Competing in Misery : Incels and self-worth, community and staying on the forum

Abstract: In recent years, a group known as “Incels” has caught the public eye. The group consists ofmen who believe themselves to be in “involuntary celibacy”, without the means to ever finda sexual or romantic partner. The community is predominantly based online, organized innetworks and forums, where a worldview consisting of anti-feminism, sexual determinismand a hatred of modern society thrives. But why is the community successful, and how doesso many men end up on the forums? In this thesis, the mechanisms of the incel-forum areexamined by conducting a netnography on one of the larges incel-forums, incels.is, andevaluate the findings through a sociological lens. With this perspective, it is possible tounderstand incels as a societal phenomenon rather than something unique andindividualistic; because even though incels are unusual in their extreme rhetoric and actions,the mechanisms that influence them are not. By understanding incels within the specificcontext of love and sex in modernity, where romantic and sexual relationships have becomean important source for a sense of self-worth and romance and sexuality is in a state ofanomie, the level of misery expressed by members of the group becomes understandable.To combat this misery the power of groups becomes evident, where the expressions ofcontrol, status within the group, establishing group borders and creating a sense ofbelonging all contribute to protecting and strengthening the community. For incels, theforum becomes a place where meaning is created. In a state of anomie, incels reject societyand turn to retreatism, where the group becomes the place where they create their own setof strict rules and morals for the members of the community to follow.