“I Hate Feminists!”: December 6, 1989 and its Aftermath

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Mélissa Blais, Translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott

On December 6, 1989, a man walked into the engineering school École Polytechnique de Montréal, armed with a semi-automatic rifle. Declaring “I hate feminists,” Marc Lépine killed fourteen young women.

Originally published in French in 2009, “I Hate Feminists!” examines the collective memory that emerged in the aftermath of the massacre as Canadians struggled to make sense of this tragic event and to understand the motivations of the killer.

Analyzing stories and editorials in Montréal and Toronto newspapers, texts distributed within anti-feminist “masculinist” networks, discourses about memorials in major Canadian cities and the film Polytechnique, which was released on the twentieth anniversary of the massacre in 2009, Mélissa Blais argues that feminist analyses and the killer’s own statements have been set aside in favour of interpretations that absolve the killer of responsibility or even shift the blame onto women and feminists. “He was mad” gets more media  approval than “this is an act of male violence against women as a social group.”

In the end, Blais contends that the collective memory that has been constructed through various media has functioned not as a denunciation of violence against women but as a catalyst for anti-feminist discourse.

2014 | 9781742199443 | Paperback | 136 pages

Mélissa Blais, Translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott

On December 6, 1989, a man walked into the engineering school École Polytechnique de Montréal, armed with a semi-automatic rifle. Declaring “I hate feminists,” Marc Lépine killed fourteen young women.

Originally published in French in 2009, “I Hate Feminists!” examines the collective memory that emerged in the aftermath of the massacre as Canadians struggled to make sense of this tragic event and to understand the motivations of the killer.

Analyzing stories and editorials in Montréal and Toronto newspapers, texts distributed within anti-feminist “masculinist” networks, discourses about memorials in major Canadian cities and the film Polytechnique, which was released on the twentieth anniversary of the massacre in 2009, Mélissa Blais argues that feminist analyses and the killer’s own statements have been set aside in favour of interpretations that absolve the killer of responsibility or even shift the blame onto women and feminists. “He was mad” gets more media  approval than “this is an act of male violence against women as a social group.”

In the end, Blais contends that the collective memory that has been constructed through various media has functioned not as a denunciation of violence against women but as a catalyst for anti-feminist discourse.

2014 | 9781742199443 | Paperback | 136 pages

Table of Contents

Introduction

Feminist Participation in the Collective Memory of December 6, 1989

From Marginalization to Vilification of Feminist Discourse

Commemorations (1999–2005)

Negotiating Representations of the December 6 Massacre, or When Feminism and Anti-feminism Coexist

Conclusion

Reviews

Mélissa Blais' academic essay exploring the psychological analysis, informs us that conflict can arise as a response to a confronting multiple murder.

—Dannielle Shelley Carr, The Australian Writer

I believe this book should be read by all who even marginally consider themselves feminists.

—Marilyn.D. Brady