Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Positioning incels

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Incels and Ideologies

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality ((PSLGS))

  • 244 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter provides broader contextualsation of the incel community. It explores how incels use ‘pill’ metaphors, particularly in relation to other communities within the manosphere. Furthermore, the differences between ‘red’, ‘blue’, and ‘black’ pill philosophies are explored and incels are discussed in relation to these philosophies. This chapter highlights how incels conform to ideals of hegemonic masculinity, and as such I also explore this concept and related theories of masculinity. In a similar vein, I argue that incels view themselves as non-normative because they are unable to conform to hegemonic masculine norms, and as such as explore previous research into normativities. Incels view themselves as nonnormative due to both essentialist and deterministic thinking. I discuss these concepts and highlight how sometimes this kind of thinking is contradictory. The chapter discusses extensive academic work on masculinity, the alt-right, and cognate topics as they relate to the incel community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Note, I use capitals for ‘The Red Pill’ to refer to the community, and lowercase to refer to the concept/ideology of the red pill.

  2. 2.

    Note, because the blue pill is not a community, I do not capitalise it.

  3. 3.

    The * indicates a wildcard. This, therefore, indicates all forms of the term (such as ‘blue pill[er]’, ‘blue pill[ed]’, and ‘blue pill’).

  4. 4.

    Although I acknowledge that terms such as ‘the Global West’ are somewhat problematic, I have used it here to primarily refer to Euro-centric countries (including those in North America).

  5. 5.

    Small capitals are used to indicate conceptual domains—this is done for both metaphorical and metonymic mappings. This is because, Lakoff (1993) argues, they function as mnemonics for sets of cross-domain ontological correspondences that characterise each mapping (see also Semino et al., 2004).

  6. 6.

    Note, I want to acknowledge that terms like ‘BIPOC’ have previously been critiqued for being problematic due to a range of reasons, such as the homogenisation of different identities and not showing the nuance of racial/ethnic identities (see Malik et al., 2021). However, incel’s racist ideologies spread across so many different racial/ethnic groups that a broader ‘catch all’ term is required in this instance, although throughout the later analysis, I specify particular racial/ethnic groups where possible.

  7. 7.

    Note, I problematise the use of race/ethnicity in Chapter 5. However, I have used ‘race’ here by itself to reflect that this ideology is similar to the debunked idea of ‘race science’ which was prominent in the eighteenth century.

References

  • Aiston, J. (2023). Argumentation strategies in an online male separatist community. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anastasi, S. (2022). ‘I am not like all the other girls’. Femcel, pinkpilled and women in the Incel communities. A qualitative analysis of the Italian ‘Il Forum dei Brutti’ [Paper presentation]. 28th Lavender Languages and Linguistics International Conference. Catania, Italy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. (2019). Discourses of ageing and gender. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Anti-Defamation League. (2018). When women are the enemy: The intersection of misogyny and white supremacy. ADL.org. Retrieved July, 2023, from https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/when-women-are-the-enemy-the-intersection-of-misogyny-and-white-supremacy

  • Bacarisse, B. (2017). The Republican lawmaker who secretly created Reddit’s women-hating ‘Red Pill’. The Daily Beast. Retrieved July, 2023, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-republican-lawmaker-who-secretly-created-reddits-women-hating-red-pill

  • Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. Bloomsbury.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, P. (2008). Sexed texts: Language, gender and sexuality. Equinox.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, P. (2014). Using corpora to analyze gender. Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banet-Weiser, S., & Miltner, K. M. (2016). #MasculinitySoFragile: Culture, structure, and networked misogyny. Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 171–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, K. (2022). (Re)framing rape: A sociocognitive discourse analysis of sexual violence at the intersection of white and male supremacy. PhD thesis, Cardiff University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, R. (2017). From drag queens to leathermen: Language, gender, and gay male subcultures. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J. (2003). Positioning gender in discourse: A feminist methodology. Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J. (2008). Feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis: A new theoretical and methodological approach? In K. Harrington, L. Litosseliti, H. Sauntson, & J. Sunderland (Eds.), Gender and language research methodologies (pp. 243–255). Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, J., & Wallace, K. (2009). Outside in-group and out-group identities? Constructing male solidarity and female exclusion in UK builders’ talk. Discourse & Society, 20(4), 411–429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beynon, J. (2001). Masculinities and culture. McGraw-Hill Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bicchieri, C. (2005). The grammar of society: The nature and dynamics of social norms. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bicchieri, C. (2017). Norms in the wild: How to diagnose, measure, and change social norms. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bogetić, K. (2022). Race and the language of incels: Figurative neologisms in an emerging English cryptolect. English Today, 39(2), 89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bogetić, K., Heritage, F., Koller, V., & McGlashan, M. (2021). ‘This shit happens when some stud marries a plastic bitch’: Exploring dehumanizing metaphors in an online community of Incels. RAAM14. Vilnius University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogetić, K., Heritage, F., Koller, V., & McGlashan, M. (2023). Landwhales, femoids and sub-humans: Dehumanising metaphors in incel discourse. Metaphor and Social World. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.23005.bog

