Incel

Incels (an abbreviation of involuntary celibates; originally abbreviated as invcel), is a term associated with an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, a state they describe as inceldom.

Quotes

Incels are individuals who express frustration from perceived disadvantages to starting intimate relationships. ~ United States Department of the Army

Misogyny isn’t new, and ideological misogyny isn’t new. Having a distinct movement that is primarily defined by misogyny is [fairly] novel. ~ Zack Beauchamp

They’ll say how terrible it is that the left has won the culture wars and we should return to traditional hierarchies, but then they’ll use terms like "banging sluts", which doesn’t make any sense, right? Because you have to pick one. They want sexual availability and yet, at the same time, they express this disgust at promiscuity. ~ Zoe Williams

• Incels are individuals who express frustration from perceived disadvantages to starting intimate relationships. Incel extremists idolize violent individuals like the Aurora movie theater shooter. They also idolize the Joker character, the violent clown from the Batman series, admiring his depiction as a man who must pretend to be happy, but eventually fights back against his bullies.
  • Department of the Army, 167th military police detachment 2635 Miner Road Fort SIlk OK 73503-4437 (23 Sep 2019); as qtd. in “S. Military Issues Warning to Troops About Incel Violence at Joker Screenings”, by Dell Cameron, IO9, (9/24/19).

• Misogyny isn’t new, and ideological misogyny isn’t new. Having a distinct movement that is primarily defined by misogyny is [fairly] novel.
  • Beauchamp, Zack (April 25, 2018). "Incel, the misogynist ideology that inspired the deadly Toronto attack, explained". Vox. 

• These online communities didn’t used to be so violently misogynistic and as obsessed with violence as they are now ... They essentially magnify these guys’ negative feelings and encourage them to feel hopeless. If a guy doesn’t feel like there’s much point in living, he knows that if he goes out and does something violent, he’s going to be celebrated by all these people on these message boards … I’ve been expecting more [incel attacks] for a long time.
  • Cook, Jesselyn (July 27, 2018). "A Toxic ‘Brotherhood’: Inside Incels’ Dark Online World". The Huffington Post. 

• [Incels] have to find a target other than themselves, meaning they don’t want to take responsibility for their actions. There’s a fatalistic mentality that can perpetuate itself in these circles. The more rejection you get, the more it feeds into this belief that you are unwanted … But there’s also a sense of entitlement. They are entitled to sex. They’re entitled to women liking them. And there’s a very limited sense of reality.
  • Cook, Jesselyn (July 27, 2018). "Inside Incels’ Looksmaxing Obsession: Penis Stretching, Skull Implants And Rage". The Huffington Post. 

• The Incel community is one of the purest hotbeds of Internet radicalization I’ve ever seen, and it’s a community that is growing in size and confidence.
  • Horgan, John (June 26, 2019). "Grant Will Fund Research Into Growing Male Supremacist Subculture Online". Georgia State University. 

• Though Incels have been around for several years, the research community has only recently begun to sit up and take notice. I see Incel violence against women as nothing less than a new form of terrorism.
  • Horgan, John (June 26, 2019). "Grant Will Fund Research Into Growing Male Supremacist Subculture Online". Georgia State University. 

• The word [incel] used to mean anybody of any gender who was lonely, had never had sex or who hadn't had a relationship in a long time. But we can't call it that anymore.
  • Taylor, Jim (August 30, 2018). "The woman who founded the 'incel' movement". BBC. 

• There is a really interesting irony in the incel style of quasipolitics – they are both a response to and advocates of almost an Ayn Randian view of romance and human relationships. So they rail against the loneliness and the isolation and the individualism of modern life, but they seem to advocate it as well, in that they love the language of the strong triumphing over the weak. But they themselves are the weak.
  They’ll say how terrible it is that the left has won the culture wars and we should return to traditional hierarchies, but then they’ll use terms like "banging sluts", which doesn’t make any sense, right? Because you have to pick one. They want sexual availability and yet, at the same time, they express this disgust at promiscuity.
  • Williams, Zoe (April 25, 2018). "‘Raw hatred’: why the 'incel' movement targets and terrorises women". The Guardian.