Incel Violence and Victimhood: Negotiating Inceldom in Online Discussions of the Plymouth Shooting

ABSTRACT

Incels (“involuntary celibates”) are online communities of young men, broadly aligned by anti-feminism, concern over an inability to form sexual relationships with women, and a strong negative focus on their own appearance. Incels have been linked to violent misogyny and several mass killings. Using critical discourse analysis on data from nine different incel online forums, this article explores how incels discussed the Plymouth shooting in August 2021, often reported as an incel attack, looking at the discourses which are invoked to justify or delegitimize violence. As well as violent rhetoric, our research also pays attention to anti-violent rhetoric in incel communities, an area not yet discussed in the literature regarding incels, but which may be invaluable to those hoping to address the issue of incel violence. Our findings identify significant differences in the way the shooting is discussed across different incel forums, and reveal that both pro and anti-violence discourses frequently invoke lookism and mental health to justify victimhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Incel
• political violence
• lookism
• mental health
• victimhood

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Emilia Palonen, Leena Malkki, and Mikko Meriläinen for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. The authors would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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21. Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum”; Baele, Brace, and Coan, “From ‘Incel’ to ‘Saint.’”

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27. A. Mason, “What’s Wrong with Everyday Lookism?” Politics, Philosophy & Economics 20, no. 3 (2021): 315–35, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470594X20982051.

28. See note 6 above.

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33. See note 5 above.

34. See note 6 above.

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39. Ging, “Alphas, Betas, and Incels.”

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42. See note 6 above.

43. DeCook and Kelly, “Interrogating the ‘Incel Menace.’”

44. Blommaert, “Online-Offline Modes of Identity and Community.”

45. Regehr, “In(cel)doctrination.”

46. https://en.incelwiki.org/List_of_incel_forums.

47. The ecosystem of incel online forums is constantly in change: Forums are created, shut down, and change names and domains. Since our data was gathered in August 2021, two forums (lookism.net and lookstheory.org) have been shut down.

48. Baele, Brace, and Coan, “From ‘Incel’ to ‘Saint’”; Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum”; Brzuszkiewicz, “Incel Radical Milieu and External Locus of Control”; Speckhard et al., “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum”; K. Preston, M. Halpin, and F. Maguire, “The Black Pill: New Technology and the Male Supremacy of Involuntarily Celibate Men,” Men and Masculinities 24, no. 5 (2021): 823–41, https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X211017954; B. Pelzer, L. Kaati, and K. Cohen, “Toxic Language in Online incel Communities,” SN Social Sciences no. 1 (2021): 213, https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00220-8; O’Donnell and Shor, “This is a Political Movement, Friend.”

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50. Fairclough, Media Discourse.

51. Blommaert and Bulcaen, “Critical Discourse Analysis,” 449.

52. See Wilson, “Nostalgia, Entitlement and Victimhood.”

53. Speckhard et al., “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum.”

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55. See note 3 above.

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57. V. S. Greene, “Deplorable” Satire: Alt-Right Memes, White Genocide Tweets, and Redpilling Normies,” Studies in American Humor 5, no. 1 (2019): 31–69, https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.5.1.0031.

58. See Chang, “The Monstrous-Feminine in the Incel Imagination.”

59. See a. s. franzke, A. Bechmann, M. Zimmer, C. Ess, and the Association of Internet Researchers, “Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0,” 2020, https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf.

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61. Conway, “Online Extremism and Terrorism Research Ethics.”

62. See N. Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis: the Critical Study of Language (Harlow: Pearson Education, 1995b), 28–36.

63. See note 5 above.

64. e.g. Brzuszkiewicz, “Incel Radical Milieu and External Locus of Control.”

65. Speckhard et al., “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum”; Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum.”

66. See note 6 above.

67. See O. Lynch and C. Joyce, “Functions of Collective Victimhood: Political Violence and the Case of the Troubles in Northern Ireland,” International Review of Victimology 24, no. 2 (2018): 183–97, https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758018758396.

68. DeCook and Kelly, “Interrogating the ‘Incel Menace’”; Speckhard et al., “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum”; cf. Wilson, “Nostalgia, Entitlement and Victimhood.”

69. See Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2006).

70. See Lynch and Joyce, “Functions of Collective Victimhood.”

71. See Blommaert, Online-Offline Modes of Identity and Community.

72. See Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis, 28–36.

73. See Ibid; R. J. VandenBerg, “Legitimating Extremism: A Taxonomy of Justifications for Political Violence,” Terrorism and Political Violence 33, no. 6 (2019): 1237–55, https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2019.1606800.

74. See Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum.”

75. E. Vainikka, “Naisvihan tunneyhteisö. Anonyymisti esitettyä verkkovihaa Ylilaudan ihmissuhdekeskusteluissa,” Media & Viestintä 42, no. 1 (2019), https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.80179; T. Ylä-Anttila, V. Eranti, and S. Hardwick, “Going Overboard: How Ironic Group Style Becomes Political on an Anonymous Imageboard,” Social Media + Society (2020), https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120969912.

