Rosenberg, Dorothy Goldin

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

caractkre gCnCralisC de notre systkme patriarcal, oO la violence faite aux femmes fait partie du statu quo. Comme dit Micheline Dumont, << les femmes doivent avoir le courage de nommer les choses par leur nom >>. Nicole Brossard et Andrke Matteau essaient pour leur part de mieux comprendrele sy stkmepatriarcalpolitico- culture1 en difinissant la misogynie, le phallocentrisme, le sexisme, l'anti- ferninisme, l'institutionnalisation du colt hCtCrosexue1 et de 1'idCologie de la pornographie. Mais Brossard essaie Cgalement de comprendre pourquoi cette trag6die s'est dCroul& au QuCbec : dans aucune population de tradition catholique et dans aucune population de langue hanpise, le fkminisme ne s'est autant rCpandu dans la sociCt-5. La section suivante, Violence : petite et grande folie >>, met la mort des 14 femmes sur un point du cercle de la vio- lence masculine. La violence faite aux femmes, toujours manifestke dans le quotidien, augmente parce que beaucoup d'hommes ont pew de la lib6ration des femmes. c< Le carnage >>, ditironi-quement Paula Sypnowich, << a conclu de fa~on macabre La Dkcemie des femmes D. Dans << Magistkre et magistrature >>, la section finale, les textes abordent la ques- tion de la culpabilitk des hommes et celle du soutien aux jeunes femmes. << Le couteau de Rambo, c'est dans le sein de Gaia ... notre mkre, notre soeur, notre fille, notre compagne, notre Cgale. Notre royaume >>, kritPaul Chamberland. Enfin, Andrk Stanislas-Cyr Ccrit au directeur de Polytechnique, dont la fille a CvitC de quelques minutes le carnage, et lui demande de faire face au sexisme B son Ccole. Dans le premier pokme, Bersianik avertissait la jeune Ctudiante poursuivie par le tueur : << Ne t'arrCte pas pour cueillir / trop rouges / les perce-neige de d&embre.>> Dans le dernier @me, Ccrit par  veill lard, le Mont-Royal devient un volcan, une dCesse et un cimeti5re qui tCmoigne de 1'hCmorragie du sang fCminin. A la fin du pokme, ~veillard reve qu'un jour les femmes et les hommes feront ensembles des bouquets des fleurs sur la montagne : << Et B chaque flew qu'ils cueillaient / revenaient les femmes qu'ils avaientaimks. >> Un petit souffled'espoir. Peut-Cue. A la fin du livre, une question reste ouverte : la demande de Monique Bosco, qu'il y ait une enquete publique sur le crime au Polytechnique, n'a pas r q u  de reponse. Quand on lit la lettre de suicide de Upine, censurh pour une #xiode d'un an par la police qu6&oise, cette demande devient plus urgente. Malgr6 la division du recueil en cinq sections, beaucoup de textes se @tent. De plus, certains textes, trop analytiques ou trop spkcialisks, sont difficiles B comprendre : ainsi en est-il de l'article de Monique Panaccio, Upine et les roses: au dkla dYEros >>. Par ailleurs, il manque une perspective trks importante: celle des femmes immigrees, autochtones et de couleur. Pourquoi 14 femmes sont-elles devenues le symbole national de la condi- tion feminine dans la sociCtk patriarcale et non pas une femme nigkrienne tuCe par son mari dans leur domicile B Montreal? Cet acte de violence fait h la femme / Cpousel immigrante n'est-il pas Cgalement un geste politique, personnel, social et symbolique ? Aucun texte ne pose cette question. Nearnoins, Polytechnique 6 dkcembre est un document trks important, car il fait partie de notre histoire des crimes contres les femmes, histoire qui, selon ~ l a i n e  Audet, est << toujours occult&, 6ffacte B, au point que nous commenCons << B peine B 1'Ccrire >>. Donc, LA mCmoire, comme <<LA justice >>, dont les rtdactrices parlent dans l'avant-propos, est un moyen << de changer radicalement notre vision du monde >>. Pour les femmes, se souvenir, cela veut dire SURVIVRE. Christabelle Sethna remercie Marie- Hkl2ne Sinquin qui a e'te' tr2s exigeante au sujet de la grammaire. AFTER THE MONTREAL MASSACRE Directed by Gerry Rogers. 27 minutes, 14 seconds. NFB-CBC production. Order number: C 9 190 097. By Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg December 6th will forever be etched in my mind as the date of the brutal killing of the fourteen young women at the ~ c o l e  Polytechnique in Montreal. Just as many of us of a certain age will never forget the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, in Dallas, Texas, so will the date of the Montreal massacre be fixed in the hems and memories of many of us from now on. It is hard to believe that two years have passed since Marc LCpine killed these young women. I will not pretend to be neutral on this issue; I am passionately involved. The film After the Montreal Massacre brings back the deep pain and anger we must not let ourselves forget with time. Gerry Rogers directed this powerful and useful short documentary which was aired on CBC's "Man Alive" to mark the first anniversary of the killings last year. CO-produced by the NFB and the CBC, it contains commentary from several re- porters, one of the women who was shot and has recovered, a group of students, feminist authors and a sociologist. It makes no bones about which side of the debateit is on: systemic misogyny and violence against women versus Marc Upine the individual madman gone on a wild rampage. The assumption that this was the isolated act of a psychotic is challenged by those in the film who see it as a logical, vicious expression of male hatred of women. The film provides a consensus that all women are at risk and that there is indeed no guaranteed safe place for any of us today. As sad proof, this past summer, the Toronto area alone witnessed the rapes and murders of fe- males who ranged from a three year-old to teenagers to an older woman raped and murdered in her bed in an old peoples' home. Unfortunately, every region could fill in its own map of similar horror sto- ries. Journalist Francine Pelletier, one of the members of the former Quebec feminist publication, La vie en rose, was on the hit list of those whom Marc Upine named as his next victims had he been able to finish the job as he had planned. She had to fight long and hard to get the suicide note released by the police. In the film she points out that for a madman he left avery clearly thought-out message. (His actual letter, published by The Globe and Mail on November 27, 1990, stated: "Even if the mad killer epi- thet will be attributed to me by the media, I consider myself a rational