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{{Orphan|date=September 2023}}
{{Mcn}}
{{Mcn}}An '''involuntary celibate''', or '''incel''' for short, is someone who is unable to form a romantic or sexual relationship, despite desiring one. Self-identified incels in 2023 often believe that structures of [[oppression]] are a primary cause of their inability to form meaningful sexual relationships.  
'''Involuntary celibacy''', or '''incel''' for short, is an online sub-culture and movement surrounding highly [[alienation|alienated]], usually male individuals who believe structures of oppression to be the cause of their inability to form meaningful sexual relationships. The status of being an incel is typically referred to as '''inceldom'''. This is based on the culture of a subreddit that arrived over a decade after the first few, self-described incel forums.<ref name=":1">Charlie Tye (August 16, 2021). ''[https://theconversation.com/inside-the-warped-world-of-incel-extremists-166142 "Inside the warped world of incel extremists"]''. The Conversation. </ref><ref name=":0">Zack Beauchamp (April 23, 2019). ''[https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/4/16/18287446/incel-definition-reddit "Our incel problem"]''. ''Vox''.</ref> 


Incel self-identification is a heterogenous, mostly online phenomenon.  An attempted 'incel movement' began as an academic project with the goal of fueling academic research into incel.  This lasted for at least 7 years, resulting in sympathetic academic papers published by Denise Donelly and Elizabeth Burgess, among others. Later, there was a movement to treat incel as a medical condition, most notably through incelsite.com and incelsupport.org from 2003-2007.  This movement split in 2008 between those who blamed genetics for their condition and those who didn't, establishing separate forums. 8 years later, self-identified 'blackpilled' incel forums formed in 2016.  These are the most publicized forums in the USA as of 2023, are usually male and typically contain misogynistic elements, sometimes intersecting with "[[TRP|red pill]]-ers", [[MGTOW]], "negging" advocates, and similar online groups. Self-identified followers of the Podnebesnian, vaginocapitalism school of thought are similarly misogynistic, but lack much attention outside of Slavic countries.  
The incel movement is usually supportive of [[Reaction|reactionary]] and bigoted sentiments, especially [[misogyny]]. Incel forums serve as a prominent recruiting ground for the [[alt-right]] and other [[Rightism|far-right groups]], in part because of their mutual tendency towards [[racism]] and [[anti-Semitism]]. Self-described incels have perpetrated multiple [[Terrorism|terrorist]] attacks and mass-killings, as part of a rising tendency of right-wing extremism in [[Western world|the West]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>Jacob Conley (2020). [https://kb.osu.edu/items/fce09cd1-2ea8-43cf-a2ff-d8c69b57a968 ''Efficacy, Nihilism, and Toxic Masculinity Online: Digital Misogyny in the Incel Subculture'']. ''The Ohio State University''. [https://kb.osu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/4d512301-24e1-44f9-b065-2159952c8fe6/content (PDF)]</ref>


The status of being an incel is typically referred to as '''involuntary celibacy''' or '''inceldom'''.  What English Wikipedia calls '''incel culture''' refers to the culture of forums that arrived over a decade after the first few self-described incel forum. In particular, Wikipedia mostly references the culture of the 2016 r/incels subreddit, which was founded by a pedophile, and its descendant board, led by <!--weird unicode intentional-->Ļamarcus Șmall. Non-misogynistic forums for self-identified incels exist on Facebook and have since at least 2016. The longest lasting one being led by Keith Karvelis.  The largest non-self-identified incel forum is arguably ''reddit.com/r/deadbedrooms'', with about half a million members.
==History==
{{Lifted content|2=[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incel#History Wikipedia]|type=section|cat=Wikipedia}}
The first website to use the term "incel" was "Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project", founded in 1997 by a Canadian university student known only by her first name, Alana, to discuss her sexual inactivity with others; however, some media has incorrectly dated it to 1993, the date of a personal interaction that later inspired her to design the page. The site was used by people of all genders and sexual orientations to share their thoughts and experiences. During 1997, she started a mailing list on the topic that used the abbreviation INVCEL, later shortened to "incel", for "anybody of any gender who was lonely, had never had sex or who hadn't had a relationship in a long time". She would later cease participation in her online community around 2000.<ref name=":0" />


