more on the École Polytechnique massacre

I can let go of things in the past, as long as they are in the past.  December 6 is the anniversary of the brutal massacre of 14 women, targeted, as the murderer himself told us, because they were what he considered feminists.

In Lepine’s world, a woman who pursues a career that was traditional one dominated by men is a feminist.  And in Lepine’s world, feminism is a bad thing.

Men did nothing special to earn special rights to such fields.  They did, however, perpetuate an attitude that kept women suppressed through many means: denying them the right to vote; treating domestic violence as a private matter between husband and wife; through the dictates of many religions which consider women as inferior and subject to the man’s will;   by denying them the right to make their own sexual and reproductive choices; by trivializing their opinions...

Having had social advantages over women, it must have been frightening for many men to suddenly have to compete with them in the work force, to suddenly have them disagree over family matters and insist they had the right to disagree, to demand enforcement of the same rights men have not to be beaten, harassed, or verbally assaulted.

Many men helped women fight for equality.  Many more did not, and still others opposed what is balatantly obvious to any human being with a reasonable perspective: that women are indeed equal to men, and should be treated as equals.

When it comes to the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre, I cannot let just let it go because the attitudes that lead to the massacre still exist, and honouring those victims for a single day as though it were an isolated incident does no more than appease our conscience.  We do the same with days of remembrance for certain acts of genocide, but always, always decades after the act while current genocides occur even as we remember the past ones, and we do little to nothing to stop them.

If anyone doubts that there are still men in Canada who think uppity women (as they consider them) should be killed, that killing them, in fact is an act of heroism, simply look at the comment sections of several posts.  Here’s a sample (emphasis mine):

CRIMINAL OR FOLK HERO?
(Lepine is) undoubtedly a hero. This is the future. No matter how hard feminist hide behind Women's rights. This is the future. U will see one Marc Lepine at every corner waiting with guns to kill women.
Year after year of atrocities leaves people totally void of any kind of reasoning. Feminism is not about women it about hating men and making them suffer. Every feminist infected nation is suffering.
This soceity will fall and women will lose all their so called rights. MARC LEPINES ARE COMING!!!
 
“Feminism is not about women it about hating men and making them suffer.”

How do we overcome such incredible ignorance?  Asking for the right not to be beaten carries the hidden intent of making men suffer?  Working in fields they enjoy and qualify for is not for self-actualization, but to make men suffer?  Desiring the right to walk down a street in the evening without being sexually assaulted has the sole goal of making men suffer?  Expecting a father to continue to help support his children after his divorce is done to make him suffer? (but will someone please think of the children!).

“This soceity will fall and women will lose all their so called rights. MARC LEPINES ARE COMING!!!”

That is why I can’t let go of l’École Polytechnique massacre – there are still men in our own precious country who would very much like to see more of the same.  Men who do not want women to have a voice and rights equal to theirs.  Men whose self esteem depends on knowing that there is someone lower on the scale than them, someone who can never achieve what they achieve, thus minimizing the appearance of their own failures.

The first step in overcoming this gender imbalance is acknowledging that it does indeed still exist, as much as it is terrible to think that in the 21st century, in Canada (!), while women have come a long way on paper, equality does not exist until it is never questioned as a fuindamental right.

We do not think of the rights of black haired men, or short men, or men with freckles.  That, of course would be ludicrous, because why would one group be entitle to fewer rights than another?

Yet we continue to have to determine rights for women, (and certain minority groups) because whether some people like to admit it or not, they do in fact think that women and certain minorities are less than human.

Sticking our heads in the sand because we don’t like to think that this is the case in what is supposed to be an enlightened society, a country that not only defends human rights but pushes for them abroad is assuring that acts of violence against women will continue.  Acts of violence specifically targeting women simply because they have the courage to act upon the knowledge that they are indeed equal to men.
What can we do to help forward a fair society?  At the very, very, very least, point out injustice and inequality, speak out against it, and teach others through whatever means available to you.