Scroll through social media long enough and you’ll eventually see the word “incels.”
At first glance, it can read like regular internet slang being tossed around by bored netizens. But it’s far from that.
Incels — short for involuntary celibates — are mostly heterosexual men who say they’ve been unable to form romantic or physical relationships with women despite desiring one.
These people often gather online to blame, objectify, and insult women and girls and spiral into long rants about how they’ve been dealt a bad genetic hand.
It’s easy to frame incels as simply men who can’t get dates, but the ideology goes much deeper.
On the subreddit r/IncelTear, users collect and share screenshots of such posts to highlight just how extreme and bitter they can get.
Buckle up and hang on tight, because some of these posts get real dark, real quick.
Bored Panda also spoke to American sociologist Michael Kimmel to understand what goes on in incel communities and how to deal with them.
It’s easy to frame incels as simply men who can’t get dates.
But this culture reflects how we still define masculinity — by power, conquest, status and comparison.
It basically casts women as gatekeepers of male worth.
Their language may sound like meme culture, but the harm that comes with it is very, very real.
