We live in a patriarchal, capitalistic society that supports, and encourages violence against women as well as oppression against women as well.
Criminal behaviour patterns can be linked to the gender conflict created by economic and social struggles common in postindustrial societies. In every culture, males try to emulate "ideal" masculine behaviours. So in Western culture, this means being authoritative, in charge, combative, and controlling. In turn, failure to adopt these roles leads to men feeling effeminate and unmanly. Violence against women is an especially economical way to demonstrate manhood.
The massacre at École Polytechnique is a prime example of violence against women by a male perpetrator who was unable to succeed in his own life and felt that this was the fault of women, or more accurately, feminists. He blamed feminists for ruining his life and for the fact that he couldn't get a girlfriend. Growing up, he had to deal with an abusive father, who was also contemptuous of women. His father was an authoritarian, possessive, and jealous man, who was frequently violent towards his wife and two children. He (The father) believe that women were only intended to serve men. Not only did this behaviour set a bad example for his son, it shows that the father behaved in a way that reflected earlier views of women, although archaic, were and still are prevalent and common.When he was 7, his mother and father separated and his mother returned to nursing to support her children. Because of this, he and his sister were only able to see their mother on weekends and stayed with other families. Marc Lepine's early childhood and behaviour in later life is a good example of Hirschi's Social Bond Theory. As a teen, he was uncommunicative and showed very little emotion. He suffered from low self-esteem, due in part to his chronic acne and also because of the taunting's from his sister. He fantasized about her ( his sister's) death and even dug a mock grave for her on one occasion. He owned an air rifle and used it to shoot pigeons around his home with his friend. Now, of course many adolescent boys demonstrate some of these behaviours, like low self-esteem, as well as the violent nature of using the air rifle. Adding to all this, he also became fascinated with WWII and admired, one could say, idolized, Adolf Hitler.
When Marc Lepine was entering adulthood, he was also entering a period of time, lasting seven years, which he described in his eventual suicide note as having "brought him no joy."
He was taking a two-year, pre-university course in pure sciences, and although he failed two courses in the beginning, began to improve greatly as the course progressed. He took a job at a local hospital, doing custodial work. He switched courses after a year, and was remembered by his teachers as a model student, who was hard-working and quiet, and did well in all his classes. During the last term of the program, Marc Lepine dropped out, suddenly and without any explanation, resulting in failure to complete his diploma. After moving out of his mother's house in 1986, he applied to study engineering at École Polytechnique de Montreal. In 1987, he was fired from his hospital job due to his disrespect of superiors and aggressive behaviour. His friends observed that he became increasingly unpredictable and frequently flew into rages when frustrated. During this time, he began to describe a plan, wherein, he would execute a murderous rampage and then commit suicide.
Lepine desperately wanted a girlfriend, but he was generally ill at ease around women and tried to boss them around and show off his knowledge in front of them. He began to speak out, mostly towards men about his hatred of feminists and career women, especially of women in traditionally male occupations, such as the Police force. He said that women should remain home, and take care of their families. In April, of 1989, he met with an Admissions Officer for a university and complained at length about how women were, in his mind, taking over the job market and taking jobs away from men.
During the summer of 1989, Lepine obtained an application for a firearms-acquisition certificate, and received his permit in the middle of October. He then entered a local sporting goods store on the 21st of November and purchased a Ruger mini-14 semi-automatic rifle.....
The downward spiral that was Marc Lepine's life came to a dramatic and violent climax and end on the 6th of December, 1989 when he walked into École Polytechnique de Montreal, entered a second floor classroom and, after separating all the men and women and ordering the 50 male students to leave, began firing on the nine remaining female students, claiming he was fighting Feminism. He killed six and injured the rest. after this, he continued his rampage through the rest of the building, making his way through the cafeteria, corridors and one more classroom.
In the end, a total of 14 women were killed. They were primarily engineering students, with the exception of one nursing student and a university employee. He also injured 4 male students and 10 female students before he finally turned the gun on himself.
In the aftermath, a 3-page letter was found in a pocket in his jacket. It turned out to be his suicide letter, wherein he considered himself completely rational and claimed his actions were politically motivated and blamed feminists for ruining his life. He also had included a list of the names of 19 women whom he wished to kill due to their feminism. This event, later known as the École Polytechnique massacre was described as a "pseudo-community" type of "pseudo-commando" murder-suicide, during which the perpetrator targets a specific group of people, generally in a public place, and intends to die, usually in a " blaze of glory." Posthumous psychiatric evaluations of Lepine and his behaviour suggested that he may have been suffering from a serious personality disorder, seeing as he chose a type of death strategy that is characteristic of this disorder. It was noted that he had "extreme narcissistic vulnerability," shown through his numerous fantasies of power and success coupled with very high levels of self-criticism and issues in dealing with rejection and failure. He attempted to compensate for his feelings of incompetence and powerlessness through a violent, grandiose imaginary life.
It was also suggested that he was psychotic, and that, as he tried to erase his memories of his abusive and absentee father, lost touch with reality, while simultaneously, subconsciously identifying with a violent manhood that dominates and controls women.
Personally, I view this crime as an illustration of extreme misogynistic violence committed against women. This is not the first of this type of crime and it won't be the last. It is an example of a hate/bias crime against an entire gender and demonstrates an extremely aggressive, violent societal construct that still prevails in our patriarchy bent capitalistic society. There are many reasons as to why crime occurs, but hopefully I have provided a few examples that show why I believe it is so prevalent against women.