  • Bratich, J., & Banet-Weiser, S. (2019). From pick-up artists to incels: Con(fidence) games, networked misogyny, and the failure of neoliberalism. International Journal of Communication, 13(2019), 5003–5027.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, M. B. (1999). The psychology of prejudice: Ingroup love and outgroup hate? Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), 429–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brokensha, S. (2011). Noticing us and them constructions: The pedagogical implications of a critical discourse analysis of referring in political discourse. Per Linguam: A Journal of Language Learning = Per Linguam: Tydskrif vir Taalaanleer, 27(1), 56–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldas-Coulthard, C. R., & Moon, R. (2016). Grandmother, gran, gangsta granny semiotic representations of grandmotherhood. Gender and Language, 10(3), 309–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, D. (2005). Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics, 26(4), 482–502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, D. (2007). The myth of Mars and Venus. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, R. (2005). The encyclopedia of politics: The left and the right, volume 2: The right. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cervone, C., Augoustinos, M., & Maass, A. (2020). The language of derogation and hate: Functions, consequences, and reappropriation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(1), 80–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coimbra-Gomes, E., & Motschenbacher, H. (2019). Language, normativity, and sexual orientation obsessive-compulsive disorder (SO-OCD): A corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Language in Society, 48(4), 565–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coulling, R. (2019). Of vice and men: An ethnographic content analysis of the manosphere. PhD thesis, Carleton University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daly, S. E., & Laskovtsov, A. (2021). “Goodbye, My Friendcels”: An analysis of incel suicide posts. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, 11(1), 1–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, S. E., & Reed, S. M. (2022). “I think most of society hates us”: A qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with incels. Sex Roles, 86(1), 14–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dayter, D., & Rüdiger, S. (2022). The language of pick-up artists: Online discourses of the seduction industry. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DeLamater, J., & Hyde, J. (1998). Essentialism vs. social constructionism in the study of human sexuality. The Journal of Sex Research, 35(1), 10–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denroche, C. (2018). Text metaphtonymy: The interplay of metonymy and metaphor in discourse. Metaphor and the Social World, 8(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devitt, M. (2008). Resurrecting biological essentialism. Philosophy of Science, 75(3), 344–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dignam, P. A., & Rohlinger, D. A. (2019). Misogynistic men online: How the red pill helped elect Trump. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 44(3), 589–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction (pp. 258–284). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, G., & Chandrashekar, S. P. (2018). Laypersons’ beliefs and intuitions about free will and determinism: New insights linking the social psychology and experimental philosophy paradigms. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(5), 539–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1978). The history of sexuality. Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, K., Green, R., & Palombi, A. (2023). From Stacys to Foids, a discursive analysis of the incel’s gendered spectrum of political agency. Deviant Behavior, 1–17. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2023.2233668