==Origin==
The message board love-shy.com was founded in 2003 as a place for people who felt perpetually rejected or were extremely shy with potential partners to discuss their situations. It was less strictly moderated than its counterpart, IncelSupport, which was also founded in the 2000s. While IncelSupport welcomed men and women and banned misogynistic posts, love-shy.com's userbase was overwhelmingly male. Over the next decade, the membership of love-shy.com and online fringe right-wing communities like 4chan increasingly overlapped. In the 2000s, incel communities became more extremist as they adopted behaviors common on forums like 4chan and Reddit, where extremist posts were encouraged as a way to achieve visibility. According to Bruce Hoffman and colleagues writing in ''Studies in Conflict & Terrorism'', as "edgy" and extremist statements became more prevalent in incel communities, so too did extremist trolling and "shitposting".
The shortened term "incel" was coined in the late 1990s on an internet mailing list created by a sexually successful lesbian who wanted to start an "incel movement". On her webpage, she hypothesized that such a movement would be similar to the previous [[gay liberation movement]]. Others have credited [[communist]] [[economics]] student and avant-garde [[philosopher]] Henry Flynt for the term, given that ''involuntary celibacy'' went virtually unmentioned in 20th century [[Western]] literature outside of his published musings. Flynt's most notable commentary<!--my attempt not to use "musing" twice--> on the topic came in a lecture he gave called the "Creep Lecture" delivered in the Adam Hovre uppercommon room at Harvard University on May 15, 1962, in which he referred to his own involuntary celibacy verbatim. Flynt hypothesized that the word "creep" was just a shorthand for incel, and that "creeps" have a greater latitude in creative thinking due to being excluded from social arenas which demand high social conformity.


Charles Fourier, a founder of [[utopian socialism]], considered involuntary celibacy to be just as important as material deprivation. As such, he created rules for his voluntary [[commune]]s where incels were to be sexually relieved by a corps of women in his Phalanxes, either as punishment or as a general duty.{{clarify}}
The subculture came to wider public notice throughout the 2010s with the banning of r/incels and when a series of mass murders were committed by men who either identified as members of the subculture or shared similar ideologies. Increased interest in incel communities has been attributed to feelings of "aggrieved entitlement" among some men who feel they are being denied rights they deserve and blame women for their lack of sex.


Involuntary celibacy itself is most likely timeless. Most initial references to involuntary celibacy in literature are about women not being able to afford a [[dowry]]. There is debate about how much involuntary celibacy occurred in [[prehistory]]. Some [[liberal]] commentators like to paint prehistory as a giant orgy, while social conservative commentators often portray prehistory as a brutal sexual landscape that left up to 80% of the male population masturbating in bushes.{{copy edit inline}} Both of these are extreme takes; it is possible the reality was somewhere in between.
==Organizations==
There are a number of forums for self-identified incels. A popular example is incels.co. <!-- Misandrist digital journalism outlets and [[Department of Homeland Security|DHS]]-funded counterterror groups seem to have financial or personal incentives to only reference incels.co<!--Did you mean this?--><!-- as the only meaningful incel forum. The aforementioned forum is right-wing, generally looked down upon, and contains rhetoric that is stigmatizing toward incels, which the administrators implicitly encourage. -->


A very vocal minority of social conservatives misappropriate TMRCA{{clarify|reason=expand on this and its significance?}} ratios to falsely insinuate that two to four times as many women reproduced throughout history as men. They do this to imply that monogamous marriage was invented to solve the issues with incels in prehistory. There is no known, reputable citation for the claim of enormous sexual access skew in prehistory. Computational biologist Melissa Wilson Sayres claims there was a large, 17:1 disparity in gendered reproductive skew directly after prehistory, when the [[agricultural revolution]] arrived.<ref>https://psmag.com/environment/17-to-1-reproductive-success</ref> This may be contrary to the claims some social conservatives, blackpillers and fascists make about of prehistory being more brutal in reproductive skew than in more agricultural and geographically close populations.
==Demographics ==
While solid information about the incel movement is hard to collect because of its hostility to outsiders, certain demographic patterns can be enumerated. An informal poll of a popular incel forum revealed that over 90% of its participants were under the age of 30. Practically all of them are males (they ban women on sight), and 80% of them were from [[Europe]] or [[North America]]. Over half of them identify as white, with other ethnic groups mixed in as well. A poll taken on incels.co revealed similar results.<ref name=":0" />  


==Polyamory and incel==
==Criticism==
Modern, self-described incel TCP/IP bulletin boards are overrun with men who think that the cause of involuntary celibacy was the sexual revolution and social liberalism in general, specifically female promiscuity. One blatantly false part of their gripes is their issue with polyandry, which, unlike polygyny is mathematically very beneficial to reducing the amount of incels. Polyandry means one women dating multiple men in a long-term context, which, by definition "shores up" incels, thereby reducing them. If social traditionalists equate female liberation with matriarchies, they may have missed that most matriarchies are in fact polyandrist rather than polygynous and lack a huge underclass of sexually frustrated males like in patriarchal Muslim countries.
The incel movement has been criticized and condemned on multiple grounds, including their hateful attitude towards women, male supremacy, relationship to right-wing extremists, and belief that they are entitled to sexual intercourse from females. In modern incel forums, there are also a large amount of pedophiles, zoophiles, and fetishists.<ref name=":1" />
 
Additionally, female nerds are far rarer than male nerds, and in order for all male nerds to get laid with female nerds, [[polyandry]] or at least polygynandry might need to take place if more women are not encouraged to become nerds.
 
