United by Rage, Self-Loathing, and Male Supremacy: The Rise of the Incel Community

Abstract

Since the 1990’s the internet has fundamentally transformed social relations by giving rise to cyber-communities, which have brought new kinds of polymorphous, highly personalized, and lifestyle-oriented social groups. They have also given rise to new political movements, including extremist internet groups, that can be severely detrimental to the sustainable wellbeing of society (Delanty 2018, 200). Over the past decade, a fringe internet group known as the involuntary celibates (Incels) have developed mainstream infamy for their extreme misogynistic rhetoric and reactionary anti-feminist language, which has manifested into several terrorist attacks (Olheiser, 2018). It can be argued that Incels have developed an online community centred on the desire for society to revert to absolute patriarchy that dehumanizes women as mere sexual commodities and vehemently oppose the idea of women’s empowerment and sexual liberation (Tolentino 2018). In this paper, we will be analyzing the social dynamics and methods of communication within this fringe echo-chamber, we can better determine if the values of hate, self-loathing and misogyny can facilitate deliberation and in turn constitute the Incels as a legitimate community.