  • Fuchs, S. (2001). Against essentialism: A theory of culture and society. Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ging, D. (2017). Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the masculinities of the manosphere. Men and Masculinities, 22(4), 638–657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ging, D. (2021). Dissecting the Black Pill: Researching incels and the manosphere. In L. Prøitz, F. Langeland, & H. Mainsah (Eds.), From boyhood to radicalised masculinity: A rapid research response from the international symposium on incels. Nora Forlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ging, D., Lynn, T., & Rosati, P. (2020). Neologising misogyny: Urban Dictionary’s folksonomies of sexual abuse. New Media & Society, 22(5), 838–856.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glace, A. M., Dover, T. L., & Zatkin, J. G. (2021). Taking the black pill: An empirical analysis of the “Incel”. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 22(2), 288–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Górska, A. M., Kulicka, K., & Jemielniak, D. (2022). Men not going their own way: A thick big data analysis of #MGTOW and #Feminism tweets. Feminist Media Studies, 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, K. (2017). Representation of the British suffrage movement. Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haider, S. (2016). The shooting in Orlando, terrorism or toxic masculinity (or both?). Men and Masculinities, 19(5), 555–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, K., Levon, E., & Milani, T. M. (2019). Navigating normativities: Gender and sexuality in text and talk. Language in Society, 48(4), 481–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halpin, M. (2022). Weaponized subordination: How incels discredit themselves to degrade women. Gender & Society, 36(6), 813–837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrington, C. (2021). What is “toxic masculinity” and why does it matter? Men and Masculinities, 24(2), 345–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heritage, F. (forthcoming). ‘This sub is the closest thing I have to a friend’: How incels construct positive views of in-group support networks. In S. Rüdiger & D. Dayter (Eds.), Manipulation, influence, and deception: The changing landscape of persuasive language. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heritage, F., & Koller, V. (2020). Incels, in-groups, and ideologies: The representation of gendered social actors in a sexuality-based online community. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 9(2), 152–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes, C. (1997). Anti-essentialism in practice: Carol Gilligan and feminist philosophy. Hypatia, 12(3), 142–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hines, A. (2019). This is a Chad. New York Magazine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, B., Ware, J., & Shapiro, E. (2020). Assessing the threat of incel violence. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 43(7), 565–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johanssen, J. (2022). Fantasy, online misogyny and the manosphere: Male bodies of dis/inhibition. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kay, J. (2021). Abject desires in the age of anger: Incels, femcels and the gender politics of unfuckability. In M. Harrod, S. Leonard, & D. Negra (Eds.), Imagining “we” in the age of “i” (pp. 29–46). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, C. R., & Aunspach, C. (2020). Incels, compulsory sexuality, and fascist masculinity. Feminist Formations, 32(3), 145–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimmel, M. (2015). Angry White men: American masculinity at the end of an era. Nation Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koller, V. (2013). Constructing (non-)normative identities in written lesbian discourse: A diachronic study. Discourse & Society, 24(5), 572–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koller, V. (2014). Applying social cognition research to critical discourse studies: The case of collective identities. In C. Hart & P. Cap (Eds.), Contemporary critical discourse studies (pp. 147–165). Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koller, V., Krendel, A., & Aiston, J. (2023). The language of gender-based separatism: A comparative analysis. Cambridge Elements.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Konnelly, L. (2021). Nuance and normativity in trans linguistic research. Journal of Language and Sexuality, 10(1), 71–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kosse, M. (2022). ‘Ted Cruz cucks again’: The insult term cuck as an alt-right masculinist signifier. Gender and Language, 16(2), 99–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraus, M. (2020). Social class, essentialism, and restorative policy decisions. PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krendel, A., McGlashan, M., & Koller, V. (2022). The representation of gendered social actors across five manosphere communities on Reddit. Corpora, 17(2), 291–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kupers, T. A. (2005). Toxic masculinity as a barrier to mental health treatment in prison. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(6), 713–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 202–251). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980, [2003]). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, R. (2023). Language and mediated masculinities. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Leap, W. L. (2021). Multiple normativities: Language, gender, sexuality and men’s induction into the US military during World War II [Paper presentation]. 27th Annual Lavender languages, 2021, San Francisco, California Institute of Integral Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leidig, E. (2021). Why terrorism studies miss the mark when it comes to incels. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. Last accessed July, 2023, from https://www.icct.nl/publication/why-terrorism-studies-miss-mark-when-it-comes-incels

