Incel-Pilled: Psychoanalysis of Involuntary Celibacy

Topoi, 2023

In this article, we investigate the relationship between loneliness and misogyny amongst the online movement of “involuntary celibates” (incels) that has become widely known through several violent attacks. While loneliness plays a prominent role in the incels’ self-descriptions, we lack a comprehensive analysis of their experience of loneliness and its role in their radicalization. Our article offers such an analysis. We analyze how loneliness is felt, described, and implicitly understood by incels, investigate the normative presumptions underlying their experiences, and critically reflect on the political function of their discourse of loneliness. We claim that it is the affective mechanism of ressentiment that transforms loneliness into antagonistic emotions and show how loneliness is exacerbated rather than alleviated through the incel community. Finally, we point to the relevance of our analysis for contemporary philosophical and feminist loneliness studies.

Journal of Strategic Security, 2021

This article represents the largest ever primary data-based study of involuntary celibates (incels), previously studied nearly exclusively through analysis of online postings. The incel movement has been characterized by some as a radical ideology, with mass murderers such as Elliot Rodger, Alek Minassian, and Chris Harper Mercer being portrayed as prototypical of the movement. However, there is a dearth of research through direct questioning of incels and therefore very little nuanced understanding of the community, its shared grievances, and its opinions regarding violence in its name. The present study of over 250 self-identified incels demonstrates that although the majority of incels are non-violent and do not approve of violence, those who consider themselves to be staunch misogynists are likely to endorse a desire to commit violence and are also likely to become more misogynistic through participation on incel web forums, which validate their views. The study also finds that ...

Pre-Issue Pubs, 2021

While an increasing number of researchers, non-profit organizations, and law enforcement agencies have expressed growing concern about the relationship between involuntary celibates (i.e. incels) and violence, no research to date has examined the potential for suicide and self-harm among men who call themselves incels. This study examines suicide posts shared to incel sub-Reddits that were collected by u/IncelGraveyard (N=80). The posts reveal that the notes discuss six subordinate themes, including the method of their planned attempt, the ways they used the internet, the online incel community, failed alternatives and coping, the effects of their suicide on others, and the afterlife. These broad themes offer a new and unique perspective about incels experiences, perceptions, and coping strategies and add to the growing body of literature by highlighting the complexity of incel grievances. This study can inform future research and policy by encouraging gender-based and incelspecific treatment, reframing the incel discourse among researchers and mental health professionals, and arguing for a suicide prevention model to also prevent mass violence. Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to those colleagues and friends who reviewed this paper and offered suggestions. Involuntarily celibate men, or "incels," have been the target of recent concern among media sources, law enforcement agencies, mental health practitioners, and non-profit organizations. In online spaces and specific forums, incels-or men who cannot achieve romantic or sexual success-often air their grievances, discussing their physical appearance, struggles with mental health, social critiques, and frustration with their situations (Ging, 2019; Glace et al., 2021; Menzie, 2020). Due to the often overtly violent, racist, or misogynistic nature of many of the posts, incels have often been associated with notions of mass violence, particularly as a result of violent attacks by alleged incels across the United States and Canada. This connection between violence and the entire incel community has led to sweeping generalizations about the group, and the Texas Department of Public Safety (2020) recently dubbed incels "an emerging domestic terrorism threat" (p. 3). As incels become a growing area of study within a variety of disciplines including criminology and criminal justice, sociology, and more, academics have taken a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying incel behavior and CrimRxiv Goodbye, My Friendcels": An Analysis of Incel Suicide Posts 3 ideologies. However, none to date have examined how the incel identity and the subsequent experiences can lead to self-harm and suicide. This study provides a brief overview of the incel literature followed by a synthesis of the existing research about tangentially related issues, including coping strategies, mental health treatment, suicide, and online communities. It then outlines the qualitative analysis of 80 suicide posts from incels, identifying emergent themes and subthemes, and offering recommendations for future research and policy. Literature Review While incel research is a relatively new topic in many fields, the concept of frustration with one's romantic or sexual circumstances is not. While the concept of involuntarily celibate men has existed in literature throughout history and Gilmartin (1985) dubbed the situation "love shyness," the online manifestation of incels emerged in the late 1990s with Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project. Shortly thereafter, Donnelly and colleagues (2001) examined involuntary celibacy as a concept, classifying respondents into three categories: virginal celibates, who had never partnered and had not had any sexual experiences; single celibates, who did not have partners but had sexual

