thread, they were ordered out at gunpoint, and I’m sure all of them have had to deal with the guilt of what they could/should/might have done ever since.
In the aftermath of the massacre, the men who left the room were criticized by some for not being manly enough. It’s horribly sexist to criticize unarmed men for refusing to rush a gunman, while also giving a pass to the unarmed women in the same room who refused to rush that same gunman. Either nobody should be faulted for failing to intervene, or everyone should be faulted.
Je me souviens.
Thanks for this. May these women never be forgotten. May the scourge of senseless violence be relegated to the past.
The McGill University newspaper has published short bios of the fourteen. Young, promising women, with their lives ahead of them.
Until a man with a gun took it all away.
It wasn’t exactly senseless to the killer, but may the scourge of sexist violence be relegated to the past as well.
As an engineering student who lived in Montreal, my sympathy is with the victims and not the perpetrator. Any senseless violence is stupid by definition. Of course this extends to violence based on gender, sex, race or many other things.
Wow. I’d never heard of this incident before. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, and – far more meaningfully – for keeping the memories of the fallen and the significance of the tragedy alive.
It gave me goosebumps.
Thank you @Northern_Piper for keeping this story alive and these women in our memories.
My sympathy is firmly with the victims and their families but I am learning that much of what we call senseless, we should perhaps call insane, because so much of it seems to stem from the violent person thinking they are taking revenge for a wrong they perceive, whether it truly exists or not. I think violence is always a terrible answer to life’s problems (real or perceived) and I don’t understand why people choose it.
I have no sympathy for the killer. But I would like to understand how/why he chose his action, to help prevent more of the same from others.
There is indeed still much to be done, but at least it’s not 1956. “Betty, Girl Engineer” is an iconic episode from Father Knows Best which aired in that year. The often-moralizing series this time focused on the silliness of Betty interning as a civil engineer, being ridiculed by other engineers and family alike, and in the happy ending finally learning her proper role in the world: to look pretty, date men, and prepare herself to be a housewife and mother.
It would normally just be amusing for its archaic absurdity, but in the context of events like this it’s downright infuriating. The series also reflects the times with other unintentional ventures into misogyny and racism. It’s a useful reminder to those who think of the 50s in terms of warm nostalgia. There’s also a movie that deals with that theme, Far From Heaven.
For those who may not know, “SWE” stands for Society of Women Engineers.
Je me souviens.
Thank you for helping us to remember these actions and these women.
Je me souviens.
Lots of news articles from across Canada on the 35th anniversary today. I won’t try to link them all but if you’re interested just check “Montreal Polytechnic Massacre” on Google news.
This one story jumped out at me, with a new-to-me bit of info that I’d never seen before: some of the details of the killer’s suicide note. It makes it very clear that his target was successful women, not just women in engineering studies, and that he had a hit list of successful women that he had hoped to kill, but decided he “wouldn’t have time” after the killings at the Polytechnic.
One prominent woman journalist in Montreal, Francine Pelletier, heard through the grapevine that her name was in the list, but the police refused to release it, citing the possibility of copycat killings.
After a year of unsuccessful efforts, she got a photocopy of the suicide note: anonymously, in a brown envelope. She never found out who sent it.
She went on to be co-host of the Fifth Estate, a major CBC news program, and did a documentary on the Massacre on the 10th anniversary in 1999.