Jennifer Pozner of WIMN"s Voices connects Sodini's crimes with previous mass killings. She writes,

Perhaps it takes this level of hit-us-over-the-head bluntness for media to notice that a mass murder is also a hate crime, when the victims of that crime are solely women. In contrast to many other shootings in which similar motivations have gone unreported over the past two decades, the AP [...] have chosen to discuss the extremely relevant role of misogyny as the root cause of the bloody tragedy in Collier County.

The "bluntness" Pozner mentions — Sodini left behind a website detailing his hatred for and desire to kill women — may be the reason that the misogyny angle is getting some play in mainstream reports of the crime. But it wasn't even the bluntest misogynist killing in recent memory. That would be the Montreal Massacre of 1989, in which 25-year-old Marc Lépine shot 28 people and himself at Montreal's École Polytechnique, claiming he was "fighting feminism." He told a group of women "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists," before shooting them, and wrote in his suicide note, "I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker."

As Pozner (and Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon) point out, though, the Montréal Massacre is not the only recent example of misogynist mass murder. In 2006, Charles Roberts IV killed five girls in an Amish schoolhouse after allowing male students to leave. He may have been motivated by guilt over molesting girls many years earlier, and by a desire to molest again. Also in 2006, Duane Roger Morrison took six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School, sexually assaulted them, and shot one. And Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, had been accused of stalking female students before his deadly rampage.

In a 2007 post, Pozner wrote,

Journalists could be doing a real service to the culture by focusing on the often-gendered nature of mass violence in America, and by seeking out anti-violence experts who could contextualize these crimes and could offer solutions and strategies for eradicating (or, at least, reducing) this kind of grave violence.

Perhaps now that clearly gender-based murders have occurred, they will. However, it's tragic that no one alerted police to Sodini's website (assuming that it was, indeed, online before the killings), or made the connection between a culture of misogyny and the actual mass murder of women. Marcotte writes that "these crimes don't happen in a vacuum," and nothing shows this more disturbingly than the True Forced Loneliness movement. BuzzFeed's Eliot Glazer calls TFL "a YouTube phenomenon in which men [...] blame women for forcing them into lives of solitude." Bill, an unofficial spokeman for the movement, has this rambling and scary video response to the gym murders:

The AP's Jocelyn Noveck writes that "Sodini certainly had an online trail. But it was on a personal Web page, not on a social network, and that makes a big difference." Actually, Sodini did post on a social network — like Bill, he was on YouTube. But instead of rants about "the game" and "treating other people like shit," he posted a tour of his house (including a close-up of a book called How to Date Young Women: For Men Over 35) and an odd speech about learning to express his emotions better. He also appears to have posted on Is It Normal?, asking "how you would react (if at all) seeing a clean cut older man with a very young girl in public." 26% of visitors voted this situation "normal," and one commenter said, "If I saw an man near 50 with a young girl I`d think he`s a lucky b*s***d...it`s amoral but so what, nowadays this is the world we live in. [...] Enjoy ruining the innocence of a young girl."

Only Sodini's personal website reveals his murderous intent. However, he was far from a lone crazy with no connections to others. In fact, he was part of a group of men — a loosely knit and virtual group, but a group all the same — that believes in blaming women for sexual frustrations and encourages manipulation. From R. Don Steele, author of How To Date Young Women (Tony Ortega of the Village Voice points out that Sodini not only bought Steele's book, but can be seen on video at one of his lectures), to Roissy, to the men of TFL, a number of people encouraged perhaps not Sodini himself, but a mindset in which women were objects to be targeted and manipulated or, failing that, reviled. Sodini was asking, "am I normal?" and at least some people were saying yes.

Bill of TFL hasn't killed anyone, and "Game" is not a crime. At the same time, when Pittsburgh police say "no one was going to stop" Sodini, they let themselves off the hook a little too easily. They, and the media, could have been "focusing on the often-gendered nature of mass violence in America" after the Amish school shooting, after Platte Canyon, after Virginia Tech. We could all have been more aware of the rise of grievance misogyny on the Internet and its potential effects on depressed or psychotic men. Maybe no one could have predicted Sodini's crime, but now that it's happened, it's time to start acknowledging its many roots throughout American culture, and take steps to combat them.

