George Sodini kept a Web site where he spoke bitterly about his mother and about romantic rejections. Such feelings of anger toward women fit into a historic pattern, say some.
Allegheny County Police/ AP
George Sodini made no secret of his hatred of women.
The systems analyst who allegedly opened fire, killing three women and injuring nine others before turning the gun on himself at a gym outside Pittsburgh, detailed the reasons in his chilling blog.
From his hatred of his mother, whom he refers to as "vicious" and "vindictive," to his despair over his inability to attract women, Mr. Sodini fits the mold of a classic misogynist. "I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne – yet 30 million women rejected me ...." he writes.
Misogyny has been around since almost as long as men and women have. The first poem written in Greek that still exists is called "Woman." Its author is anonymous, and it amounts to a harangue against the female sex.
While the gender-equality movement has made strides in the past century when it comes to some of the more blatant forms of societal misogyny, such as banning women from academic and professional settings, misogyny persists in American and other cultures around the world, according to historians.
"This killer fits into a long pattern of males who harbor hatred towards all women, the image of 'woman,' and towards individual real women, and who take out their frustration on a female scapegoat," says David Gilmore, an anthropology professor at Stony Brook University in New York and author of "Misogyny: the Male Malady."