Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, an annual event to honor the victims of mass murderer Marc Lépine, who gunned down fourteen women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989. Lepine, driven by a poisonous misogynist ideology, specifically targeted women, yelling “I hate feminists” before opening fire on one classroom of female students.
Reading over his suicide-note-cum-manifesto today, I was struck again by how, well, familiar it all sounded. While only a few MRAs have explicitly celebrated Lepine as a hero, his views on women and feminism would not be out of place on most Men’s Rights forums. Here’s Lepine, in his own words. (I’ve broken the wall of text into shorter paragraphs.)
[T]he feminists always have a talent for enraging me.
They want to retain the advantages of being women (e.g. cheaper insurance, extended maternity leave preceded by a preventive leave) while trying to grab those of the men. … They are so opportunistic that they neglect to profit from the knowledge accumulated by men throughout the ages. …
Thus, the other day, people were honoring the Canadian men and women who fought at the frontlines during the world wars. How does this sit with the fact that women were not authorized to go to the frontline at the time??? Will we hear of Caesar’s female legions and female galley slaves who of course took up 50 per cent of history’s ranks, although they never existed?
I’ve seen complaints virtually identical to these — I hesitate to call them arguments — reiterated many times over on places like A Voice for Men and the Men’s Rights subreddit.
Speaking of the Men’s Rights subreddit, here’s how the regulars there honored the victims of the massacre today: someone posted a message that today was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (this is actually a different day, in November), and, well, this is some of what ensued.
MRB2012 gave us the quote in my headline:
![MRB2012 8 points 6 hours ago (12|4) Her explanation included how it all started with how a bunch of people who were labeled feminist were shot. This is a reference to the mass shooting committed by Mark Lepine. Most murder victims are actually male, but because of this one guy who targeted women we're all supposed to cry about how hard it is to be female. permalink source save give gold hide child comments [–]enzikio 2 points 3 hours ago (2|0) I didn't know about Marc Lepine until your post, but it looks like his page was updated with a feminist slant with this great quote A few men's rights activists seek to rehabilitate Lépine as hero of the anti-feminist cause. A look at the sources are a joke. They all appear to reference a single person who apparently made some comments that agreed with what Marc Lepine did. No where do their sources rise to the evidence of the quote above. permalink source save parent give gold [–]muttmonster 1 point 6 hours ago (2|1) Isn't that also the guy who yelled, "I hate feminists"? permalink source save parent give gold [–]darklycan51 -3 points 4 hours ago (5|8) To be fair there's some times i've considered doing that to feminists... lol](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mrblepine.png?resize=519%2C525&ssl=1)
7Vega worried that awareness about violence against women was taking up too much of everyone’s time.
![7Vega 11 points 6 hours ago (14|3) How many fucking days do we have for violence against women? permalink source save give gold hide child comments [–]muttmonster 6 points 6 hours ago (7|1) Yeah, I swear we just had one, and that's why google had a black ribbon on it's page. And they also use a white ribbon for the same thing? permalink source save parent give gold [–]7Vega 4 points 6 hours ago (7|3) Soon all colors will be associated with violence against women.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/vega.png?resize=505%2C257&ssl=1)
And JohnKimble suggested that violence against women is really all their fault anyway.
The greatest human rights movement of the 21st century, folks.
MRB2012 really needs to step on some fucking Legos…..the asshat. >:(
Instant, total self-awareness, a functioning conscience, and the intelligence for those things to burn, is what I would wish on them.
I stayed out of those threads on Reddit today precisely because I was pretty damn sure this is how it would go down. 0_o
It was “Je lutte contre les féministes” (I’m at war against feminists) — Lépine thought he was fighting some kind of revolutionary war. Which ended rather prematurely, as I recall, and by his own hand.
Every single one of these MRAssholes who idolize him should fall into a pineapple patch with their pants down. Christ.
auggziliary, I’m still surprised by these guys on a regular basis, and at this point I really shouldn’t be.
Three hundred and sixty-five. Fuckhead.
Marc Lepine is actually the reason why I even pay attention to these fucking MRA douchebags in the first place. Because he was absolutely one of them. They advocate for his actions each and every day. I don’t care an iota about their unoriginal opinions or repetitious attempts at being click bait. I just prefer to keep an eye on them, because that saying about keeping your enemies close is pretty good advice, even if most of your enemies are a bunch of morons who couldn’t shoot their way out of a paper bag. It only takes one.
“Soon all colors will be associated with violence against women.”
Ah, yes, the dreaded Rainbow Agenda. (Not to be confused with the Gay Agenda, which is more about forcing the straights to marry other people of the same sex.) The anti-violence-against-women shock troops have already seized the white ribbons and the black ribbons*, severing the gray ribbon from reinforcements, with the pink ribbon serving as a stronghold cleverly disguised as an anti-breat cancer awareness tool. Now all that remains to be seized are the red ribbons, the blue ribbons, the yellow ribbons, which as it turns out are already unaffiliated with violence against women. With control of those ribbons, all over ribbons shall crumble. Except maybe the puzzle ribbon and the cloud ribbon (though some say the olive-green ribbon will pose more trouble than it’s worth).
Anyway, now that the strategy for Full Spectrum Domination has been explained to you, please stare intently at this neuralyzer for a few moments:
*I’ve no idea how Google used the black ribbon, but according to wikipedia it is used for transgender hate crimes awareness. Great job ignoring transgender people, Men’s Human Rights Activism Activists.
