The Montreal Massacre remembered: The fight for women's rights

It happened on December 6, 1989.  That’s the day twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, armed with a legally obtained Mini-14 rifle and hunting knife, separated the male and female students, and shot twenty-eight people before killing himself.

Lépine claimed he was fighting feminism.  He shot all nine women in the room, killing six, and then moved through corridors, the cafeteria and another classroom in search of more women to kill.  He killed fourteen women and injured ten others.

The suicide note Lépine left behind claimed his life was ruined by feminist.  The note listed nineteen Quebec women he considered feminists and wished to kill. It’s been 23-years since the Montreal Massacre, and the anniversary has since been commemorated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

It’s assumed that Lépine’s attack against women was fueled by his being rejected for admission at the École Polytechnique. Add him to the long list of white men who contend they have failed after being passed over by a minority.  The rage among men is clear.  Many are fed up with women taking what belongs to them.  They’re convinced it’s a man’s world, and women need to get back in the kitchen.

It’s hard enough that women have to contend with angry men convinced life was better when they hunted for food and the wife stayed home in the cave to cook dinner for Pebbles and Bam Bam. A man fighting against equal pay for women is as old as father time, but now women are joining men to fight against feminism.

Conservative commentator Suzanne Venker claims feminism is to blame for the shrinking number of marriageable men.  The controversial article “The War on Men”, posted on Fox News, claims it’s in the DNA for men to love women, not compete with them.

“They want to provide for and protect their families – it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let them,” Venker writes.

Venker asserts women should refrain from the temptation of creating an environment that hinders their ability to snatch a husband.  All that talk about equal pay and opportunity could keep a woman from getting back home to change those diapers and cook dinner before the real bread winner shows up to shout, “Lucy, I’m home!”

“I didn’t mean that women can’t compete with men in the workforce. I meant that men don’t want to compete with their wives in marriage,” Venker responded to her critics in an interview with the “Daily Beast”.

Venker isn’t the only conservative woman fighting against feminism. 

“I don’t write about feminism. It seems to manifestly obvious it doesn’t need my stunning skills or analysis,” Ann Coulter remarked at a political conference earlier this year.  “But, I mean, the reason unattractive — I suppose — the reason liberal women are liberal is because they have to date liberal men and as we’ve seen from Bill Clinton and Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anthony Weiner, we’ve seen how liberal men treat women. I’d be angry too.”

“I’ll take 69 cents on the dollar,” she continued, referring to the wage gap between men and women, “or whatever current feminist myth is about how much we make just to have to never have to pay for dinner. That seems like a fair deal to me.”

Venker and Coulter have taken a page from Clarence Thomas – talking about the good ole days with folks understood who ran things while taking advantage of the system to get ahead. Do they really believe life was better when white men ruled, and their only obligation was to prepare themselves for a good husband?

Someone needs to knock down their white picket fence. Maybe Coulter should ask her boyfriend, Jimmy “J.J.” Walker a few questions about his life before he became a conservative and began dating a white woman.  I’m not blaming him for dating the white woman, but how did he become conservative.

Give me the “dy-no-mite!” to blow Walker back into reality before he forgets all his home training.  Their union leaves me pondering who is using the other the most.  Does the black boyfriend prove she’s not a racist, or does the conservative girlfriend prove he’s not like other black men? Okay, scrap the second question.

The battle against feminism is a ploy to restore America back to the days before people fought to be treated fairly.  Conservatives are convinced things would be better without all those laws aimed at preventing discrimination.  A woman doesn’t need a job.  She needs a husband. That’s what they think.

The Montreal Massacre should have taught us about the assumptions of white male privilege.  All this talk about women refraining from actions that will limit their ability to land a good husband is enough to make me upchuck in my coffee.  It’s sickening.  It’s archaic. It’s insulting to the intellect of those women who deserve to be perceived as more than baby makers and cooks.

WOMAN POWER. Keep fighting sisters.