The Hunger Games: or, The Development Digital Crucible
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The New Enlightenment Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/22
How did the term “incel,” originally coined as a gender-inclusive support label, evolve into a male-dominated ideology associated with misogyny and violence?
I was trying to create a movement that was open to anybody and everybody.
Alana, “The Woman Who Accidentally Started the Incel Movement” (2016)
Incels are heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success… A subset of the online misogynist “manosphere” that includes Pick Up Artists and Men’s Rights Activists, incels are known for their deep-seated pessimism and profound sense of grievance against women… The incel ideology is rooted in the belief that women have too much power in the sexual/romantic sphere and ruin incels’ lives by rejecting them… Incels are the most violent sector of the manosphere, and have perpetrated a range of deadly attacks against women…
Anti-Defamation League, “Incels (Involuntary celibates)” (July 29th, 2020; Updated June 26th, 2024)
Alana, who identifies as queer, originally intended “involuntary celibate,” coined in 1993 in Toronto/Ottawa, as a movement for everybody. One can see echoes in the originator of #MeToo, Tarana Burke, who said, “The #MeToo movement is a movement for everyone…. It’s not a Black movement, but a movement that centers Black people.” She also is quoted saying, “We acting like we scared, this is our movement, this is a people’s movement. They don’t get to define what this movement is about.” As with many grassroots movements, founders lose hold on the faithful at some point.
Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project was intended as a place for men and women confused about dating, and as a friendly space. An essay preceded this project and is the source of the 1993 coinage. However, Alana did not contract “involuntary celibate” into “incel.” The website users proposed the term “incel,” because it was “easier to say.” The abbreviation “incel” became common on discussion fora between 1997 and 1999. Things became less moderate, users began to self-identify in forums like “Alt.Support.Incels.” Decades later, the term, “incel,” became deeply linked to misogynistic murders. Alana reflected colourfully, “It’s not a happy feeling… It feels like being the scientist who figured out nuclear fission and then discovers it’s being used as a weapon for war.”
Involuntary celibate was created and meant as a reference to any gender who experienced unwanted singleness. No animus to women or sexually active people. Alana left Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project around the late 1990s, possibly as early as 1997. She is in her early 50s now. Regardless, others took over. Slowly, some men became the majority. These drifted into male-only spaces. It is overwhelmingly cisgender heterosexual men now. “Involuntary celibate” as a portmanteau “incel” emerged by the late 2000s. Online fora–Love-shy.com and 4chan–used the term with negative connotations. Mainstream notoriety began post-2014 after Elliot Rodger’s murders.
These killings are commonly seen as the first major act of mass violence and ideological crystallization of modern incels. Media and law enforcement reports have increasingly focused on violent offenders who self-identify as “incel.” Since Elliot Rodger’s 2014 mass killing in Isla Vista, California, the FBI included ‘incel’ in domestic terrorism threat assessments since 2019 now. Rodger’s manifesto framed women as collectively guilty for his perceived suffering. By implication, his murders were an act of individual killing grounded in perception of the victims’ collective culpability. The full transition to negative frames about one gender, from the original gender neutral and positive meaning, took about two decades or so.
Cambridge Dictionary defines incel as follows, “Member of a group on the internet who are unable to find sexual partners… and who express hate toward people they blame.” In short, the term was a support label then became an extremist banner. Its founder no longer endorses the term. Now, the mystery is any correlates or a singular causal link. Across history, some men resent women, think Elliot Rodger, and some women hate men, think Valerie Solanas. The mystery remains: is there a singular causal link between involuntary celibacy and acts of violence?
Brandon Sparks, Alexandra Zidenberg, and Mark Olver, in “Involuntary Celibacy: A Review of Incel Ideology and Experiences with Dating, Rejection, and Associated Mental Health and Emotional Sequelae” (2022) said, “To date, there is no conclusive account or explanation for why select incels decide to engage in acts of violence; perhaps this is what makes the incel community so concerning to policy makers, feminist researchers, and the general public.”
On the former case, “I will punish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex.” (2014) On the latter case, “To call a man an animal is to flatter him; he’s a machine, a walking dildo” or “He is a half-dead, unresponsive lump, incapable of giving or receiving pleasure or happiness.” (1967) I see three core pathways of thought. Some individuals genuinely experience social rejection, mental illness, or online radicalization. Factors not reducible to gender alone. Reactance to the former, “This doesn’t represent all men”–a defensive posture, fence building.
To the latter, “These are MRA talking points.”–an accusatory stance, janitorial work. Both speak to biases. The former for men, not necessarily against women; the latter for women, not necessarily anti-men. Brief apologia for clearly stated attitudes followed by extreme criminal acts. The comparison is thematic. Solanas almost killed Warhol; Rodger’s evolved into a posthumous organized movement. To respond to some defenders, if Solanas meant SCUM Manifesto as a joke, then an attempted murder of a male is a terrible punchline.
If some among these minorities of girls and boys, men and women, are criminals, then it’s a criminal justice issue. If others among these minorities of them are hurting and feeling unheard, then there’s another productive path for this too. The third option is seeing both forms of sexism as problems. It provides a lens for solutions-oriented work. Efforts towards the more general vision of a freer world with greater parity. A world where women can make strides in public and men can make leaps in private. These are choices. As women have made gains in public leadership, men are making strides in private and caregiving domains.
Take, for example, Iceland, for the first time, they have women as both Prime Minister and President. President Halla Tómasdóttir and Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir since 2024. They weren’t the first either. Sri Lanka did this in 1994. Finland did this in 2003 and 2010-2011. Estonia did this in 2021. Likewise, we have men entering nursing, early childhood education, social work, and becoming stay-at-home parents. Movember and HeadsUpGuys promote male mental health. Nordic countries have a use-it-or-lose-it paternity leave access. More shared custody and equal parenting happens in separation proceedings. Dads have parenting blogs. Men’s podcast and discussion circles exist, and so on.
Much popular reportage reduces the term to a slur, often against young men and teenage boys. An insult to others akin to YouTube arguments devolving to mutual shouting matches hinging on accusations of one, the other, or both, being a “Nazi.” Colloquially, “incel” is a male-gendered epithet. Some scholars make distinctions, though. Those are telling. They indicate the reality of the plural nature of the term “incel.” For instance, by implication, the original larger group of involuntary celibates is extant. Scholars distinguish between “true incels” and “ideological incels.” True incels are the original group: those seeking support. A legitimate and humane community-building effort of mutual relational assistance, a la Alana in 1993. Ideological incels are those promoting misogyny and violence, even engaging occasionally in acts of mass killing. Some online incel subcultures actively reject violence, while being hostile to mainstream feminism or dating norms. Still hate is present, it’s more specific to contemporary dating and some types of feminism.
In sum, ‘incel’ is not a monolith. It is a term with a history, a spectrum of meanings, and a contested present. The original creation and meaning by Alana was a positive social contribution for all genders. In popular usage, it became the lost child, the Prodigal Son.
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