The Rise of the ‘Incel’: Misogyny & Sexism in the Age of the Internet
The Internet: the online space where anything goes, nothing is real and we can all say & do as we please.
Or at least, maybe that’s what trolls commiting widespread hate crime over social media sites think.
Having a screen to hide behind has given way to thousands of individuals who get kicks from harassing others the opportunity to do just that, but on a far larger scale than they’d ever be able to in real life.
The anonymity that can come with an online account on a social media site is often an open door for a bucket of abuse, because ultimately, those who can’t be traced also can’t be held accountable - and that’s what a troll wants.
Often, these people turn out to be men, apparently ordinary folk just like you and I - some play in their local football team, some enjoy gaming with friends, and some have a potted plant collection.
They could be like any of us, besides the fact that their main interest is grouping together with other men who share their beliefs - mostly, that women are evil, and that there’s a conspiracy between them to oust men, and therefore, they should be attacked viciously wherever possible, usually online.
These are commonly known as being ‘incels’.
The rise of men turning to this unfortunate online barricade against women has been reported to have come out of a myriad of things; gender equality in society, female successes celebrated online and even the creation of things like women only gyms.
Women & men are constantly pitted against each other by the media, especially with issues like access to mental health treatment and response to reports of abuse.
This has created a men vs. women rhetoric in which instead of uniting together to support one another, it’s become very much a case of men OR women rather than men AND women, and off the back of that has come this small but still increasingly concerning community of men who are connected in their belief that women are wrongly given better treatment in society now and therefore should be punished in the most brutal fashion - a conspiracy if you ever heard one.
None of this is helped by social media features and functions such as likes, follows, comments & shares (eg virality) - the more attention that something raises, the more popular it becomes online and that transfers into real world media such as tv and newspapers, and all too often, this surge of recognition encourages incels more.
This community have been responsible for some really dreadful events offline as well - with Plymouth gunman Jake Davison having killed 5 people, including his own mother and a three year old girl, this year.
Reasons stem from anger that women will not ‘give them sex’, that women are ‘arrogant’ and don’t ‘treat men like human beings’ or even that he does not have access to ‘16 year old girls’ - as a 22 year old male himself, this is particularly harrowing.
The rates at which transgender women are murdered (usually by cisgender men) are especially high, due to anti-LGBTQ+/transphobic hate in society being on the rise.
This often stems from a lack of education on trans issues, opportunity for hate groups to meet, discuss and ultimately spread online and a society that fails to properly support trans people.
2020 was the worst year on record for the murder of the trans community; studies for Trans Day of Remembrance (Nov 20th each year) found that 350 were killed - an absolutely shocking 98% of those being trans women.
Several mass shootings in the US have also been linked to the rise in this toxic community.
For help & advice following reading this article, please visit womensaid where you can find support.
Next week, I’ll be tackling the approach to women in political marketing & PR; essentially, a look into what groups on different ends of the political spectrum do to include women in the discussion, if at all, and how effective this is.