  • Lilly, M. (2016). ‘The world is not a safe place for men’: The representational politics of the manosphere. Unpublished Masters dissertation, Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, J. (2017). Antifeminism online: MGTOW (men going their own way). In U. Frömming, S. Köhn, S. Fox, & M. Terry (Eds.), Digital environments: Ethnographic perspectives across global online and offline spaces (pp. 77–96). Transcript Verlag.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Littlemore, J. (2015). Metonymy: Hidden shortcuts through language. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mackie, D. M., & Smith, E. R. (1998). Intergroup relations: Insights from a theoretically integrative approach. Psychological Review, 105(3), 499–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malik, S., Ryder, M., Lawson, R., & Gee, M. (2021). BAME: A report on the use of the term and responses to it. Terminology Review for the BBC and Creative Industries. Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchia, J., & Sommer, J. M. (2019). (Re)defining heteronormativity. Sexualities, 22(3), 267–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marwick, A. E., & Caplan, R. (2018). Drinking male tears: Language, the manosphere, and networked harassment. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), 543–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menzie, L. (2020). Stacys, Beckys, and Chads: The construction of femininity and hegemonic masculinity within Incel rhetoric. Psychology & Sexuality, 13(1), 69–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Messner, M. (2016). Forks in the road of men’s gender politics: Men’s rights vs feminist allies. International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 5(2), 6–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morley, J., & Taylor, C. (2012). Us and them: How immigrants are constructed in British and Italian newspapers. In P. Bayley & G. Williams (Eds.), European identity: What the media say (pp. 190–223). Oxford.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Moscatelli, S., Hewstone, M., & Rubini, M. (2017). Different size, different language? Linguistic ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation by majority and minority groups. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20(6), 757–769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motschenbacher, H. (2010). Female-as-norm (FAN): A typology of female and feminine generics. In M. Bieswanger, H. Motschenbacher, & S. Mühleisen (Eds.), Language in its socio-cultural context: New explorations in gendered, global and media uses (pp. 35–67). Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motschenbacher, H. (2014). Focusing on normativity in language and sexuality studies: Insights from conversations on objectophilia. Critical Discourse Studies, 11(1), 49–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motschenbacher, H. (2018). Sexuality in critical discourse studies. In J. Flowerdew & J. E. Richardson (Eds.), Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies (pp. 388–402). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Motschenbacher, H. (2019). Language and sexual normativity. In R. Barrett & K. Hall (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language and sexuality. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, R., Holt, K., & Holt, T. (2020). An exploration of the involuntary celibate (incel) subculture online. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(7–8), 4981–5008.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, R. (2018). Seduction: Men, masculinity, and mediated intimacy. Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, E. (2019). Extremism and toxic masculinity: The man question re-posed. International Affairs, 95(6), 1251–1270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plante, C., Roberts, S., Snider, J., Schroy, C., Reysen, S., & Gerbasi, K. (2015). ‘More than skin-deep’: Biological essentialism in response to a distinctiveness threat in a stigmatized fan community. British Journal of Social Psychology, 54(2), 359–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posadas, J. (2017). Teaching the cause of rape culture: Toxic masculinity. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 33(1), 177–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prażmo, E. (2020). Foids are worse than animals. A cognitive linguistics analysis of dehumanizing metaphors in online discourse. Topics in Linguistics, 21(2), 6–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prażmo, E. (2022). In dialogue with non-humans or how women are silenced in incels’ discourse. Language and Dialogue, 12(3), 383–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, K., Halpin, M., & Maguire, F. (2021). The black pill: New technology and the male supremacy of involuntarily celibate men. Men and Masculinities, 24(5), 823–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, E. L. (2019). The discursive ecology of homophobia: Unraveling anti-LGBTQ speech on the European far right. Multilingual Matters.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, N. (2017). The ‘Toxic Masculinity’ trend blames boys for being born male. The federalist. Retrieved July 2023, from https://thefederalist.com/2017/04/12/toxic-masculinity-trend-blames-boys-born-male

  • Saini, A. (2019). Superior: The return of race science. Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salam, M. (2019). What is toxic masculinity? Last accessed July, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/toxic-masculinity.html

  • Santos, S. J., Amaral, I., Simões, R. B., & Brites, M. J. (2021). Debunking the #Manosphere: An exploratory analysis on patriarchy and ageism within the digital realm. In Q. Gao & J. Zhou (Eds.), Human aspects of IT for the aged population. Technology design and acceptance: 7th international conference, ITAP 2021, held as part of the 23rd HCI international conference, HCII 2021, Virtual Event, July 24–29, 2021, Proceedings, Part I (pp. 420–429). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schippers, M. (2007). Recovering the feminine other: Masculinity, femininity, and gender hegemony. Theory and Society, 36(1), 85–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitz, R. M., & Kazyak, E. (2016). Masculinities in cyberspace: An analysis of portrayals of manhood in men’s rights activist websites. Social Sciences, 5(2), 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scotto di Carlo, G. (2023). An analysis of self-other representations in the incelosphere: Between online misogyny and self-contempt. Discourse & Society, 34(1), 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Semino, E., Heywood, J., & Short, M. (2004). Methodological problems in the analysis of metaphors in a corpus of conversations about cancer. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(7), 1271–1294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solea, A., & Sugiura, L. (2023). Mainstreaming the blackpill: Understanding the incel community on TikTok. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 29, 311–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparks, B., Zidenberg, A. M., & Olver, M. E. (2023). One is the loneliest number: Involuntary celibacy (incel), mental health, and loneliness. Current Psychology, 1–15. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04275-z

