Subcultural Hierarchy and Policing amongst Incels in Online Forums

Abstract

While investigations into incels online have increased, most have focused on their potential for violence, their misogyny, extremist ideologies, and their mental health. Very little has been devoted to examining the nuances of that subcultural group. The research in this paper examines the hierarchy that has been established within the incel subculture, online, and how that hierarchy is policed using various mechanisms such as reporting “fakecels” to the moderators to have them banned and insults. Findings show that there are clear hierarchical delineations of incels in general, with “blackpill” incels being the most extreme in their worldview and their use of science (albeit cherry-picked) to justify the incel ideology. The researchers also found that there is a hierarchy specific to the online forum from which data were gathered. The paper concludes that understanding incel subculture is salient in addressing the potential threats of violence and treating those individuals who no longer want to identify as incels. Future directions of research would be to examine why boys and men identify as incels.

Keywords

• incels
• culture
• qualitative sociology
• online research