Once More With Feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivation For Mass Shootings [WIMN's Voices]
More On The Misogynist Shooting In Pennsylvania [Feministe]
These Crimes Don't Happen In A Vacuum [Pandagon]
Pennsylvania Gym Shooter Struggled With Anger Toward Women [LA Times]
Shooter's Online Rants Were Like Trees In Forest [AP]
From Jonesboro To Virginia Tech - Sexism Is Fatal, But Media Miss The Story [WIMN's Voices]
Bill1224602's Channel [YouTube]
True Forced Loneliness [BuzzFeed]
Pittsburgh Shooter And His "Dating Young Women" Guru: R. Don Steele [Village Voice]
MOSB46PGH's Channel [YouTube]

The girls (pictured, as kids) were Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13. They and their parents, Mohammed Shafia and Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and brother Hamid Mohammed Shafia, lived in Montréal and were originally from Kabul, Afghanistan. The woman found in the car was Rona Amir Mohammed, who Mr. Shafia initially claimed with his cousin. However, an e-mail from her sister Diba Masoomi, who lives in France, said she is actually his first wife. Masoomi also suggested that the deaths of the girls and Mohammed were an honor killing.

The girls' parents described Zainab Shafia as rebellious, and said she and her sisters used to take the car out without asking. Police, however, say this is untrue. Mohammed Shafia said he first noticed the car was missing when the family stopped at a hotel following a trip to Niagara Falls. However, the position of the car makes it unlikely that it was driven into the canal accidentally. It appears to have gone in backwards, and would have had to get past several obstacles to reach its final destination. "You'd really have to do some manoeuvering to get out to this spot," said a constable. "It's a very difficult place to drive into, and there would be no need to do so."

On the question of whether the victims died in an honor killing, police chief Stephen Tanner says,

Some of us have different core beliefs, different family values, different sets of rules; certainly these individuals, in particular the three teenagers, were Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians. Whether that was a part of the motive within the family - based on one of the girls' or more of the girls' behaviour - is open to a little bit of speculation, but combined with other investigative issues as well.

Christie Blatchford of Canada's Globe and Mail is less subtle, using the deaths as an opportunity for some pretty stereotypical social analysis. She says:

Young Muslim men behaving badly may not be encouraged, but even in the most backward parts of the Islamic world, they aren't killed for dating a blonde or drinking a beer. Girls and women are punished for even more minor offences (disobeying, not marrying the old bag of bones daddy chose, appearing in public unveiled, etc.), often with death.

In these parts of the planet, women don't matter; they are less than men; they don't really count: Thus, as a man, you can do with them as you like.

It's true that Montreal's child protection agency had been to the Shafia home three times a few months ago, after Zainab complained about her brother. Police say he was "harsh and authoritarian" with the girls. However, a relative says the family were not strict Muslims. University of Toronto law professor Anver Emon supports judicial use of the term "honor killing" when appropriate, but cautions that it should not be overused. He says,

From a social perspective, you don't want to criminalize a community by associating them with a particular, heinous act of violence.

If the Shafias did kill their daughters, we still don't know if it was religiously motivated — if the girls' exercise of "the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians" was really what caused their deaths. Though Masoomi's e-mail message may turn out to be accurate, it's still premature to assume that, just because the family came from Afghanistan, their tragedy must be the result of culture clash.

Image via CBC News.

Father, Mother, Brother Face Murder, Conspiracy Charges [The Star]
Canal Victims Killed By Family: Police [CBC News]
Four Bodies Found In Submerged Car [Globe And Mail]
Family Members Charged With Murder In Submerged Car Case [Globe And Mail]
Were Deaths Of 4 Women A Matter Of 'Honour'? [The Star]
It's No Accident That Victims Were All Female [Globe And Mail]