  • Speckhard, A., & Ellenberg, M. (2022). Self-reported psychiatric disorder and perceived psychological symptom rates among involuntary celibates (incels) and their perceptions of mental health treatment. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 1–18. Advance online publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speckhard, A., Ellenberg, M., Morton, J., & Ash, A. (2021). Involuntary celibates’ experiences of and grievance over sexual exclusion and the potential threat of violence among those active in an online incel forum. Journal of Strategic Security, 14(2), 89–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiura, L. (2021). The incel rebellion: The rise of the manosphere and the virtual war against women. Emerald Prints.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1970). Experiments in intergroup discrimination. Scientific American, 223(5), 96–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1974). Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information, 13(2), 65–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1978). Differentiation between social groups. Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–37). Brooks/Cole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity of intergroup behaviour. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of inter-group relations (2nd ed., pp. 7–24). Brooks/Cole.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, C. (2014). Investigating the representation of migrants in the UK and Italian press: A cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse analysis. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 19(3), 368–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, C. (2022). Corpus linguistics in the study of political discourse: Recent directions. In A. O’keeffe & M. McCarthy (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics (2nd ed., pp. 602–614). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tebaldi, C., & Burnett, S. (2022). The science of desire: Beautiful fascists in Man’s World magazine [Paper presentation]. 28th Lavender Languages and Linguistics International Conference, Catania, Italy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorburn, J., Powell, A., & Chambers, P. (2022). A world alone: Masculinities, humiliation and aggrieved entitlement on an incel forum. The British Journal of Criminology., 63, azac020.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Trancel. Urban Dictionary. Last accessed July, 2023, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trancel

  • Van Dam, A. (2022). The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors. The Washington Post. Last accessed July, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/02/college-major-regrets/

  • van Dijk, T. A. (1990). Social cognition and discourse. In H. Giles & W. P. Robinson (Eds.), Handbook of language and social psychology (pp. 163–183). Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Dijk, T. (2001). Multidisciplinary CDA: A plea for diversity. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 95–120). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Veissière, S. P. L. (2018). “Toxic Masculinity” in the age of #MeToo: Ritual, morality and gender archetypes across cultures. Society and Business Review, 13(3), 274–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waling, A. (2019). Problematising ‘toxic’ and ‘healthy’ masculinity for addressing gender inequalities. Australian Feminist Studies, 34(101), 362–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, N. P. (1972). Origins of Aristotle’s essentialism. The Review of Metaphysics, 26(1), 57–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, C. (2022). Nostalgia, entitlement and victimhood: The synergy of white genocide and misogyny. Terrorism and Political Violence, 34(8), 1810–1825.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth-Koliba, V. (2016). The diverse and dynamic world of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in political discourse. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 8(1), 23–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witt, T. (2020). ‘If I cannot have it, I will do everything I can to destroy it’ the canonization of Elliot Rodger: ‘Incel’ masculinities, secular sainthood, and justifications of ideological violence. Social Identities, 26(5), 675–689.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodson, M. (2019). The best we can be: How toxic masculinity creates a second inescapable situation for inmates. Public Interest Law Reporter, 24(2), 124–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woolley, S. (2013). Identity and difference: Negotiating gender and sexuality in high school contexts. PhD thesis, University of California Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, D. (2020). The discursive construction of resistance to sex in an online community. Discourse, Context & Media, 36, 100402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zdjelar, V. (2020). Alone together: Exploring community on an incel forum. Unpublished Masters thesis, Simon Fraser University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, Y. (2022). A social-cognitive research on metaphor and metonymy: Taking age appellations in Chinese as an example. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 4(1), 66–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Languages, Information, and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Frazer Heritage

Authors
  1. Frazer Heritage
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frazer Heritage .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Heritage, F. (2023). Positioning incels. In: Incels and Ideologies. Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40184-8_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40184-8_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-40183-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-40184-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation