Imprinted

[bcholmes]

I was in fourth year of University in fall of 1989. It was the only year that I lived off of campus -- usually I lived in residence and spent almost all of my time on campus. This fourth year, I'd had enough of living on campus, and I stayed, alternately, in my apartment in Toronto (communting as necessary to Waterloo) and staying over at my girlfriend's place just north of the University.

The school newspaper was called Imprint, and it was, in many ways, the only regular contact that I had with the outside world. I hardly watched TV in University. I didn't read the newspaper. Practically anything could happen in the outside world. I used to joke, "they could declare nuclear war out there and us university students wouldn't notice until after exams."

Imprint was a typical university rag. It was leftist, and printed regular articles on items relating to student life -- illegal computer fees, student grant and loan funding cuts by the nasty Peterson government, increases in tuition. It had a mind-numbing number of CD reviews about indy bands. And it regularly made fun of the Waterloo football team's inability to play football (In the same year, when the team won its first game in my entire University career, the Engineering newspaper, the Iron Warrior, ran the headline "Hell Freezes Over").

Iron Warrior was the Engineering newspaper that nobody loved. It replaced Enginews, the earlier paper, which had lost its funding from the University. Why? Enginews had received a lot of complaints. It was vulgar, abbrasive, sexist. It was viewed, in fact, much the way the engineering department was viewed. This was the Faculty whose mascot was a giant wrench called "The Rigid Tool", and whose student union office was called "The Orifice". So Enginews was shut down and the new, much more regulated Iron Warrior was created. It was the engineering paper imposed by duress.

A lot of my friends in University were engineers. The men were annoyed that the University "had no sense of humour" and the women... well, there weren't really very many women engineers. Unlike Math, which had a relatively large number of women.

In early December, Imprint informed us that the Montreal Massacre took place. Fourteen women -- thirteen of them university students -- were shot to death by a man who felt that feminism was responsible for him failing to get into engineering.

By this point, classes were pretty much finished, and people were off in study zones, preparing for their finals. But people were affected. I know that I was. This was too close to home. This doesn't happen in Canada. What if it had been in Waterloo? What if it was my class? What would I have done?

But I didn't talk about it. I took recluse from the brutal Waterloo snow and threw myself into studies for finals.

Here's the thing, though. I never liked Enginews -- I found it boorish and dumb. But, like my engineering friends, I thought that the University had no sense of humour. And for a very long time, I would have denied that there was any relationship between Enginews and the Montreal Massacre.

alanbostick once said that Eldridge Cleaver was wrong. It's not true that you are either part of the solution or you're part of the problem. We are all part of the problem. And the question is whether or not we want to also be part of the solution.

Comments

[rosefox]

And for a very long time, I would have denied that there was any relationship between EngineNews and the Montreal Massacre.

What sort of relationship do you see now?

Can't Shake the Devil's Hand and Say You're Only Kidding

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I believe that Enginews, like engineering culture at that time, created an environment that was hostile toward women.

I believe that the attitude among Enginews supporters toward people who complained about the sexism of EngineNews -- that they were just a bunch of mirthless complainers -- exacerbated the problem.

Sexist humour is one of the ways in which sexist culture is transmitted.

I don't think this needs to be said, but I'll say it just to be clear: I don't think that the relationship is causal, or anything simple like that. It's all part of the very complicated way in which sexist culture is allowed to thrive.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

you write good stuff. i, not that you asked me, can see you working to be part of the solution.

*hug*

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

I forget the name of the Engineering newspaper the year I was at Queen's. But...yeah.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Queen's - Golden Words.
U of T - the Toike Oike.
U Waterloo - Enginews.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I'd be really interested in hearing your perception of attitudes among engineering students around that time, if you're interested in saying them.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Okay, I will attempt that, but in my own journal behind my own filters.

[tormenta.livejournal.com]

Enginews persists ina photocpied underground kinda way, but mostly exists to report beer bottle drive counts for various classes. It, Iron Warrior, the Orifice, and most of the other engineering social crews on campus are now half, or more than half, run and produced by women.

OTOH, I didn't know a single out engineering woman. Or guy, for that matter. It was not a friendly, open environment free of sexism, and I'm rather glad to be done with it.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Do they still have Q.Eng., I wonder? It was founded around 1993-1995.