Montreal Massacre - Feminist Analysis The Montreal Massacre was a mass shooting that occurred at the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec on December 6, 1989. This tragedy resulted in 14 innocent women being murdered; another four and ten women being injured. The perpetrator, Marc Lépine, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, entered a mechanical engineering class and proceeded to instruct the men to leave the class but told the girls to stay on one side of the classroom. He then shot all nine women in the classroom after declaring he was “fighting feminism”. Lépine continued to roam around the halls, cafeteria, and another classroom carrying out his violent acts against women for under 20 minutes. The perpetrator then …show more content…
The critical theoretical model of feminism will certainly highlight the part patriarchy plays in the continuing cycle of gender-based violence. The massacre is interpreted as a severe example of the bigger problem of violence against women as well as the power relationships that exist in patriarchal cultures. We are aware of this not only from the acts he performed, but also from Marc Lépine's longstanding animosity for women. When the media first learned about Marc, we believed he was just a mentally sick madman going on a killing spree with no clear motive. However, when more information about his past emerged, including details about his relationships with his parents, we realized how all of these things had influenced his decision to kill women. Returning to his parent-child connection, it was said that his father was extremely violent against both his mother and his kids, and that he saw his mother as weak because she "allowed" herself to be assaulted. In addition to being misogynistic, his father seemed to think that men should be in charge and that women should stay at home and take care of the
In 1989, a tragedy happened that would later be known as a national day of remembrance of the Montreal Massacre. Marc Lepine, the shooter, took the lives of many victims as well as his own, at the school of Polytechnique in Montreal. Because of his hatred of feminism, he felt compelled to kill fourteen of the female engineering students as well as any other female students or faculty who got in his way. Through the powerful film of “Polytechnique” and the credible facts of “The Seven Minute Life of Marc Lepine,” one could not help but to see a victim in Lepine, whose fate was tempted since the moment of his birth. Through the stimulating images of the movie and the emotional, yet credible, writing of Petrowski, Marc Lepine is seen as a victim of the massacre as well as the 14 other female victims of this horrific event in history.
On December 6th, 1989, the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal would – unbeknownst to everyone in the building – become the backdrop for one of the worst mass murder incidents in Canadian history. 14 women were shot and killed at the hands of a shooter named Marc Lepine, and 13 others were gravely wounded in the process (Maser, 1987). No outright reason was apparent other than the letters left on his suicide note, but it marked a troubled life that began from his troubled childhood. Factors that may have led up to this incident needs to be examined in further detail, using a psychological explanation and a criminological theory. This paper will use the social learning theory to analyze the behaviours that led up to this event, as well as the general strain theory to determine why he committed the crime.
On the 29th o April, 1977 Captain Cook, commander of a British fleet, landed on the eastern shore of Australia, in an attempt to claim the land under the name of Britain. The land was to be claimed by Britain as a land where the British government could send convicts; in an attempt to ease the struggle in the over flowing prisons. Upon Cooks arrival, he was ordered to follow three rules of claiming a foreign land. They were;
December 6, 1989, was one of the most horrific days in Canadian history, that is the date of the Montréal Massacre. A lone gunman with a deep hatred for females walked into the university that day, separated the males from the females and murdered 14 women and injured 13 other people then took his own life. Marc Lépine targeted only women because he felt that women were taking over all the jobs and there would be no jobs left for men. He blamed all females for ruining his life and stated that he was fighting feminism. Marc Lépine was and still is responsible for destroying many lives that day but he was not born misogynistic we are not born to hate we are taught it. Could his father Rachid Liass Gharbi be responsible for Marc’s misogynistic
Hunnicutt illustrated that the concept of patriarchy is a useful tool in the theory of feminism. She also made use the concept of patriarchy to show how it can be employed to explain violence against women in society. Hunnicutt’s article presents an alternative way to understand violence against women by employing patriarchy as a core theoretical concept. Hunnicutt believed that in the society, women are typically oppressed and men also have been historically dominant over them, and most times it results to violence against these women. Hunnicutt stated that the theories of violence against women mostly focus on male power but via situating that power within a patriarchal order. This article is important to the topic of feminism because for its theoretical background to help ground my
In Alexander Henry’s “The Massacre at Fort Michilimackinac”, he describes how the Indians massacred the soldiers and people at Fort Michilimackinac, he characterizes the Indians in the retelling differently — some as positive and some as negative. In Terry Goldie’s article “Semiotic Control: Native People in Canadian Literature”, Goldie discusses the characterization of Native people using 5 techniques: violence, sexuality, orality, mysticism, and prehistoric-ness — he discusses how these techniques are used to portray Native people in a negative light. In the paragraph where we see Wa’wa’tam for the second time (after twelve months have elapsed), his behaviour is off and he is acting odd— Henry shrugs this off are simply “the peculiarities
The effects from this corrupt enterprise are undeniably painful and scaring. In common societies women are belittled and objectified excessively, it is hardly considered a conflict when unimaginable pain is inflicted upon them. The physical, emotional, and mental distortion and destruction, caused by violence last an eternity. The inane fear, agony of sha...
