I think about Elliot Rodger.

A review: On May 23, a mass shooting occurred in Isla Vista, near University of California Santa Barbara. Elliot Rodger, gunman and killer, took the lives of seven people and wounded 13 more. Rodger uploaded a video on YouTube and a 141-page autobiographical manifesto. Both detailed how he wanted women to pay for all the grief they had caused him throughout his life. He wanted to put women in concentration camps.

I think about the media abuzz: The story was on online news outlets and primetime news broadcasts. The report: “On May 23, a mass shooting occurred in Isla Vista, near University of California Santa Barbara. Elliot Rodger, a mentally ill boy–”

Consequently, foreign online publications churned out opinion pieces on the incident. Fortunately, over the past few years, feminism has become something of a staple on the Internet. The op-ed pieces would cover how the incident inspired women to tweet a rallying cry, “#YesAllWomen.” They would discuss how Rodger demonstrated male privilege and entitlement. A lot of women even came forward with their experiences with men who felt they were entitled to their bodies.

For the most part, feminist discourse on the Isla Vista killing has not been lacking. However, there are still people who seem to think that Rodger’s mental illness was a bigger problem than his misogyny.

I think about someone I got into an online argument with. He thought Rodger’s mental illness—and not misogyny—was the motive behind his crime. He asked me, “Do you think a non-insane person would do that?”

Rodger’s behavior does not automatically make him mentally ill. In a May 27 New York Times opinion article entitled “Why Can’t Doctors Identify Killers?” Richard A. Friedman wrote that violent people are not necessarily mentally ill and mentally ill people are not necessarily violent. In fact, majority of those with mental illnesses is not violent. “Most homicides in the United States are committed by people without mental illness who use guns,” he said.

Police also interrogated Rodger before he went on his shooting spree. They let him go because he seemed “polite and courteous.”

I think about all the people who think an improvement in psychiatric healthcare would have prevented this. Mentally ill people may not be the violent ones—people with guns are. The discussion about mental health may even be a red herring when Rodger said himself:

“For the last eight years of my life, ever since I hit puberty, I’ve been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desires all because girls have never been attracted to me… I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it.”

I think about all the men I’ve seen on the Internet publicly agreeing with Rodger’s sentiments. The truth is, these are not the thoughts of a madman. These are the thoughts of men who have been taught that they are entitled to women’s bodies, to sex. These are the thoughts of men who think women are supposed to like them back if they’re nice to them.

I think about how the media served the story distilled.

The truth: On May 23, a mass shooting occurred in Isla Vista, near University of California Santa Barbara. Elliot Rodger, gunman and killer, took the lives of seven people and wounded 13 more in a formulated hate crime against women.