That video is the best!
I love the way the kitties have planted themselves in the optimal positions for inconveniencing and intimidating the poor dogs.
I have no idea why this tab was open in my browser, but I would like to submit this Shit Rough Draft for brain bleach.
http://shitroughdrafts.com/post/68850862469/the-lord-of-the-rings-return-of-the-king
Also, some angelfish.
http://dark-horse-adaptations.blogspot.com/2013/01/aquarium-fish-angelfish-pictures.html
Where cats are cats, and dawgs are nervous…LOL!
Yeah, because all of those male victims of murder were murdered for the crime of existing while male, right? *rolls eyes*
Smart puppies!
Mutual domestic violence? End it by stop assaulting male partners? Ha…hahaha….HAHAHAHA!
Hi! Long time lurker here. Just had to say, the video was hilarious.
(At first, I did think the cats were deterring the dogs with their Jedi Mind Powers.)
Folks with access to the Borg back end — there’s a DO NOT POST THESE brain bleach post, if you drop links in there I’ll see them, whereas here they might get buried. Angelfish, are, of course, a go, and that shit rough draft is pretty funny too!
Tulgey — there’s a cloud ribbon? As for the black ribbon, what I’m hoping happened was the hover text simply said “day of rememberence” and these geniuses took a giant leap into anti-women territory and missed the whole clicking on it and getting to trans* day of rememberence. I missed the ribbon too though, by the time I remembered what day it was I flew into a bit of a tizzy to get something up on the Borg before midnight my time // Borg time.
As for the topic…no. Gender based terrorism, bad science, sympathizing with a mass murderer…the greatest human rights movement of the 21st century! (I know it started last century, but can I nominate trans* rights for that title?)
And those cats! The number of them that just seemed to be “dude, why are you barking at me? I don’t care wtf you do”
The little dogs I can forgive, but some of those dogs were easily 5x+ the weight of a cat. Oh gods, the poodle puppy met the cat here once, it was interesting…she weighs more than he did, she’s a large tabby, he’s basically a toy poodle (dad’s a cockerpoo, mom’s a toy poodle, he’s her size). They spent about an hour walking circles around each other until reaching a truce involving the stairs (puppy wasn’t so good at them yet, and she left him alone once she realized she could retreat) — seeing how he’d never met a cat before, I considered that a success.
Nobody wants to be at the wrong end of Cat Anger Consequences, even dogs. Remember they have sharp claws and are quite willing to use them. Did u see the end of the video- many attacked the dogs as they walked past, a few got bored and moved and others were biding their time till the witnesses left.
Yes, I think those dogs knew all too well what a swipe of the claws felt like!
“Three hundred and sixty-five. Fuckhead.”
You are forgetting leap years.
As to what we should wish on these fuckheads: I recommend a burst aortic aneurysm while watching JtO’s maniacal laugh as he dreams of witnessing a rape. (all that in a never ending loop.)
The solipsists at groups like Av4M won’t ever get it because they are incapable of getting anything that doesn’t involve their own hurt feelings. There simply is no cure for their (self inflicted) disease: a world of their own making in which they are somehow powerless to act on their own behalf in positive ways, but all-powerful when it comes to thwarting the dreams and ambitions or others. In other words, a philosophy of pure hate.
Wow. I did a blog post on this as well and went into how Paul Elam and co. endorse violence while saying simultaneously they don’t endorse it. They’re more concerned about how others will view the violent comments they censor rather than the violence they contain.
Lepine was suffering from severe mental illness, you may as well adopt the Yorkshire Ripper as a moral crusader against prostitution (I believe some f*ckwits actually do).
The sad irony is Lepine was a victim of male domestic violence. His father was physically and emotionally abusive, and ceased all contact with his children after his parents separated, he also declined to support them financially meaning Lepine’s mother had to work long hours, farming the children out to other families. His life story was a catalogue of isolation and rejection. I’m not excusing his crimes, but there were many factors contributing towards Lepine’s illness and no doubt led to the massacre.
If there had been more state help for his mother, and more laws in place to force his father to pay child support, the kind of thing the MRAs are stridently opposed to, then maybe things would have turned out differently. But no, I’m sure the MRAs blame the whole tragedy on feminism.
“…we’re all supposed to cry about how hard it is to be female.”
Meanwhile, the MRA’s want everyone to cry about how hard it is to be male.
Their grasp of irony is on a par with their grasp of basic human decency.
If an MRA saw a little kid eating an ice cream cone, and the ice cream fell off onto the sidewalk, their reaction would be “Oh how tragic! There’s ice cream in my way and I have to step around it! Men always get the short end of the stick! We invented everything ever, and this is how the world repays us, by making it harder to walk down the street!”. The child’s sorrow would go completely unnoticed.
They have such an empathy deficit, and a complete lack of perspective. Other people don’t exist for them. Only their own complaints are real.
I would LOVE to see paternity leave become the norm in our culture. The idea that maternity leave is a feminist plot rather than the result of our culture’s patriarchal norm that women do the lion’s share of childrearing work is laughable. Two men in my office took extended leave when their wives had children, and I thought it was awesome. And there are several women in my office who take turns with their husbands when it comes to leaving work because daycare called to report their children are sick. These are all signs of cultural progress as far as I’m concerned.