How to make an incel

: mapping the gendered journey to antifeminism and misogyny

Abstract

The involuntary celibate or ‘incel’ phenomenon has received significant academic attention in the last six years, spanning security and terrorism, critical gender, and psychological research. As this community is associated with increasing levels of violence, antifeminism, and misogyny, it is imperative the pathway into this identity is understood. To date this area has received limited academic attention, with most research focusing on the extant actors and their actions through spatiotemporally static analysis of individual forums or distanced surveys within dialectical lenses of social structure or individual experience.

This research remedies these issues, employing an immersive ethnography conducted across 10 digital platforms combined with reflexive thematic analysis of nine semi structured interviews with current and former incels to both map the incel technoscape and determine the causal mechanisms responsible for an incel identity. This collective analysis of the incel digital ecosystem conceptualised an Incel Network, a three-tiered assortment of websites, platforms, and forums in which incel ideology is progressively disseminated. Applying Raewyn Connell’s theory of gender, Joseph Pleck’s traditional masculine ideology, and Magaret Archer’s theory of reflexivity, the impacts and influences of a gendered social structure upon ‘failed’ men, their resulting lived experiences, and conscious deliberative responses involving engagement with the Incel Network reveal the process through which men become incels.

As the first to both conceptualise incel digital space in unison and relativity and also theorise the journey into an incel identity through the abridgment of structure, experience, and agency, these findings offer a significant original contribution to an emerging field. Understanding the structural causes and individual responses to the events and experiences that lead to an incel identity permits the generation of tailored digital, education and therapeutic strategies to deter young and adolescent men from performing the identity and associated violence and misogyny.

Date of Award	Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Southampton
Supervisor	Charlie Walker (Supervisor), Lisa Sugiura (Supervisor) & Mark Weal (Supervisor)