He was a gold plated butt hole for god's sake; Maybe???

Was he really mean?

I would recommend professor Rudolph Binion's Frau Lou: Nietzsche's Wayward Disciple ( Princeton U. P., 1969). Like many of Nietzsche's relationships, his with the notorious but intelligent Salome, was complex, and so was hers to Nietzsche, the latter being the subject of the study.

It is fair to say that if one were to read some biographies about N, one might come to an independent judgment, and that it would most likely show that N the person was the very opposite of "mean."

Thank you Jgweed! Where is some free, good info on N? I can't afford books.

There are 3 or 4 biographies of N at my library. I suspect most libraries that aren't tiny will have something. I love libraries....

If I were to say it was inevitable for men raised by single mothers to not hold women in contempt it would be a lie; but still often true...

Nietzsche has a lot of contempt for women, and other than family, he had no normal relationships with wormen... You can get the sense that he visited prostitutes, but that is a financial rather than a love relationship... He flirted with not so dangerous women, women involved in other relationships; but, since they knew what was going on it is unlikely that they would ever rationally consider one so much the amature...

While much of Nietzsche's writings are available (either in German or translated into English) on line, there are almost no really good secondary sources. There are some articles in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, always preferable to those in Wikipedia, about N, and if you research Google Scholar or Google Books, you will find a few of the books I mentioned in the Nietzsche Bibliography post.

I would not gladly offer a psychological interpretation of N's attitude toward women, except to say that in life, they were far different than one would suspect just from reading his books (N said that he was one thing, his books another). I suspect that biographies of the following women might provide some insight:

Cosima Wagner
Lou Salome
Matwida von Meysenbug
Elisabeth Nietzsche

If one considers women as women, what can one know??? If one looks at numbers alone, how many can a man know??? Four is not too many, and it is certain that Nietzsche knew more, or at least, knew of more... Perhaps he had the women of literature... Perhaps he knew his landlord's daughter who used to spy at him through the key hole... But if a man knows fifty, or a hundred, or two hundred, and relates to them more or less, as an equal, sharing space, sex, food, conversation and communication then what can a man know of women??? Nietzsche knowing so few was quick to pass judgement on the better half of humanity, and in doing so never seem a bigger fool...What could he know, and what must he have only imagined??? Morrison said it better: Women seem wicked when you're unwanted.. A man only knows the women he knows, and seldom that many, and for the pleasures of their company a man must endure many a mystery...