ExtremismA Short Introduction: The Involuntary Celibate Sub-Culture
On 12 August 2021, Jake Davison embarked on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of five people before taking his own life. Davison’s digital footprint on social media platforms contains numerous examples of misogynistic and anti-feminist attitudes, as well as references to the incel subculture. What are incels? And should we consider their ideology an extremist one related to the far-right?
On 12 August 2021, Jake Davison embarked on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of five people before taking his own life. It has since come to light that Davison was an active participant on several online platforms, including popular ones such as Reddit and YouTube.
At the time of writing, Davison’s digital footprint on these platforms contains numerous examples of misogynistic and anti-feminist attitudes, as well as references to the incel subculture. Although some of his more recent posts seem to imply that he was trying to disengage with the incel subculture due to its perceived impact on his mental health, the current evidence indicates that his engagement with this ideology had a significant role in shaping his worldviews.
The term incel first became well-known following Elliot Rodger’s 2014 spree killing in Isla Vista, California. Before carrying out his attack, Rodger left a video and a manifesto-type autobiographical account detailing his “involuntary celibacy”.
Subsequent InCel-related violence was initially distinctly a North American and Canadian issue, with incidents such as Alek Minassian’s 2018 Toronto van attack, the 2018 Tallahassee Yoga Studio shooting, the 2020 Toronto erotic spa machete attack, and the 2020 shooting at the Westgate Mall in Arizona, among others; with a combined death toll of nearly 50 people. More recently, however, we have begun to see online engagement with incel ideology from individuals in the UK, with Davison’s attack following the recent trials of Gabrielle Friel and Anwar Driouich, both of whom appeared to have some association with incel ideology.
What Is an Incel?
The incel worldview is based on the notion that attractiveness is pre-determined by genetic factors, which dictate our physical appearance, and these are the main features that women find attractive in men (Baele et al., 2019; Ging 2019; Hoffman et al., 2020). Those who subscribe to the incel ideology believe these physical traits to be substandard in themselves and that they are “doomed to a life of involuntary celibacy”. Thus, the portmanteau “InCel.”
The empirical evidence indicates that this notion contributes to a sense of being isolated and lonely, which drives individuals to become increasingly frustrated and jealous of those around them who they perceive to be in happy sexual relationships (Van Brunt & Taylor, 2021).