The Le Paradis Massacre happened on 27 May 1940 when the British troops were attempting to retreat through the Pas-de-Calais region during the Battle of Dunkirk. The Le Paradis massacre was a war crime committed by German troops who were under the command of Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchlein. Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment had lost contact with their regiment. They then occupied and defended a farmhouse against an attack by German troops in the village of Le Paradis. After they had run out of ammunition, the British soldiers surrendered to the German troops. The British troops were then led across the road to a wall and machine-gunned. Knöchlein at that time had his men armed with bayonets to kill any remaining survivors.
The. “Gender and Homicide: A Comparison of Men and Women Who Kill.” Violence and Victims 5(4): 227-242. Keeney, Belea T. and Kathleen M. Heide. 1994. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the The “Gender Differences in Serial Murderers”. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
This paper examines Patriarchal Terrorism, a form of domestic violence against women. In the United States has being more prevalent among different races, social level, marital status, and educational level. The current increase of domestic violence rates globally have led researchers to study the importance of the rates in the United States for better methods of policy implementation. The theory that explains the causes of domestic violence is the Conflict Theory developed by Karl Marx. Conflict Theory explains how domestic violence emerged due to the result of gender inequality in patriarchal societies. In this societies, men were superior to women in the ability to obtain education, employment, financial income, creating law, and vote. As
In his 16 January 2014 New York Times editorial, Nicholas Kristoff exemplifies the intensity of fear and injustice that has plagued the world through the window of rape culture. Rape Culture has filled the hearts of so many women across the world, and has terrified them. Women have been living in a man’s world, operating to a man’s approval, and men are controlling what a woman’s body means, and who is entitled to it. Kristoff apprises a story of a young girl, Flevian, who was brutally raped by her grandfather at the age of six and betrayed by her family. This young girl was helpless and her family was useless in securing her safety.
Melodi Ozdemir English 170 Pro. Lehman 19 May 2016 Essay Id3: A Woman’s Image For years Ms. Sauvage was abused by her husband. Her hopeless attempt at suicide which displayed a significant amount of her cry for help, turned out to be unsuccessful therefore, as an end result, she shot him. Every year numbers of women are physically or psychologically abused by their partners and as a consequence are so damaged mentally, that killing seems like their only possible solution.
Reviewing criminological literature, it is gathered that radical feminists believe rape against a female is due to power and oppression. (Primorac, 1998). ‘Gender blindness’ a criminological theory states the causation of crime. Due to Feminism in the late 90’s, female victimology has emerged to be acknowledged and taught in the wider society of Britain, all due to Feminist activism. Due to the increased knowledge of violence against women, in 2002 the Council of Europe declared this crime a ‘public health emergency’ (Silvestri and Crowther-Dowey, 2008:
This also proves that honor killings are not only about killing them physically, but about killing them in every way, shape or form.... ... middle of paper ... ... It takes a small step to change what is happening to these women, especially because it is a cultural tradition and not an act based off of religion. Works Cited Dahl, Julia.
The battle had been lost. She knew it before she even opened her eyes. She could feel pain all over her body and felt the familiar sensation of cold air on open skin. She tried to raise her arm but it was trapped under something. With what strength she had left she pulled. Her arm came free.