What is an Incel (Involuntary Celibate) and do they pose a threat to Australians?

Incels are a group of disaffected young men who gather online who identify as ‘involuntary celibate’. These men want to be in a romantic relationship but, due to a number of factors, have been unable to form those connections. Incels began in the late 1990 as an online ‘lonely hearts’ group where people who were struggling with dating would share their challenges and get support and recommendations. Over time, the original moderators of this group left and the group evolved and eventually split into two groups: incels and misogynist incels. Incels kept the same ethos – a self-help focused lonely hearts group. Misogynist incels shifted from self-help to blaming women and society for their dateless existence. It is this latter group that we are hearing so much about because they have come to believe an extreme form of misogyny where they think women are biologically wired to have sex with only ‘Alpha’ males and thus regular men must compete for partners and ugly or disadvantaged men are completely unable to find a partner. Because of this, they have an intense hatred towards women, seeing them as almost subhuman. In some extreme cases, this has justified incel violence towards society at large. 

Elliot Rodger is considered the patron saint of Incels. He was a young man who struggled his entire life with forming connections and, in a fit of rage, in 2014 he murdered his two roommates and their friend and then went on a killing spree where he targeted a sorority and eventually killed three others. Before his rampage, he posted a video online calling the day his ‘day of retribution’ and posted a long online manifesto that has become almost like Incel doctrine. Incels see him as an incel who has ‘ascended’ through his act of violence.  

I would call incels a single-issue ideology which is focused almost exclusively on misogyny. That being said, Incels are not a homogonous group, and you see evidence of many other types of extremist beliefs including racism and anti-semitism. Incels overlaps with many other types of extremism because almost all extremist ideologies have strict gender role and advocate for the oppression and violence towards women and other marginalised groups. 

Incels have divided society into a social hierarchy based on physical attractiveness. So, the most attractive people are referred to Stacey or Chad, average people are called Normies, Beta males and Beckys, and the bottom rung of society are the incels. Incels believe all women, Staceys and Beckys, only want to be with Chads but will settle for Beta Males if they have to (but will leave them for a Chad in a heartbeat if given the opportunity). Incels simultaneously hate Chad but also want to be him. Incels also feel sorry for Chads because they are being ‘used’ by women, so their feeling towards Chads are complex. Overall, Incels feel victimised by their own genetics because they don’t believe they are attractive, victimised by women who disrespect them and deny them sex, and victimised by society which ignores their plight.

Incels are able to have this narrow worldview because they generally engage with others only online in a place called the Manosphere. This is a digital ecosystem of blogs, chatrooms, and webpages that are united in their common belief in the ‘Red Pill’ ideology. This ideology claims that the world is actually a feminist gynarchy ruled by women who control men and society is simply blind to this reality. The other groups in the Manosphere include Pick-up artists, Men’s Rights Activists, and Men going their own way (MGTOW).

This is where the two groups of incels are very different. Non-misogynist Incels simply want human connection and romantic connections and don’t know how to do this. Misogynist incels claim to want this but, because they see women as disposable, in reality they want control of women’s bodies and readily access to sex with attractive women. For them, meaningful connections are not possible. 

I think misogynist incels do represent a threat to Australia in a couple of ways. First, their misogynist ideology has begun to permeate online spaces that Australian youth access all the time. This fosters distorted views of women and normalises violence against women. This is probably the greatest danger they pose, something not as visible as a mass violence attack, but perhaps more damaging to the broader society. There is also the possibility that a misogynist incel could undertake a mass violence attack, though we have been lucky enough to avoid that so far. The final danger here is that people with misogynist views are more vulnerable to other extremist ideologies. So misogynist incels may not act based just on their misogyny but they are vulnerable to recruitment by other extremist groups.

Misogyny is present in almost every extremist ideology. This shared belief, as well as Incels desire to be part of a larger community, makes them vulnerable to extremist recruitment. Extremist groups provide easy answers, an opportunity for revenge against a society they feel victimized by, and ways for incels to reclaim masculinity that they feel like they lost. 

Incels have a very particular vocabulary that can be used to identify them. For example, if they use the term Chad, Stacey, Becky, Normie, or refer to women as ‘foids’ (female humanoid objects). This vocabulary is specific to this group, though we are starting to see it appear more broadly on the internet. You can also look out for this worldview based on a sexual hierarchy and beliefs of extreme misogyny – to the extent that women are not spoken of like they are human beings. There would be an extreme sense of male entitlement accompanied, paradoxically, with intense self-loathing because incels feel like they don’t meet the male ideal.

Incels have rigid belief structures and black and white thinking. When their worldview is challenged, they can double down on that world view and reinforce their feelings of persecution. However, experiences that challenge this worldview indirectly might be a good way to help incels gain perspective. Incels who have left the group have often said it was because they got a job or started university where they engaged in the ‘real world’ and realised how incorrect their current exclusively online worldview was. Others made their first close friend or found their first girlfriend and this connection challenged their incel identity, which is based on social isolation. So, a good off-ramp for individuals who are incels is meaningful engagement in the real world. 

There is a lot of good research out there on incels. A good place to start is Moonshots glossary of Incel terms and images and looking at the brief on Incels published on the Institute for Research in Male Supremacy.