About the project
Individuals who identify as incels, or involuntary celibates, have in recent years carried out several violent attacks that have resulted in many casualties. Incels take part in a subcultural online community of men (and women) who believe that their current situation, an involuntary lack of sexual and romantic success, is due to various individual factors such as appearance and mental health, or more structural factors such as feminism and an unbalanced dating market. In short, incels believe that they are destined to live a life of celibacy because of society's deterministic and hierarchical divisions based on gender and attractiveness.
At the same time, incels are often one-dimensionally portrayed as a monolithic group of angry men who promote misogynistic and extremist ideology. The purpose of the project was to contribute to nuancing and humanizing the online community by focusing more closely on incels' own stories about everyday life, stigma, and life stories.
Method
The project explored incels both online and offline through qualitative research methods such as netnography to analyze archive data, incel forums, and interview data to examine incels' own experiences of involuntary celibacy.
Objectives
The project sought to better understand individuals who identify as incels, or involuntary celibates, by exploring narratives, trends and subcultural expressions within the incel community, as well as negotiations of masculinity and stigma. In addition, it examined social and cultural features of a potential radicalization process among individuals within the incel milieu.