How Social Media Has Promoted Incel Logic
Syton Tang
For this project, I want to dedicate the subject to how technology, notably social media, has impacted and promoted the reach of misogyny among young men. Misogyny, usually perpetrated by men towards women, has always been an issue but only relatively recently, has it expanded in such a way that’s alarming. Different forms of social media, but particularly Reddit, can be said to be at fault for this growth in anti - feminist rhetoric, namely because of different reasons like Reddit allowing its users to monitor themselves. Well, for this essay, I will further elaborate on how social media has indeed jump - started the growth of this form of hate.
First of all, the term “misogyny” is described as “discrimination or dislike towards women” while the term “incel” (which some young men identify as) stands for “involuntary celibate,” which basically refers to young men who harbor a vivid dislike towards women because they lack a sex life: which they feel entitled to. Incels have been around for a relatively long time, but it’s only recently that they’ve been violent in murder sprees against women (or placed in mainstream media.) For example, Elliot Rodger of the Isla Vista massacre and Alek Minassian of the Toronto truck attack are two notable figures linked to the incel movement.
To move on, I want to talk about how social media platforms - like Reddit - have encouraged the growth of such incel ideology which plagues men today, and how it has contributed to real-life acts of violence against women (in the US and abroad.)
To start, let’s talk about incels. Young men who identify with this term have been around for decades, but only recently have some of them been on rampages where they hurt people, but primarily women, in real life. More specifically, you can find them active on online forums such as Reddit, which was a home base for most of them until recently. They’re also on 4chan and other platforms, and all over the dark web.
At this point, you may be wondering what incels believe in and why. Well, I don’t want to defend their ideology but I want to first clarify that most incels are probably not violent, but just “extremely depressed, anxious, and lonely,” as The University of Texas at Austin COLA states (COLA, 2022) If I understand correctly, because they’re so isolated and depressed, they tend to lash out at others in anger because they’re really sad inside. They hate women and actually believe them to all be “Becky’s” and sometimes even subhuman (not real, full human beings.) This is an extremely toxic way to view approximately half of the world's human population, obviously, but I seek to empathize, not hate. However, this essay is not a defense of incel logic but rather how social media drives its expansion.
As for infamous incels who have gone on murder sprees in recent years, there are some we generally know something about. Although there are way too many figures of the movement, such as the infamous Elliot Rodger of the 2014 Isla Vista massacre, I will focus on him (Rodgers) and Alek Minassian, of the van killings in 2021.
Rodger was born into a wealthy Hollywood film family, and resided in California. He was said to have a narcissistic personality disorder which would lead him to be extremely self-centered and not very empathetic; he viewed himself as a “Supreme Gentleman.” He blamed women, especially blondes, for his lack of a relationship and sex life, and also despised good-looking white men who he viewed as “alpha Chad’s.” He facilitated the Isla Vista killings of 2014 and left quite a mark within the manosphere, or a close collection of like-minded young men who have been corrupted by incel logic.
Alek Minassian was actually Canadian, and perpetrated his particular attack on women, in Toronto. He seemed to have been inspired by Rodger, and was also an incel - he led a van into a crowded sidewalk and killed many people; he was, however, targeting women.
As these two incidents I’ve just gone over show, you can likely see that incel ideology has exacerbated into more daily acts of terrorism against women, made visible by the mainstream media in the modern day. How does this tie in to social media, though? Let’s see.
As Los Angeles Times states, “Four years after Rodger killed six people and wounded more than a dozen others in the college town of Isla Vista before committing suicide, he has been canonized in the online world of so-called involuntary celibates, or ‘incels’— a fringe group of sexually frustrated men who blame women for their misery and often advocate for violence against them.” (Los Angeles Times, 2018) Because of social media and their lackluster forms of moderation, platforms like Reddit had, at one time, a subreddit dedicated to incels. In this discussion board community, among other smaller ones, these young men would band together in self-pity, and share their common hatred of women.
As Digital Commons states, “Social media has been instrumental in the formation of incel identity. As found by Nagle, incels bear ‘the unmistakable signs of a new, net-bred brand of misogyny. It exists squarely within the libertarian ethos that infuses computer cultures’ (Nagle, 70). Incels often take part in cyberbullying behaviors by harassing women or antagonizing feminists online. Patton et al. identified two forms of cyberbullying behavior exhibited by individuals on social media…In 2014, an organized campaign of online abuse known as Gamergate occurred against several women in the video game industry. It involved harassment such as doxing (releasing personal details about an individual online), threats of rape and death threats.” (Young, 2019)
As you can see, it was on these platforms such as Reddit where the manosphere reigned rampant, where Rodger lookalikes would literally attack women of different backgrounds, including women gamers. In addition to this, incels online would discuss sexist strategies to “pick up” women and encourage real life harm towards women.
In conclusion, the many different forms of social media, specifically Reddit, are definitely at blame for allowing such logic to run rampant, even when it’s been shown to lead to actual violence. I also believe that these said platforms are not only helping promote the community’s ideals but, in turn, continue to lead to more and more horrendous occurrences. For example, as I’ve previously stated, on the platform, Reddit, there used to be subreddits dedicated to extreme misogyny, which required way too much audience outrage to convince Reddit to remove. Not only did they glorify Elliot Rodger’s crime, but the users on those subreddits also encouraged more acts of sexual violence due to what had happened. All in all, technology has definitely played a strong role in expanding incel ideology, to the harm of many.
Bibliography:
Young, O. (2019). What Role Has Social Media Played in Violence Perpetrated by Incels? Chapman University. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=peace_studies_student_work
Moskalenko, S. (2022). Incel ideology, radicalization and mental health: A survey study. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/jicw/article/download/3817/3376/16333
Townsend , M. (2022). Experts fear rising global ‘incel’ culture could provoke terrorism. The Guardian. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/30/global-incel-culture-terrorism-misogyny-violent-action-forums
Winton , R. (2018, April 26). How Elliot Rodger went from misfit mass murderer to 'saint' for group of misogynists - and suspected Toronto Killer. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-elliot-rodger-incel-20180426-story.html
The Counterterrorism Group. (2021, December 13). Executive summary: Prevalence of incel ideology in East Asia. CTG. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://www.counterterrorismgroup.com/post/executive-summary-prevalence-of-incel-ideology-in-east-asia
Public Affairs. (n.d.). "incels" are not particularly right-wing or white, but they are extremely depressed, anxious, and lonely, according to New Research. Home. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/news/incels-are-not-particularly-right-wing-or-white-but-they-are-extremely-depressed-anxious-and-lonely-according-to-new-research
View of incels on reddit: A study in social norms and decentralised moderation: First Monday. View of Incels on Reddit: A study in social norms and decentralised moderation | First Monday. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/12575/10654