Men and Masculinities

Involuntary celibates, or “incels,” are people who identify themselves by their inability to establish sexual partnerships. In this article, we use analytic abduction to qualitatively analyze 9,062 comments on a popular incel forum for heterosexual men that is characterized by extensive misogyny. Incels argue that emerging technologies reveal and compound the gender practices that produce involuntarily celibate men. First, incels argue that women’s use of dating apps accelerates hypergamy. Second, incels suggest that highly desirable men use dating apps to partner with multiple women. Third, incels assert that subordinate men inflate women’s egos and their “sexual marketplace value” through social media platforms. We argue that incels’ focus on technology reinforces essentialist views on gender, buttresses male domination, dehumanizes women, and minimizes incels’ own misogyny. We discuss findings in relation to theories of masculinity and social scientific research on the impacts of...

2019

After the separation of pro-and anti-feminist groups in the USA in the 1970s, we saw a growth in more overtly anti-feminist politics throughout the 198's and 1990s. In 2010s, a more hateful culture emerged, largely due to the possibility for anonymity on the Internet. This is The manosphere, a now transnational, conglomeration of forums, blogs and websites which center around the concept of The Red Pill, a philosophy meant to awaken men to feminism's misandry and brainwashing. This thesis is about a specific group found in The manosphere, a group of men who view themselves as unable to find a partner or have sex despite desiring to. They are known as Incels or involuntary celibate. I wish to describe and understand this online culture and community by looking at the shared stories they tell through a narrative analysis.

2020

Social Processes of Online Hate, 2024

The main objective of this chapter is to identify how incel male peer support contributes to in-person and digital variants of woman abuse. Male peer support refers to the attachments to male peers and the resources that these men provide that encourage and legitimate these gendered harms (DeKeseredy, 1988). Prior to covering empirical and theoretical social scientific work on the social processes associated with incel male peer support, it is first necessary to supply a brief history of the incel movement, also known as the incelosphere (Center for Countering Digital Hate, 2022).

Global Security: Health, Science and Policy , 2024

Involuntary celibates (incels) are individuals who feel alienated from society because of their perceived inability to attract women. They share a narrative which valorizes violence as a means to restructure society according to misogynistic ideals. Since promoting a radical misogynistic ideology through violence is legally prohibited and socially unacceptable, it is necessary for incels to hide out online where virtual mediums promise anonymity. Virtual relationality (VR) allowed unorganised individuals with a shared grievance against mainstream societal values to develop into a secretive collective. VR means that individuals connect in chatrooms and internet forums where they exchange interpretations of a narrative which presents their social situation as oppressive and dehumanizing. They blame “modernist” values and social practices for their ills and share perspectives of how they should interact with the world. These perspectives frequently justify or condone acts of physical violence. Relating in the virtual world gave these individuals’ shared grievances a sense of coherence and allowed for an amplification of the influence of their violent acts by affirming the value of extremist ideas. VR turned individuals without consistent preferences and a unifying organizational medium into a “hydra” with a felt global presence. The virtual nature of incels complicates responses by 1) enabling the collective to have global reach, 2) allowing it to function without an organized body or institutional structures, 3) making it difficult to identify individual incels, and 4) making it difficult to tell when incels pose a genuine security threat. These realities make it crucial to develop a fuller understanding of how the incel collective functions online.

2020

Over the past several years, an online community of selfdescribed "incels," referring to involuntary celibates, has emerged and gained increased public attention. Central to