Montreal Massacre
Radical Feminist Theory
Radical Feminist theory suggests that violence against women is grounded in a patriarchal system which promotes a particular form of masculinity.
Title: SHOOTING SCENE--An injured is wheeled away from the University of Montreal Wednesday after a gunman opened fire in a packed classroom. A young man with a rifle killed 14 women and wounded 12 other people today in a shooting rampage at the University of Montreal engineering school, then shot himself to death, the police said. The police said the gunman had singled out the women as his targets. The Montreal Police Director, Claude St.-Laurent, said the gunman, dressed in a hunting outfit, rushed into a packed classroom on the second floor and yelled in French, "You're all a bunch of feminists!" before he started shooting. Witnesses said the man divided the students in the classroom by sex and sent the men into the corridor before opening fire on the women. Six women were shot dead in that room, and a seventh was slain in another room. Then the man, carrying, what looked like a .22-caliber rifle, left in search of more victims, Mr. St.-Laurent said. The gunman prowled the halls, killing three women in the cafeteria and four more women in the corridor of the third floor, where he then shot himself. He was not immediately identified.
Object Type: photograph
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches; 20.32 x 25.4 cm
Medium: gelatin silver print
Date: 1989-12-06
Location: Canada, Quebec, Montreal
Accession No: NYT-34-552
Photographer: Shaney Komulainen, b. 1963- d. unknown
Category: The Rudolph P. Bratty Family Collection
Inscriptions: Recto, handwritten: 3x5; [printed in gsp] (MTL 4) MONTREAL, Dec.6--SHOOTING SCENE--An injured is wheeled away from the University / of Montreal Wednesday after a gunman opened fire in a packed classroom. (CP LASER PHOTO) / 1989 (stf)PCh2010est color; Verso, printed: [newsprint adhered with tape] Canadian Press / A victim of shooting at the University of Montreal being wheeled to an ambulance.; printed: [newsprint adhered with tape] MONTREAL, Dec.6 (AP) -- A young / man with a rifle killed 14 women and / wounded 12 other people today in a / shooting rampage at the University of / Montreal engineering school, then shot / himself to death, the police said. / The police said the gunman had sin- / gled out the women as his targets. / The Montreal Police Director, / Claude St.-Laurent, said the gunman, / dressed in a hunting outfit, rushed into / a packed classroom on the second floor / and yelled in French, "You're all a / bunch of feminists!" before he started / shooting. / Witnesses said the man divided the / students in the classroom by sex and / sent the men into the corridor before / opening fire on the women. / Six women were shot dead in that room, and a seventh was slain in an- / other room. Then the man, carrying, / what looked like a . 22-caliber rifle, left / in search of more victims, Mr. St.-Lau- / rent said. / The gunman prowled the halls, kill- / ing three women in the cafeteria and / four more women in the corridor of the / third floor, where he then shot himself. / He was not immediately identified.; typed and handwritten: [adhered and taped label] Published In NYT / THURSDAY / DECEMBER 7, 1989 / CALIF / NAT'L
Museum Label by Heather McKeown and Pegah Kenarsari, CR8002 : Critical Engagement and Criminological Theories, Winter 2020
Shaney Komulainen, who is best known for her 1990 work “Face to Face” depicting a Canadian soldier and an Anishinaabe warrior staring each other down during the Oka crisis, was able to capture this moment wherein the nameless female victim, gunned down by one “failed” man, represents all women who have ever been harmed by the patriarchy. On December 6, 1989, a 25-year-old male entered the École Polytechnique in Montreal where a group of engineering students were writing their final exams. He walked into a classroom and told the men to leave, exclaiming “I hate feminists!” before beginning to shoot. He left the classroom and continued shooting, both men and women, in the school for twenty minutes before taking his own life. In this image, an unidentified victim is rushed out of the school on a stretcher. By the end of the rampage, 14 women were killed, and 14 others were injured.
These women, victims of what’s now referred to as the “Montreal Massacre”, represent the devastating consequences of what can happen when patriarchal aggression is taken to the extreme. Patriarchy is upheld in our daily lives, in a number of ways: through rape culture, domestic abuse, and the wage gap, to name just a few of many examples. But the actions of this mass shooter show what can happen when all other attempts to “be a man” in a patriarchal society are exhausted.
In memoriam
Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz