The victim-perpetrator? A gendered theory of incel digital deviance

This chapter discusses the potential for application of a poststructural gendered lens within criminological theoretical frameworks to understand the digital deviance of the homosocial online community of involuntary celibates, more commonly known as incels. Utilizing investigation of incel masculinity as a starting point, which has framed the community’s identity as gendered, poststructural conceptualization of masculinity as a subjective identity project, informed by Foucauldian discourse, is used to understand the potential for these individuals to be existing simultaneously as harmed and harmful. Existing criminological victim-offender and strain theories are applied to the individual incel identity, theorizing the concurrency of a gendered victim experience that directs and informs the over-conformity of individuals to traditional male ideology and masculine discourse, producing deviant gendered action. The chapter concludes that pervasive masculine discourse lies at the root of a gendered victim-offender incel experience, identifiable through methodologies that consider the individual subjective experience behind digital collective performance.