Understanding incels as a group

Edwards, Mary L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1416-9758 2023. Understanding incels as a group. Edwards, Mary L. and Palermos, S. Orestis, eds. Feminist Philosophy and Emerging Technologies, Routledge, pp. 209-227.

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Abstract

“Incels,” or involuntary celibate men, have gained notoriety in recent years due to a series of mass killings committed by young men known to have been influenced by incel ideology. As incel subculture has mainly developed through anonymised online message boards, it is difficult to approach incels as a group and this impedes efforts to understand and anticipate their behaviour. This chapter has two main aims. The first is to facilitate a deeper understanding of how incel ideology has developed in and through anonymised interactions between individuals in virtual spaces. The second is to show how acts of violence perpetrated by some of these individuals can be attributed, at least in part, to the influence groups exert on their members. To meet these aims, the chapter shows that the social ontology discoverable in the later work of Jean-Paul Sartre supplies the conceptual tools necessary for approaching incels as a coherent group. Then, it develops Sartre’s theorisation of “presence” to argue that participation in the online incel community not only prevents incels from finding solutions to their problems, it exacerbates them.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781003275992
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 October 2023
Date of Acceptance:	32767
Last Modified:	22 Jan 2024 13:11
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/163539

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