White Knights and Damsels in Distress: Gender and Sexual Identities in the Press Coverage of the 1910 Montreal Herald Disaster

On June 13, 1910, a water tank containing 113,000 litres of water and weighing more than 110,000 kilograms dislodged from its supports on the roof of the Montreal Herald Publishing Company and fell through the five-story structure until it came to rest in the basement. The upper floors of the building, adjacent to Victoria Square, caught fire. The collapse of the building and the ensuing fire claimed the lives of thirty-two Herald employees (thirteen women and nineteen men) and hospitalized a further twenty-five. The author analyzes the coverage of this disaster in seven newspapers -- five Montreal papers (The Gazette, The Montreal Daily Star, The Standard, La Presse, and Le Devoir) and two Toronto papers (The Globe and The Toronto Daily Star) -- and the language and themes used in the newspaper that focused on the social perception of gender roles in 1910 and the role of women in the workplace. The author found that common to all the papers, the "rescuer" was the predominant male identity, while a helpless individual in need of rescuing was the predominant female identity. As well, the physical appearance of the women (the women's bodies and the type and condition of their clothing) was another theme played up in the press, with no similar coverage of the appearance of the men.

Historical Discourses: The McGill History Undergraduate Journal

Vol. 22

34-53

2008

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