Ignorance to Incels
If only one pretty girl had shown some form of attraction to me, the Day of Retribution would never happen. I’d never even consider it. The Day of Retribution is mainly my war against women for rejecting me and depriving me of sex and love. If only one girl had given me a chance, tried to get to know me, let me take her out on a date… None of this would have to happen.
Elliot Rodger, Killed 6 People and Injured 13 others in Isla Vista, CA on May 23, 2014
On May 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger killed 6 people and injured 13 others in a misogynistic terror attack that he called his “Day of Retribution” in Isla Vista, California. Just this past October, Tres Genco plead guilty to a plot trying to murder three-thousand woman at an Ohio University. It seems whenever a mass shooting occurs, questions about what incel ideology is and whether it might be involved are raised. However, as soon as the attention around the tragedy dies down, the public largely ignores the incel threat.
While underlying mental disorders are considered the primary drivers of violence, in the case of Rodger, his hatred for women specifically was cultivated by the online community called incels (Allely and Faccini 2017). Solely blaming mental disorders ignores the problem of the incel community, despite the increased number of shooters and men who claim their ideology.
Many people are ignorant about the real danger posed by this misogynistic terrorist group. Incels, or involuntary celibates, are young adult men who believe woman and feminism are entirely responsible for the problems in their lives, such as sexual frustration, unpopularity, body image issues and unemployment(Ging 2017). Seen as a fringe group on the internet, their influence is largely ignored in mainstream feminist discourse in favor of battling more moderate or “softer” anti-feminist groups, which gain more traction in the public sphere (Ging 2017; Messner 2016).
Due to their place outside of the hegemonic ideal of the confident, masculine, heterosexual, white man, the incel community is able to conceal the reality that they continue to perpetuate dominance of straight white men, even as they perceive themselves as marginalized.
Hybrid Masculinities: Progressive or Tools of Concealment?
I have always been the most hated person in the world. Ever since I arrived in this world, I have been under siege from it. Under attack from morons and idiots.
Chris Harper-Mercer, Killed 9 People and Injured 8 others at Umpqua Community College in Oregon on October 21, 2015
Hybrid masculinities combine different kinds of masculinities, such as black, gay, and feminine forms of masculinity (Bridges and Pascoe, 2014). The increase in hybrid masculinities has been used to argue that “toxic masculinity” or the negative characteristics of masculinity are decreasing. However these emergent forms of masculinity conceal practices that support hegemonic dominance within new social arenas (Bridges and Pascoe, 2014).
Incel masculinity is a hybrid combining characteristics from nerds, gaming communities, online meme culture, and most prominently, betal masculinity. Beta masculinity is seen as subordinate to “alphas” or men who are wealthy, physically muscular, and sexually successful (Ging, 2017). The defeatist attitude of beta masculinity is used by incels to insist that they themselves are marginalized. Incels borrow from marginalized group activism which protests against systems of hegemonic privilege and instead utilize it as a trope of victimhood, arguing men are at the bottom.
Incels see men as victims of women in the postindustrial world, with a supposed “decline in masculinity” (Ging, 2017). As sociologist Micheal Messner (2016) described, the rising economic inequality that began with the mass adoption of neoliberal economics in the 1980s is correlated with institutionalized feminism, which took shape during the same period.
The internet and social media cultivate incel communities, where information and ideas can spread, with the most extremist views being prioritized by algorithms (Ging, 2017). Their identity as an internet community further differentiates incels from the dominant image of hegemony, causing people to take it less seriously as a breeding ground for misogyny. The group also remains distinct despite overlaps with other extremist factions, like white nationalists, because of their particular narratives around victimhood (Sunderland, 2022)
Victimhood to Violence
“I have exactly zero attractive girls posting this [#MeToo posts] on my news feeds. I noticed immediately it was only the ugly and fat ones posting it and I figure these girls are probably just trying to deal with rejection issues.” (Meriwether, comment, ROK, 2017)
Dickel and Evolvi, 2022
Violence by incels ranges widely, but has gotten increasingly extreme in recents years. Those who commit acts of extreme violence, such as Rodger and Chris Harper-Mercer (an incel who killed nine people and injured eight others at Umpqua Community College in Oregon on October 1, 2015) are deified as saints of the incel movement who stood up to women (Ging, 2017).
The internet empowers incels by allowing easy and rapid actions and communication, as well as anonymity to participate without the repercussions of real life action. In online spaces, incels often dox (publicly reveal personal information), send rape and death threats, and show unsolicited sexual photos and videos to prominent feminists and women in power (Ging, 2017). In response to the MeToo movement for example, they insisted men were being falsely targeted by women and attempted to delegitimize women’s claims as overreactions or attention seeking (Dickel and Vevolvi, 2022).
Taking Incels Seriously
Privilege works best when it goes unrecognized.
Bridges and Pascoe, 2014
Given the current and ever increasing importance of the internet and social media, it is imperative we recognize incel communities as a legitimate and pervasive threat. Reddit.com has taken measures to quarantine or minimize the spread of incel communities on their platform. However, more government regulation on misogynistic hate speech is needed, especially targeting the algorithms used by media sharing platforms to prioritize the most shocking or extremist content. Incels exemplify how new forms of masculinity obscure misogyny behind false flags of unity and concessions which largely do not include, but rather steal from other masculinities. Despite their terrorist nature, they are consistently ignored as just disenfranchised or lonely men. We must recognize that incels are battling to maintain privileges, while screaming that they’ve already been stripped away.
Citations
- Allely, C.S, Lino Faccini. 2017. “‘Path to intended violence’ model to understand mass violence in the case of Elliot Rodger.” Aggression and Violent Behavior, Volume 37: 201-209 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2017.09.005
- Bridges, Tristan, C.J. Pascoe. 2014. “Hybrid Masculinities: New Directions in the Sociology of Men and Masculinities.” Sociology Compass, 8(3): 246-258. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12134
- Dickel, Valerie, Giulia Evolvi. 2022. “‘Victims of feminism’: exploring networked misogyny and #MeToo in the manosphere.” Feminist Media Studies, 0(0): 1-17 https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2029925
- Ging, Debbie. 2017. “Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere.” Men and Masculinities, 22(4), 638–657. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X17706401
- Messner, Michael. 2016. “Forks in the Road of men’s gender politics: Men’s rights vs feminist allies.” International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy 5(2):6‐20. DOI:10.5204/ijcjsd.v5i2.301.
- Sunderland, Jillian. 2022. “Fighting for Masculine Hegemony: Contestation Between Alt-Right and White Nationalist Masculinities on Stormfront.org.” Men and Masculinities, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X221120664
