Montreal Dec ‘89

In December 1989, Marc Lépine roamed through the buildings at the University of Montreal, calling out, ‘Bring me the women! I want the women!’ In each room, he separated the women from the men and shot them. He slaughtered 14 young women in total, before killing himself. Australian singer/songwriter Judy Small wrote a song [LINK: http://www.mysongbook.de/msb/songs/m/montreal.html] about it which asks essential but mostly ignored questions:

And don’t you wonder why, as you try to make sense of this,
Why is it always men who resort to the gun, the sword and the fist?
Why does ‘gunman’ sound so familiar while ‘gunwoman’ doesn’t quite ring true?
What is it about men that makes them do the things they do?

What is it about men? Why are we so much more likely to murder, to rape women, children and other men, and to assault partners we are meant to love?

The last thing we need is hordes of self-congratulatory men saying ‘of course I don’t support violence against women and kids’ — or, in the words of the Painters and Dockers [LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painters_and_Dockers] song, ’All men are bastards … except me.’

Wearing a white ribbon should mean taking responsibility for the attitudes, actions and inactions that contribute to sexism and male violence.

Author Ben Pennings (re-published in part with permission www.newmatilda.com)

WHITE RIBBON DAY TEAM