76. M. Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Six Suggestions for Progressing Research,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 40, no. 1 (2016): 77–98, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2016.1157408; Speckhard et al., “Involuntary Celibates’ Experiences of and Grievance over Sexual Exclusion and the Potential Threat of Violence Among Those Active in an Online Incel Forum”; Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum.”

77. Ibid.

78. See VandenBerg, “Legitimating Extremism.”

79. See S. D. Moeller, “A Hierarchy of Innocence: The Media’s Use of Children in the Telling of International News,” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 7, no. 1 (2002): 36–56, https://doi.org/10.1177/1081180X0200700104.

80. O’Donnell and Shor, “This is a Political Movement, Friend.”

81. Ibid.

82. VandenBerg, “Legitimating Extremism.”

83. See I. Fairclough and N. Fairclough, Political Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students (Oxon: Routledge, 2012).

84. R. Parry and M. Sullivan, “WARPED KILLERS Plymouth Shooting: Inside Sinister Incel Death Cult Where Sex-Starved Loner Jake Davison Shared his Warped Views,” The Sun, August 13, 2021, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15865201/plymouth-shooting-inside-death-cult/; C. Kitching, “Inside incel Death Cult of Plymouth Killer—as Movement Linked to 6 Mass Murders,” Daily Mirror, August 14, 2021, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/inside-incel-death-cult-plymouth-24759416.

85. A. Solomons, “Inside Warped incel Cult After ‘Virgin’ Jake Davison Murders 5 in Plymouth Shooting,” Daily Star, August 13, 2021, https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/inside-incel-cult-after-virgin-24757102.

86. cf. O’Donnell and Shor, “This is a Political Movement, Friend.”

87. Baele, Brace, and Coan, “From ‘Incel’ to ‘Saint.’”

88. See Jaki et al., “Online Hatred of Women in the Incels.me Forum.”

89. See note 6 above.

90. L. Sugiura, The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women. (Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021).

91. See Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism”; Chang, “The Monstrous-Feminine in the Incel Imagination.”

92. See Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism.”

93. See note 5 above.

94. O’Donne’ll and Shor, “This is a Political Movement, Friend.”

95. V. Dickel and G. Evolvi, “‘Victims of Feminism’: Exploring Networked Misogyny and #MeToo in the Manosphere,” Feminist Media Studies, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2029925.

96. Ging, “Alphas, Betas, and Incels”; S. Banet-Weiser, “‘Ruined’ Lives: Mediated White Male Victimhood,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 24, no. 1 (2021): 60–80, https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420985840.

97. H. Marcks and J. Pawelz, “From Myths of Victimhood to Fantasies of Violence: How Far-Right Narratives of Imperilment Work,” Terrorism and Political Violence (2020), https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2020.1788544; L. Jeffery and M. Candea, “The Politics of Victimhood,” History and Anthropology 17, no. 4 (2006): 287–96, https://doi.org/10.1080/02757200600914037; Lynch and Joyce, “Functions of Collective Victimhood.”

98. Wilson, “Nostalgia, Entitlement and Victimhood.”

99. See Jeffery and Candea, “The Politics of Victimhood.”

100. R. Horwitz, “Politics as Victimhood, Victimhood as Politics,” Journal of Policy History 30, no. 3 (2018): 552–574, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030618000209.

101. Moskalenko et al., “Incel Ideology, Radicalization and Mental Health”; Hintz and Baker, “A Performative Face Theory Analysis of Online Facework by the Formerly Involuntarily Celibate.”

102. Baele, Brace, and Coan, “From ‘Incel’ to ‘Saint.’”

103. Moskalenko et al., “Incel Ideology, Radicalization and Mental Health”; VandenBerg, “Legitimating Extremism”; T. Pyszczynski, M. Motyl, and A. Abdollahi, “Righteous Violence: Killing for God, Country, Freedom and Justice,” Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 1, no. 1 (2009): 12–39, https://doi.org/10.1080/19434470802482118.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Emil Aaltonen foundation [grants #200127 and #210122], and the Dublin City University [School of Communications PhD Scholarship Grant].

Notes on contributors

Emilia Lounela

Emilia Lounela is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Her doctoral dissertation examines worldviews, community, and experiences in incel online communities. In her dissertation, she studies the ideals and identities constructed and negotiated in incel online discussions. In addition to this, using interview data, she studies experiences leading to involvement in, and disengagement from, these communities. She is interested in the intersections of misogyny, masculinities, and extremism.

Shane Murphy

Shane Murphy is a PhD candidate from Dublin City University’s School of Communications whose research involves interviewing incels to better understand their offline lives. Areas of interest in his research include the manosphere, as well as various movements and online communities which have formed around far right politics, conspiracy theories, and other fringe ideological positions. He has recently begun looking at the online far-right in an Irish context, and is interested in how these communities use more discrete platforms such as Telegram and Discord. He is also interested in the methodological and ethical issues of research that engages directly with extremists, and the opportunities and limits afforded by such an approach.