Don’t dishonor Montreal Massacre victims with political theater
While I certainly believe the women who lost their lives on December 6, 1989 deserve to be commemorated, I am uneasy with the prospect of any political exploitation that may or may not be attaching itself to the tragedy that was the Montreal Massacre. At the very least, I believe it is disingenuous to conflate the actions and statements of Marc Lépine with all men in general, or with anyone who dares to question feminist doctrine, or even the sincerity with which it is being promulgated.
If we are to explore (and seek solutions to) the issue of violence against women, we must do so with integrity if this pursuit is be at all meaningful. This means not demonizing all men by wilfully ignoring data suggesting that men suffer from intimate partner abuse at roughly the same rate as women, and possibly face even more of a stigma around reporting said abuse, and are thus more prone to suffering in silence.
To pursue meaningful justice for women in general in ways that are lacking integrity or are hypocritical is self-defeating, and leaves the movement justifiably open to mockery. Take as an example the fallout from the University of Ottawa hockey players being found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in their hotel room. Activist Julie Lalonde decried the decision and others like it, claiming that such decisions would make it that much harder for women to come forward when assaults occur. Nowhere in her logic was there room either for relief that the woman in question hadn’t been assaulted after all, nor disgust for what appears to have been a false accusation. (It is the specter of false accusations, and not natural justice being served, that makes it harder for women to come forward, contrary to whatever Ms. Lalonde would have you believe.)
And so I bring up Ms. Lalonde’s reaction to the above case as an example of how there is sometimes a glitch in the feminism matrix when it comes to politicizing female victims, and the knee-jerk presumption of male guilt, even in the face of accusations that turn out to be false.
Given the above example (and others), I am left feeling a little skeptical about the motives of those who champion identity politics and “social” justice where it concerns the sexes. I trust that most people at various Montreal Massacre memorials were there out of a healthy and genuine need to remember those whose lives were taken, and pray that there were no elements of political theater to the proceedings, as that would truly dishonor the dead.