erudite per- son... forced to take extreme acts ... The feminists always have a talent to enrage me. They want to keep the advantages of women, e.g. cheaper insurance, extended maternity leave ... while trying to grab VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1 those of the men ... They are so opportun- istic, they neglect to profit from the knowl- edge accumulated by men through the ages.") The analogy has been made that if the victims were black or Jewish, there would be no problem in identifying the clear evidence ofracism and antisemitism. Why, then, is there such denial in naming the hatredof women and its inherent manifes- tation in routine violence, misogyny and sexism? Here, the mix of articulate voices cov- ers a number of important issues. Author Rosemary Brown talks of the violence against women as thwarting every at- tempt to achieve equality, and other widely-held goals for progress, as women live in fear. Feminist activist Charlotte Bunch feels that violence against women in its many forms is the most pervasive and insidious form of human rights abuse. She calls it a war on women, a civil emergency. Sylvie Gagnon, the woman who was shot, says, "Marc Lkpine is a symbol of death and ha te... he is a prob- lem, not an individual." Sociologist Linda McLeod describes a new form of play- ground violence where little boys simu- late the rape of little girls, relating it to the popular culture of violence so rampant in the media - videos, cartoons, movies and music. Journalist Jack Todd says that the Polytechnique murders reflect part of a pattern similar to the man who shoves his girlfriend or pinches a waitress' bot- tom. The questions the film raises are those of women's daily experiences - verbal, physical, psychological, sexual- that fit into this pattern. Finally, many of us who work for peace and justice are reminded of the global connections between vio- lence against women, violence against the earth, and the violence of militarism. We are urged to make those links daily in both our public and private lives. Immediately, there are ways to deal with prevention. Leona Heillig of the Montreal Assault Prevention Centre pro- vides positive advice for self-protection; in as much as fear can make women feel like victims, steps can be taken to fight back. Recent studies have shown that women have a better chance of avoiding rape if they learn to protect themselves. Francine Pelletier reminds us that for many young women, there is no turning back the clock. She gives evidence of this by citing the higher emollment of women students in the ~ c o l e  Polytechnique this year. Both she and Jack Todd talk about the need for men to become involved and take responsibility for education and change. She points to the fact that for the first time men are beginning to speak out about violence to women. Men have to want the same things we do, she says. It is important that our message be the same. The video, After the Montreal Massa- cre, is available from the NFB and is recommended for usein classrooms, com- munities and living rooms everywhere. It should be shown to and discussed with young and old alike, with a particular emphasis on the young, and with men who do not understand the fear that women live with on a daily basis, not just in North America. but all over the world. YOU CAN BE FREE: An Easy-to-Read Handbook for Abused Women Ginny Nicarthy and Sue Davidson. Seattle: Seal Press, 1989. By Carolyn Skelly and Sandra Hilliard Fishleigh The sub-title, "An Easy-to-Read hand- book for Abused Women," is an accurate description of this useful volume. The vocabulary throughout is responsive to the needs of readers with limited literacy skills. It is written at a very accessible comprehension level. As a self-help manual, this handbook provides a good overview to enable a woman, who has been struggling with an abusive partner, to understand her situa- tion. There are many guided exercises throughout that can help the reader begin to identify incidents of abuse and patterns of control in her life. Many of the exer- cises offer decision-making processes without making the common error of of- fering solutions that do not speak to an individual woman's reality. The manual encourages the reader to define her own problem through useful exercises, and alerts her to the helpful options available. Most importantly, it encourages her to take a first step toward empowerment. In the section entitled,"Leaving and Stay- ing: the Good and the Bad of Each," discussion follows the exercise that in- cludes what to to if she stays, how to plan for an emergency escape, and preparing to leave permanently. For a small volume - 1 13 pages -You Can Be Free has covered many aspects of the whole situation, from "What is Abuse?", "But I Still Love Him," "Get- ting Help" (professional, police, lawyers, counselors) to "You Can Be Your Own Counselor" and "Looking Out For Your- self and the Children." One chapter is directed to the lesbian reader and, though most of the book is written for abused women who are not lesbians, much of the remaining content can be 'translated' for women who are. More and more lesbians are spealung out about violence between lesbians and the homophobia present in the services available to women. This chapter provides specific support to lesbi- ans while it acknowledges the additional obstacles present forlesbians seeking help. A caution is missing that needs to be placed at the beginning of the book to warn the reader of the danger of leaving the book, and, in particular, any of her written exercises, anywhere that an abu- sive partner might discover them. The woman's safety and an assessment of her immediate situation needs to be given more prominence throughout. The definition of abuse could be ex- panded for a clearer understanding. Not enough is said about the single assault or occasional assaults. Because of society's low level of awareness about violence against women, and a woman's own pos- sible minimizing of her assault, just say- ing "Battery is not just one hit. It is a pattern of physical assaults, threats, and CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME m 

After the Montreal Massacre, directed by Gerry Rogers

https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/10626/9715

After the Montreal Massacre, directed by Gerry Rogers

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)