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In today’s digital age, online subcultures like the manosphere and the incel community have been at the center of significant debate and scrutiny. Often associated with misogynistic ideologies, antifeminism, and violence, these groups raise important questions about their influence on young men’s identities and perceptions of masculinity. In my PhD project, I explore the nuances and complexities of the incel subculture by analysing their online activity and interviewing young men globally who identify or have identified as incels.
The Incel Subculture and Worldview
The term “incel,” short for “involuntary celibate,” typically describes individuals, predominantly men, who believe they cannot attract romantic or sexual partners. Initially, the term inclusively described both men and women having difficulty finding a partner. However, it has evolved from an online support group to a gendered subculture with a fatalistic outlook, creating clear boundaries between incels and non-incels. Today, it mainly consists of aggrieved men who exclude women as they align with a misogynistic movement, believing society forces them into involuntary celibacy. Parts of the incel subculture promotes extremist ideologies, with some members endorsing violence as vengeance against a society they blame for their inceldom. Consequently, some men associated with the incel community have committed acts of violence and mass murder.
The incel worldview is encapsulated within the pill philosophy, inspired by the movie The Matrix, where the main character, Neo, must choose between the red pill and the blue pill. The red pill allows him to discover the truth about his world, while the blue pill will send him unknowingly back into the Matrix. For incels, the blue pill leaves one in blissful ignorance while accepting what mainstream society and “normies” say about dating. Conversely, the red pill is believed to reveal the supposed truth about women and dating, portraying women as superficial and selective, only favoring hypermasculine “alpha” men. However, it is possible to increase one’s sexual market value (SMV) through self-improvement tactics such as exercising, dressing better, making money, and employing pick-up techniques (PUA). Thus, women can settle for average-looking men if they have money or other resources.
Typically, incels promote the black pill, which, unlike the red pill, argues that it is impossible to improve one’s standing in the sexual market. The black pill claims that women naturally choose men based on appearance rather than personality, deterministically selecting partners with the best genes while ignoring incels. As a result, incels position themselves at the bottom of the attraction hierarchy as “beta” men without hope for improvement.
Three Forms of Subcultural Involvement
I conducted 14 interviews with self-identified incels and ex-incels from five continents. While incels’ collective grievances about inceldom may imply uniformity, the subculture is marked by ideological differences regarding key issues such as the definition of an incel, the source of their problems, and proposed solutions. Incels usually gather anonymously online, but direct interaction with these men reveals varied subcultural involvement, ranging from all-encompassing- and active participation to loose attachment. My findings show how incels can flexibly drift across categories, changing their level of involvement and attachment to the incel subculture over time.
All-Encompassing Participation: For some men, their incel identity dominates both their social and online life. Deeply immersed in incel spaces, with few offline friends, these individuals often embrace an incel identity and the blackpill ideology, holding dogmatic and misogynistic views explaining their inceldom. This involvement reflects a robust subcultural identity, providing a sense of belonging amidst isolation and societal rejection.
Active Participation: Others engage actively but periodically in the community, finding entertainment and excitement without fully subscribing to its ideology. However, they might return out of community, excitement, fascination, or in-group humor, adopting a playful yet defiant stance against mainstream norms. They do not necessarily fully embrace an incel identity. Instead, they engage in ongoing identity negotiations, distinguishing themselves from other incels. Their identity could sometimes be in flux, transitioning between being redpilled and blackpilled, illustrating the shifting nature of cultural identities within online environments.
Loose Attachment: Some individuals exhibit a looser connection to the incel community. While “lurking” on the forums, they post little and do not discuss their incel status with others outside the internet. Their roles and boundaries related to the incel subculture were ambiguous and shifting, and some were unsure of their incel identity. They are often the most critical of the community, distancing themselves from extremist pill ideology. However, they still feel connected to the incel community through specific experiences, such as inadequacy, loneliness, or celibacy-related stigma. These men drift in and out of incel spaces, highlighting the spectrum of engagement facilitated by the digital world.
Thus, despite the deterministic nature of incel ideology online environments can enable a dynamic spectrum of engagement and digital drift within the incel subculture. Influenced by personal exploration, societal pressures, and the transitory digital ecosystem, young men can transition in and out of these identities over time.
Incels as a heterogenous group
My findings on the incel subculture uncover a variety of nuanced engagement forms, challenging the oversimplified perspective of incels as a homogenous group. It highlights the necessity of including multiple voices to fully understand the incel subculture by recognizing the varied and often contradictory nature of incel identities, meaning-creation, and experiences. Focusing too much on the most extreme and violent incels risks missing how and why most non-violent incels engage online.
From my perspective, incels are both victims of patriarchal and capitalistic systems that exploit male vulnerabilities while also being perpetrators of misogyny and harm online and offline. Exceptionalizing incels risks perpetuating attitudes of male chauvinism, antifeminism, sexism, and misogyny prevalent within mainstream society. Incel discourse and ideology do not happen in a vacuum, especially as Western countries increasingly gravitate towards right-wing factions and authoritarian leadership, threatening democratic values and blurring the lines between conventional reactionary identity politics and incel ideologies. Consequently, incel narratives and tropes increasingly permeate mainstream discussions involving male loneliness, looks, dating, partner selection, and fertility rates.
Nevertheless, by examining the fluid dynamics of participation and identity within this community, we might open pathways for meaningful engagement and dialogue with young men involved in the incel subculture. We can devise informed and empathetic strategies to tackle the pressing societal problems manifested in the incel phenomenon. This approach can help communicate effectively with these men and assist them in disengaging from harmful environments by addressing issues like societal misogyny, male isolation, masculinity, stigma, and mental health challenges. In navigating the intricate landscape in which these men exist, both online and offline, we can hopefully help prevent young men and boys from becoming incels in the first place.