==Self-described "incel movements"==
There have been very few forums or meetups that have explicitly identified as an incel movement. One notable exception being Alex Podnebesny's [[Russia]]n forums and groups, which rail against "vagino-capitalism" and explicitly identify as social movements or parties. Podnebesny's groups seem to have accomplished little except personal aggrandizement for Alex and a few stigmatizing TV shows. Nonetheless, he has had minor success in advocating against prosecutorial abuse in his local Russian town, including [[psychiatric]] abuse, which in the past was occasionally directed at him. If there were a broad, self-identified left-wing incel movement in the US, at most Alex would be seen as a martyr figure, given how much he has been tortured by his local government for his views, including incel-related views.
 
==Self-described "incel forums"==
There are a number of forums for self-identified incels. Most are on [[Facebook]], and some ban [[misogyny]]. Misandrist digital journalism outlets and [[Department of Homeland Security|DHS]]-funded counterterror groups seem to have financial or personal incentives to only reference incels.co<!--Did you mean this?--> as the only meaningful incel forum. The aforementioned forum is [[right-wing]], generally looked downupon, and contains rhetoric that is stigmatizing toward incels, which the administrators implicitly encourage.
 
==Relationship to income, income inquality, and social status==
The relationship between inceldom and income, [[income inequality]], or social status is not proven. It is popular to hypothesize that low income, high income inquality, or low social status produces incels.
 
It is important to note that there is high sexual success among the very poorest classes in the [[United States]], making it seem as if there is the same amount of sexlessness among the poor as there is among the rich. However, among the very poorest Americans, there is a large split in this demographic, with about half having many sexual partners, and the rest having none of very few.
 
In America, top athletes and popular Hollywood celebrities have almost unfettered access to sexual intercourse. Among some basketball players, their sexual partner count is in the thousands, or tens of thousands. Popular male celebrities often refer to celebrity as opening up a world of women, "like being in a women's locker room for the first time", and many engage in large amounts of casual sex with fans.
 
==Incel denialism==
Some people believe that involuntary celibacy is not real. Wikipedia most notably takes this position, but rarely elaborates on why. They are wrong, as forced celibacy is common, such as in prisons or mental hospitals. The occurrence of forced celibacy in mental hopsitals for example, has caused some academics to opine one could interpret an amendment of the US Constitution to legally defend state-subsidized sex-workers for the severely mentally or physically disabled. Notably, the [[Netherlands]] took such an approach for around 10 years, offering such state subsidies to the severely disabled.
 
Some of the more compelling incel denialism takes involve the notion that many self-described male and female incels refuse to lower their standards. Some self-described incels respond that standards can create an involuntary situation as forcing romantic attraction is not dissimilar to rape, another form of sex most incels can, in theory have, at the risk of long amounts of jail time. A definition of inceldom that eliminates logical holes would add that it is "the inability to have legal sex with someone you are attracted to".
 
==Sexual deviancy==
In modern, incel forums there are a large amount of pedophiles, zoophiles, and fetishists. These people create stigma for incels who are less sexually deviant.


==Hot takes on incels==
{{Hottakes|subject=incels|
{{Hottakes|subject=incels|
=== "Left-wing inceldom" ===
=== Further "Left-wing inceldom" ===
It is possible to offer a left-wing alternative to right-wing inceldom. Instead of identifying female hypergamy as the oppressive structure that prevents men from finding worthwhile partners, left-wing inceldom finds social atomisation and prevailing [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] norms to be the problem.
It is possible to offer a left-wing alternative to right-wing inceldom. Instead of identifying female hypergamy as the oppressive structure that prevents men from finding worthwhile partners, left-wing inceldom finds social atomisation and prevailing [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] norms to be the problem.
}}
}}


== External links ==
==See also==
*[[Manosphere]]
 
==External links ==
YouTube videos on incels:
YouTube videos on incels:


* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruI2al12sXE "INCELS Part 1 - Introductions, Truths & Admissions"] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1w77pXKvuU "INCELS Part 2 - Analysis, Advice & 'Chadsplaining'"] by Vaush
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruI2al12sXE "INCELS Part 1 - Introductions, Truths & Admissions"] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1w77pXKvuU "INCELS Part 2 - Analysis, Advice & 'Chadsplaining'"] by Vaush
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1flcGrb81M "Hegelian Recognition and Incels"] by Cuck Philosophy
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1flcGrb81M "Hegelian Recognition and Incels"] by Cuck Philosophy
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103uTU-lmsY "Incels and the Last Man"] by Zero Books
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103uTU-lmsY "Incels and the Last Man"] by Zero Books
Subreddits on incels:
 
* [https://old.reddit.com/r/IncelTears/ r/IncelTears], dedicated to cataloging instances of incel sexism and bigotry
* [https://old.reddit.com/r/IncelExit/ r/IncelExit], for people seeking advice on exiting the incel movement


==References==
==References==
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[[Category:Online ideologies]]
[[Category:Online ideologies]]
[[category:Social issues]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:Reactionism]]
[[Category:Alt-right]]
[[Category:Online right]]

Latest revision as of 20:44, 28 May 2024

Involuntary celibacy, or incel for short, is an online sub-culture and movement surrounding highly alienated, usually male individuals who believe structures of oppression to be the cause of their inability to form meaningful sexual relationships. The status of being an incel is typically referred to as inceldom. This is based on the culture of a subreddit that arrived over a decade after the first few, self-described incel forums.[1][2]

The incel movement is usually supportive of reactionary and bigoted sentiments, especially misogyny. Incel forums serve as a prominent recruiting ground for the alt-right and other far-right groups, in part because of their mutual tendency towards racism and anti-Semitism. Self-described incels have perpetrated multiple terrorist attacks and mass-killings, as part of a rising tendency of right-wing extremism in the West.[1][2][3]

History

The first website to use the term "incel" was "Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project", founded in 1997 by a Canadian university student known only by her first name, Alana, to discuss her sexual inactivity with others; however, some media has incorrectly dated it to 1993, the date of a personal interaction that later inspired her to design the page. The site was used by people of all genders and sexual orientations to share their thoughts and experiences. During 1997, she started a mailing list on the topic that used the abbreviation INVCEL, later shortened to "incel", for "anybody of any gender who was lonely, had never had sex or who hadn't had a relationship in a long time". She would later cease participation in her online community around 2000.[2]

The message board love-shy.com was founded in 2003 as a place for people who felt perpetually rejected or were extremely shy with potential partners to discuss their situations. It was less strictly moderated than its counterpart, IncelSupport, which was also founded in the 2000s. While IncelSupport welcomed men and women and banned misogynistic posts, love-shy.com's userbase was overwhelmingly male. Over the next decade, the membership of love-shy.com and online fringe right-wing communities like 4chan increasingly overlapped. In the 2000s, incel communities became more extremist as they adopted behaviors common on forums like 4chan and Reddit, where extremist posts were encouraged as a way to achieve visibility. According to Bruce Hoffman and colleagues writing in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, as "edgy" and extremist statements became more prevalent in incel communities, so too did extremist trolling and "shitposting".

The subculture came to wider public notice throughout the 2010s with the banning of r/incels and when a series of mass murders were committed by men who either identified as members of the subculture or shared similar ideologies. Increased interest in incel communities has been attributed to feelings of "aggrieved entitlement" among some men who feel they are being denied rights they deserve and blame women for their lack of sex.

Organizations

There are a number of forums for self-identified incels. A popular example is incels.co.

Demographics

While solid information about the incel movement is hard to collect because of its hostility to outsiders, certain demographic patterns can be enumerated. An informal poll of a popular incel forum revealed that over 90% of its participants were under the age of 30. Practically all of them are males (they ban women on sight), and 80% of them were from Europe or North America. Over half of them identify as white, with other ethnic groups mixed in as well. A poll taken on incels.co revealed similar results.[2]

Criticism

The incel movement has been criticized and condemned on multiple grounds, including their hateful attitude towards women, male supremacy, relationship to right-wing extremists, and belief that they are entitled to sexual intercourse from females. In modern incel forums, there are also a large amount of pedophiles, zoophiles, and fetishists.[1]

Hot takes on incels

See also

External links

YouTube videos on incels:

Subreddits on incels:

  • r/IncelTears, dedicated to cataloging instances of incel sexism and bigotry
  • r/IncelExit, for people seeking advice on exiting the incel movement

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Charlie Tye (August 16, 2021). "Inside the warped world of incel extremists". The Conversation.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Zack Beauchamp (April 23, 2019). "Our incel problem". Vox.
  3. ↑ Jacob Conley (2020). Efficacy, Nihilism, and Toxic Masculinity Online: Digital Misogyny in the Incel Subculture. The Ohio State University. (PDF)
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