Inside the 'incel' movement inspiring mass violence against women

[turbinetree]

Men who resent being denied "their God-given rights to have sex with women."

KIRA BREKKE, KATELYN MARMON

APR 29, 2018, 8:00 AM

Content warning: This article contains graphic, violent and racist language.

Since the April 23 van attack in Toronto that left 10 people dead and 14 wounded, people have been struggling to understand the misogynistic “incel” community referred to in a Facebook post by Alek Minassian, the man charged in the deadly rampage.

“Incel” stands for “involuntarily celibate,” an online community of mostly men who blame women for their inability to get the attention, and sex, they feel entitled to.

“[Incels] have taken this moniker as almost a badge of honor for men who feel like women are not being the docile sex toys for them that they think they should be,” Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told ThinkProgress.

ThinkProgress reviewed online incel forums and found posts ranging from self-loathing to brazen, violent rhetoric against women. One post encouraged people to “post your favorite YouTube videos where a woman gets beaten by a man.” Another said having to respect women was akin to asking shell shock victims to “respect” bombs.

https://thinkprogress.org/inside-the-incel-movement-inspiring-mass-violence-against-women-99e192a61ae9/

[whathehell]

1. Well, sure, as men they are ENTITLED, aren't they?

[moriah]

6. Everyone deserves to pursue happiness. It's even a right.

But it's not a right to get it... just to try.

And if that pursuit involves stalking, fortunately we do have some laws now.

[ProudLib72]

2. Not a huge leap (or one at all) from ISIS to INCEL

Lock them up!

[Iggo]

3. The inability to get laid is a movement?

Now I've heard it all.

[smirkymonkey]

4. Fucking losers.

They should all just kill themselves. The world would be a much better place without them.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. AGREE.

[moriah]

5. Guess we do need some vocabulary help.

Guy who can't get laid and is sad = normal.
Guy who can't get laid and bases his identity and self-esteem around it vs realizing it's just sex = pre-incel
Guy who can't get laid, bases his identity around it, and develps misogyny/obsessively fantasizing about things designed to get laid w/or wo permission or get revenge on women for not fucking them = incel
Incel who takes it beyond posts on the Internet -- murderous asshole.

[oxbow]

8. Men have a harder time attracting women.

Women are usually more selective about who they hook up with than men. This can be for many reasons, including ensuring their own safety and the stigmatization of promiscuous women in our society.

I believe men fall in love much more quickly than women, too. They may not call it that, they may confuse it with lust, but I have noticed how fast crushes escalate in men, as compared to women. This makes things all that much more difficult when their affection is unrequited.

I’m not getting into the violence and misogyny of people like the van attacker; other people have done so far better than I ever could. But I do wish we taught people what to do with their emotions as a society. Anger is one of the few emotions that men are conditioned to freely express, and many go through life with little or no instruction in emotional intelligence.

There are a lot of “incels” out there and condemnation and derision is not going to solve the issues of violence, racism, etc that seem to be plaguing this group of people. There is a lot to be said for self-control and accountability, but our society is also set up to create this phenomenon in some ways.