Margaret Atwood once said: “Men are afraid women will laugh at them and women are afraid men will kill them."

She was right. My own mother was found dead in the River Clyde after she told her ex-boyfriend she didn’t want to be with him anymore. She was 47 years old.

Her ex had just come out of prison for trying to kill another woman in the early 70s and met my mum whilst on parole. He hated being laughed at and threatened me repeatedly when as a teenager. I challenged him about his behaviour: “You need to learn how to treat men or you will end up with a sore jaw” he once snarled into my face. I was scared of him and I was right to be, he was a danger to women.

READ MORE: Why Plymouth shooting by 'incel' gunman was an act of terrorism

Last week in Plymouth a young man, who I will not name, as I believe that notoriety is what these men crave ranted online about how women don’t find him attractive, can’t get sex, so went on a killing spree and shattered the lives of the people who lived close to him, in Britain’s worst mass shooting in over a decade.

The online cult for unhappy, sexless young men is alive and kicking with many men using their single status as a weapon towards women, but is it terrorism? Society is now being faced with the question.

If you are spending time speaking about your hatred of women, spouting right-wing ideology and gathering weapons, then I can only imagine you are a potential danger to society and should be treated as such. Perhaps it’s not terrorism but it is extremism.

Nadir Afzal, former chief prosecutor tweeted: “The killings are not terrorism as defined by law, but the right-wing guy obsessed with American gun culture should have been on a watch list, if its ‘gender terrorism’ with women as his primary targets, then it makes it no less depressing”.

Imran Ahmed of the centre for Countering Digital Hate told the media that the Plymouth mass shooting should be classed as domestic terrorism and added: “If you have cause and you are willing to use violence for it, what else is that but terrorism?”

What gets called terrorism and what doesn’t and how it is approached is a political question. No doubt this latest horrific incident will spur politicians and lawmakers to debate: ‘Is incel culture terrorism and can it be treated as such?”

I believe it is. This isn’t the first mass shooting from a young man who was radicalised online to killing people because women ignored him in the street.

READ MORE: What is an 'incel' and blackpill meaning?

The direct link between these men who believe they're entitled to sex and far-right American hate groups has been exposed countless times with their online footprint. There are forums and open public meetings where some men tell other men how women should behave, how to ‘get a woman’ and some men pay to attend. This creates a toxic feedback loop, where women are always to blame.

It’s fair to point out that women don’t go on murder rampages with pump action guns through the streets, because they can’t get a boyfriend. We have to say out loud this is a ‘male’ issue and stop using the word ‘misandry’ when the subject is raised.

The man from Plymouth couldn’t get a girlfriend, so society must pay with their lives.

Despite having his gun license suspended by Devon and Cornwall police, the killer had to attend an anger management course to get his license back and months later was classed by the police as being fit enough to possess a three-shot shotgun, despite concerns. The IOPC will now formally investigate this decision. This will be no comfort to the families whose lives have been irrevocably shattered for the simple crime of living near a young man who couldn’t get women to like him.

The word ‘Incel’ (involuntary celibacy) was a phrase actually created by a young woman called Alana back in the late 90s when she spoke about the loneliness and isolation of not being able to find a sexual relationship in her life. To date, she hasn’t attacked anyone.

Incels now occupy a huge part of the online community, where many men feel that women don’t or won’t give them the sexual satisfaction or relationship they crave and spend months ranting misogynistic hate and deeply disturbing narratives about how women need to be punished for ignoring them. They walk amongst us.

There are obvious red flags about mental health and how men need to be supported in these areas, but online misogyny is alive and kicking. You just have to witness the abuse many women get online from men, how they are told they are ‘too fat’ or ‘too ugly’ and even tweets to myself that tell me I am too ugly to be raped and should be killed, under a video about comedy. It seems totally acceptable to say these things out loud and type them into your phone.

When did it happen in our society that young male virgins felt that the world needed to be punished because a girl ignored him at school?

Will our young women need to think twice about saying ‘no’ to a boy for fear he will go home and plan revenge? Females are already reporting men attacking them online for refusing to date them and some examples have been posted online. These men can’t accept women don’t want them and react with misogyny and hateful rhetoric. That is unacceptable.

The answers won’t come from me, they won’t come from online debates but they can be addressed legally if incel culture is treated as terrorism and can give the police better and more effective laws when these issues are flagged.

The evil man that killed five people in Plymouth appeared to have an extensive interest in extreme ideology, a hatred and evil intent to attack women, that to me is terrorism.