In The Fourteen Not Forgotten and Sexist Posters at Waterloo, Christine Cheng discusses a misogynist activist at the University of Waterloo who put up fourteen posters last month (February 2011) vilifying scientist Marie Curie and women in general. (Her post is also cross-posted at the Geek Feminism Blog.)
The incident reminds many of us of the École Polytechnique Massacre. Both the University of Waterloo and l’École Polytechnique de Montréal focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering) fields, and female students are a minority. Both schools are located in Canada. Both misogynists appear to be angry that women are attending university and are being educated in male-dominated fields.
The Marie-Curie-hating misogynist at Waterloo has also sent out a misogynist e-mail pretending to be the university’s president, and has created a Facebook page with similar misogynist rantings. The university’s Women’s Centre and LGBT student centre have closed due to safety concerns.
A male undergraduate at the University of Waterloo made this ridiculous—yet typical male-privileged—comment before taking down his post:
Yes, it is wrong, yes, it is inappropriate, but get a life if you are going to fuss and cry over stupid shit like this. Because if you do, you must be living in a sheltered bubble.
A commenter at hook & eye named bakka111 responds to this reaction:
The “Sheltered bubble” comment from Bill’s portfolio is particularly ironic. Just who lives in a sheltered bubble? Those who fear the messages because they have experienced the mundane-threats a patriarchal culture issues to women, or those who have never experienced such threats. Oh the irony.
Further Reading:
- The Fourteen Not Forgotten and Sexist Posters at Waterloo by Christine Cheng
- the honest truth: Marie Curie, in which one learns that double-Nobel-prize-winning Marie Curie received her education at an “underground university”, because conventional universities did not accept women. Imagine what the history of science would look like if women were not barred from university.
Restructure! 
March 15, 2011 at 8:33 pm
[…] I have some good posts coming down the pipe. Within the next few days, I’ll hopefully be writing something about political abstraction. I’ll also offering some ethical thoughts about the imminent nuclear disaster in Japan, and I’ve got some scathing words for a few prominent atheists. But I’ve been really busy and tired and stuff lately. Plus, I’m working on a totally rad Minecraft project. For now, however, I offer you this poster that showed up at the University of Waterloo: […]
March 20, 2011 at 6:01 pm
I can’t even see this as a serious poster, but rather a sarcastic rebuttal to misandrist history.
Feminists and women’s studies have been teaching this type of garbage for decades.
March 21, 2011 at 9:32 am
Denis P,
Can you provide an example of “misandrist history” and explain what you mean when you wrote “this type of garbage”?
March 22, 2011 at 11:49 am
I can provide tons of examples of misandrist history, including quotes from prominent feminists proclaiming female superiority and promoting male genocide.
Masculinity is treated as a pathology and patriarchal theory blames all men for women’s problems.
March 22, 2011 at 12:56 pm
What do you think about this? https://restructure.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/the-traditional-male-is-an-endangered-species/
March 24, 2011 at 4:38 pm
I have no problem with it. I have no interest in old fashioned masculinity (or femininity), it is part (but not all) of the ignorance that modern men face. I quite like cooking and gardening myself.
However, I do have a problem with pathologizing and dehumanizing traditional masculinity. It had it’s place in history for reasons of survival. Women and children were the ultimate beneficiaries, not men.
Most of all, I’ll be happy when chivalry dies and women are no long put on pedestals.
March 25, 2011 at 10:26 am
Then provide your examples, or stfu.
1) Until you do, you’re just a liar.
2) I doubt that any that you have are mere thought exercises from women, whereas misogynists have actually, you know, acted out their hatreds.
3) How does any of that make this lie that Marie Curie invented the atom bomb true?
Put up or shut up, misogynist moron.
March 25, 2011 at 8:38 pm
…and even if it were somehow true that Marie Curie invented the bomb, did any women dropped it? Did any women *recommend* or *advocate* dropping it? Did any women overrule the scientists who were worried about the morality of using such a weapon, and force the military to develop it anyway?
It’s a ludicrous argument that would only appeal to a misogynist.
And it’s a straw man, too — feminism is not about “women leading men”, but simply about giving both genders equal rights and privileges.
And finally, people who say they can provide tons of examples and then don’t even bother to provide one, even in the follow-up comment after *that*…
March 26, 2011 at 8:26 am
(Ack, curse WordPress’s lack of editing capability… the first “dropped” should of course be “drop”.)