MEGAN: So, you want to talk Lebanon for a second? Also, are my eyes deceiving me or is the guy in that picture carrying his big machine gun with an arm that is no longer attached to a hand? And is that a statement on how intractable this conflict is that even people who have lost limbs in it and can't afford prosthetics just learn how to fire big ass guns with their stumps?
SPENCER: hezbollah has the most extensive social-service network in lebanon
it would hardly surprise me that an amputee, grateful for hezb's help after, say, an israeli artillery barrage decimated his home in tyre in summer 06, would grip up and help hezbollah seize beirut
those shiite militia groups are really good at hearts and minds
MEGAN: And, yet, reportedly, not great husbands. Probably also shit boyfriends. Anyway, so, moving on, how exciting it that, for the first time since the Cold War, Russia has decided to put its armory on display for a big political event! Political rallies: not just for goosestepping anymore!
SPENCER: wait wait why move on?
i don't do russia
my friends chris and rania are reporters in beirut
i turn to them for my lebanon news
but those assholes had to be in dubai when the shit went down
so, sigh
MEGAN: Except for the whole "it's safer in Dubai" thing.
SPENCER: ok now we can move on. what do you think of this russia stuff?
MEGAN: I think the new guy is cute except for the way that Putin's constantly elbow-deep in his ass to make him talk. That's a little off-putting.
SPENCER: did Putin work something out where he'll be prime minister or something after Medevedevedev becomes president? Or am I confused?
MEGAN: You're not confused, and he is PM right now, Meddie was inaugurated earlier this week as Pres and Pooty-Poot as PM (and, yes, I did watch Lil Bush last night, the second season is hilariously good).
Also, I'm sort of out of things to say on Russia unless the time I recount trying to negotiate with their guy on what should've been to them a relatively minor point in their WTO accession package when I was a lobbyist. It was minor to them, it was major to my industry and we were going to oppose the finalization of any agreement without them giving us something and the dude was super happy to talk to me about it because he wanted to stare at my tits. When he realized that I knew what I was talking about, he decided he didn't speak English and walked away, and the guy from the embassy just smiled at me with embarrassment.
SPENCER: the only point i can add about russia
yesterday at the bar a journo friend told me that the FBI got in touch with him
because they're "concerned" about a russian he MIGHT have come in contact with
MEGAN: I know something that will excite you to talk about though... the Pakistanis and Jay Hood.
SPENCER: he was commander of JTF-GTMO when i was there on a visit in 2005
MEGAN: Well, and the Pakistanis for some crazy reason don't want him in their country...
SPENCER: i mean
who was the genius that decided it would be a good idea to send the ex-commander of an island prison for muslims to the most volatile and restive muslim country on the planet
hood is not the problem
if you want a real military villain for gtmo, look no further than Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller
miller is more Legacy of Brutality than the fucking Misfits
MEGAN: I mean, is anyone involved in Gitmo, like, good?
SPENCER: he's the guy who told ricardo sanchez the most fateful mixed-message in the war on terror: "Gitmo-ize" Abu Ghraib, and here's how we do it over there, but oh by the way, we don't have to follow the Geneva Conventions and you do
kthxbai wink wink
the Navy guards who walk the blocks, they're good
those guys are like 18 yrs old and have to deal with detainees throwing shit-blood-puke cocktails at them
this one guard in 2005, she told me, you wouldn't believe what i go through to wash that out of my hair
MEGAN: Yeah, that sucks, it doesn't seem like it's their fault.
SPENCER: no more than it's the fault of the bank teller for your house going into forclosure
MEGAN: Not my house! I'm still solvent! Knocking wood furiously right now.
SPENCER: one quick gtmo story:
this one soldier who was my minder at the base was given liberty to get drunk with us at the officers club — and omfg is gtmo a weird but awesome place to get shitfaced — started to get rowdy when he learned that i had been to his favorite montreal strip club
"fuck yeah! you're my BOY!"
yelling at the top of his lungs at 3 am
then he quit the army and ran for congress in pennsylvania. true story.
MEGAN: Why have you been to a strip club in Montreal? Also, who has a favorite strip club in Montreal?
SPENCER: club supersex
it rules, that's why
me and my friends went there for the millenium & liked it so much we went the next year
the next new year's that is
btw
great job not talking about the primary!
after yesterday's comment-thread disaster
MEGAN: Like, how big of a strip-club afficianado do you have to be to have picked out a favorite?
SPENCER: i think when you go to supersex there really is no close second
unless you count the lusty lady in SF which i hear is kickass and feminist but i've never been
my friend's exgf used to dance there
christ she was hot
MEGAN: You and I are pretty much going to disagree on the greatness of strip clubs.
I'm not deliberately ignoring, but, like what's happened in the last 24 hours? Clinton's still not getting out, Obama's ignoring that, McCain's still walking around being McCain. And Clinton doesn't have that much money right now.
SPENCER: did you see mccain's ad with his mom?
it's eerie how he looks older than his mother
MEGAN: I think that's just makeup. I saw his mother at the White House Correspondents Dinner. She looked old.
Oh, and Arianna Huffington says that McCain didn't vote for Bush in 2000, or he told a bunch of Hollywood types he didn't but he says she's full of shit.
SPENCER: i happen to know but only in an off the record way that arianna is right
MEGAN: I'm sure she's right, I just think it's funny that she's the only one out campaigning against McCain right now, and is less likely to be believed by the people she's trying to convince than even the other candidates.
SPENCER: you would have to be a saint to vote for the man who called racists in south carolina to say you fathered a black baby with a prostitute
or have no self-respect
MEGAN: Yeah, and McCain's no saint and he definitely has plenty of ego to go around.