A Woman's Voice Author denounces killings of 14 women in 1989

A Woman's Voice Author denounces killings of 14 women in 1989

+ click to enlarge + click to enlarge Courtesy photo Activist Gloria Steinham, left, spends a moment with Donna Deckerduring Ms. Steinham’s visit to Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner in April 2012. Doneen Durling News Correspondent ASHBURNHAM  Author Donna Decker of Ashburnham is a woman that keeps moving. She is a professor at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, N.H., and spends much of her spare time getting out to connect with young women and encourage their input in the world. “Today I was at a conference for high school and middle school girls put on by the Middlesex County DA, Marion Ryan. There were three speakers. I was the closer. It was my job to pep them up and send them off.” Ms. Decker said defining her as a women’s activist could be a close fit. That same activism may also be why she was so drawn to the story of the Montreal Massacre, which inspired her to write the novel “Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You.” On Dec. 6, 1989, 25-year-old Marc Lepine, brandishing a rifle and a hunting knife, burst into a college classroom at the Ecole Polytechnique University in Montreal, Canada, and shot 28 people, killing 14 women, before committing suicide. Mr. Lepine entered the classroom, told the male students to leave, shooting nine women in the room. He then moved through the college, specifically targeting women. When he was finished, he had killed 14 women, and injured 10 other women and four men in slightly less than 20 minutes before turning the gun on himself. Ms. Decker said Mr. Lepine left behind a suicide note that blamed feminists for ruining his life, which also included a list of 19 women whom Mr. Lepine considered to be feminists he apparently intended to kill. When asked how she came across the story in the first place, Ms. Decker said she did not hear about it when it first happened in 1989. “I find that most Americans that I have spoken to do not know about this massacre, but when I am in Canada, it becomes eminently clear that everyone knows about it. I often liken it to the Kennedy assassination, or 9-11 even. It is talked about in school. It is a huge national tragedy.” Ms. Decker learned about the massacre while she was writing her doctoral dissertation around 2003. She was reading a book that had nothing to do with the massacre. Her expertise is 19th century women’s novelists. In a theory book she was reading, there was a little paragraph at the beginning that talked about the massacre. “From that paragraph, I was just ripped by this whole thing. It was one of those stories that never went away. It just stayed with me,” said Ms. Decker. After finishing her academic writing, she applied for a Whiting’s Foundation Grant to go to Montreal. Her first trip to Montreal was in 2009, and she went back twice in that same year. In subsequent years, she returned to Montreal with grants from Franklin Pierce University. Ms. Decker explained that years meant nothing when people are still grieving the death of a child. She assured all family members she talked to that her focus was telling the stories of the women and families, not the killer. As time passed, she became very close to a sister of the one of the slain women. In 2010, Ms. Decker was chosen from a list of professional women that applied as an MS. Magazine Feminist Scholar. She had been a fan of Ms. Magazine since its inception in high school. “It was amazing. In our applications we had to be proposing a story that would eventually run in the magazine. My proposal was about the Montreal Massacre. It was really the first time I proposed this as going forward.” Ms. Decker said that Ellie Smeal, executive producer of Ms. Magazine told her emphatically ‘this has to be written and you have to write it.’ “She was very encouraging, and that was a real boost for me,” said Ms. Decker. Ms. Decker found the title for her book “Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You” in a poem by Margaret Atwood called, “A Red Shirt.” She has included that poem in her book. “She’s a Canadian writer whom I adore,” she said. Ms. Decker explained that the message of the poem is that in this culture it is believed woman should remain silent, and shut up, and basically go away. “I thought ‘that fits this’ so I went and got permission from Ms. Atwood and her people to use the poem. I thought it made sense in that if women step out of certain prescribed roles some conservatives think that we have to stay in, there is a risk. It’s so important to educate young women, and I do in my classes. They resist sometimes because my students are 18 to 22.” Even after 20-plus years of women’s issues coming to the forefront, Ms. Decker said there is still a tendency for young women to be more silent allowing men to take the lead in the classroom. “I see it all the time,” she said. When the massacre was first reported, the media wasn’t even addressing that it was all women who were the victims. “The killer went into the classroom and said, “I’m here because you are feminists. Feminists have ruined my life. That was not reported until later.” Ms. Decker said that while doing research on the book, it became very clear how much hatred there is out there for women. “I don’t think people know that or don’t want to believe that. There has been a lot of response to that,” she said. Ms. Decker is heading up to Canada next week to speak about her book for the first time since it has been published. The book was launched in Toronto in May. She said the book is doing really well in the United States. “At most of the readings at bookstores, I’ve sold the book out,” she said. On Monday, Dec. 7, at 6:30 p.m., Ms. Decker will give a reading and discuss “Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You” at Stevens Memorial Library in Ashburnham. The event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.