Letter to Editor - On Feminism

 

“Does that even matter?" the writer asks, of how the women saw themselves. Yes. I don't believe 'feminist' should be used as a label for women who happened to be caught in the line of fire while pursuing non-traditional occupations. Surely to be a feminist requires that one have some knowledge of feminist theory, its history, and ideally an awareness of how this movement and ways of thinking have impacted on society. And doesn't that go against feminist values, to place an 'identity' upon someone not of their own choosing? Student engineer Nathalie Provost, one of the survivors of the shootings at the Polytechnique, had pleaded with Lépine that they were not feminists, just students taking engineering. Was it a way of trying to avoid getting killed, and did her background include feminist theory and an understanding of changes in society and how they would have impacted on men such as Marc Lépine? Or was Provost simply a woman taking a non-traditional university program, as she said?

 

It's typical to try and make institutional problems and social issues appear as relationship problems, and the writer prefers to blame such happenings as the Montreal Massacre and the “Labia Majora Carnage" article on “a system of patriarchy that heterosexualizes male and female relations." If one examined these more closely, however, one would find that careers, and not just relationships based on a particular sexuality, could well be at the root of the problem.