Examining the Language of the Incel

One of the many distinguishing factors of an online subculture is its development of its own language of sorts, which is largely facilitated through underground online forums that allow the subculture’s members to cultivate its culture to the ignorance of mainstream society. One online subculture, the Incel (Involuntary Celibate) community, was created in 1997 with the goal of creating a safe space and a sense of community for themselves and other like-minded people to share experiences misunderstood by others in their life. Unfortunately, what began as Canadian college student Alana’s "Involuntary Celibacy Project"—a support forum for people of all races, genders, and sexualities who struggled with sexual frustration and failed romantic lives—slowly morphed into a group of mainly white misogynistic men who blame their sexual inactivity on the women whom they interpret as “shunning” them and who use their forums to vent this frustration with extreme, emotionally-charged, often violent language (Sparks et al.). In analyzing Incel language, S.I. Hayakawa’s concepts of language and communication give interesting insight into their methods of self-identification in relation to other men and women, their misattributions of their singleness, and the subliminal ways in which they spread their ideology.

To illustrate, a common term used in the Incel community is “Chad,” synonymous with its brother term “alpha male”: the archetype of the most sexually-desired man: a white, tall, muscular, conventionally attractive, confident man whom incels believe to have uninhibited access to sex with sexually-desirable women (“Stacies”) (“Incels: A Guide to Symbols and Terminology”). The symbol of the “Chad,” and the significance placed in this symbol by those who believe themselves inferior to him, is a near-textbook example of Hayakawa’s concept of the “blocked mind,” or the phenomenon that occurs when a person constructs his worldview around the generalized, stereotypical symbols with which we classify those around us and, as a result, inform their thoughts and actions solely with their inaccurate and offensive classifications, refusing to broaden them based on any new information. Similar to Hayakawa’s example about Protestants and Catholics, Incels will continue to hate “Chads” and “Stacies,” no matter which “Chad” or “Stacy,” no matter how arbitrary and distorted their symbols (Hayakawa 108-109)—thus, the Incel’s shame, anger, and depression continues to fester until he expresses his feelings with a burst of uncontrollable violence.

Further, these symbols of classification are just a few aspects of the “manosphere,” the world of delusion and unchecked abstraction created by Incels to relieve themselves of personal blame for their unhappiness—included in this is the theory of “Lookism,” which Incels use to measure their own and others’ societal value, or “Sexual Market Value,” because they believe society’s hierarchy is based purely on outward aesthetics; as well, the idea of “Hypergamy,” that women are predetermined to “marry up,” or mate with someone who is more attractive—who has more “Sexual Market Value”—than themselves, leaving the rest of the less-attractive men womanless (Doras). These beliefs, among many others still more problematic, show that these men suffer from a lack of Hayakawa’s “consciousness of abstracting,” from confusing two vastly different levels of abstraction without the self-awareness to understand their distinction. Like Hayakawa’s example of the tripping chair, the Incel blames and punishes the world around him for treating him poorly, when it is most often the result of his own self-hate and shame that he feels so isolated (Hayakawa 97-102). Obviously, this “manosphere” is not based in any extensional reality, but rather the intensional meaning delusionally interpreted from the behavior of men and women around the Incel—that which, if truly in disgust or superiority towards him, is usually a result of his prejudiced and disrespectful behavior towards them rather than his lack of “Sexual Market Value.”

Finally, a significant effect of the Incel dialect is the sense of community and culture—that they cannot find in real life—which, in turn, allows the subculture to attract and indoctrinate new members to “swallow the redpill,” or to come to the realization that women are the oppressors of men and desire traditional gender roles. It is through the polarized, black-and-white, “two-valued orientation” of Incel discourse that they create the view of the “us” against the “them.” The term “femoid,” from “female” and “humanoid,” is a common term used by Incels to dehumanize women and further turn each other against women. The inevitability of the situation of an Incel is realized when he “swallows the blackpill,” accepting that he will never gain access to sexual experience due to women’s prejudices against him (“Incels: A Guide to Symbols and Terminology”). Phrases like these, while leading to depression and destructive behaviors, create the unconditional community that the Incel craves, using Hayakawa’s “two-valued orientation,” through which they divide the world into two opposite sides and, like war generals and politicians, build and strengthen their own community by isolating Incels from and against the rest of the “Chads” and “Stacies” (Hayakawa 113-115).

To conclude, though Incels make up a relatively new subculture, they use linguistic and communicative techniques that have existed since the development of language itself. Hayakawa’s concepts reveal the slightly excusable confusion of abstraction as a significant root of the Incel’s delusions and depressions, along with the inexcusable two-valued orientation as the means by which Incels keep themselves miserable and drag others down to their level of dejection. The Incel dialect demonstrates the immense power of language—as Hayakawa urges—to enact very real, damaging thoughts and the actions that ensue, despite being a mere string of symbols and noises (or letters on a screen). In an attempt to curb the spread of Incel discourse, and in response to recent mass killings by self-proclaimed Incels and the celebration of those murderers, Reddit, a popular website hosting over 138,000 online forums, has banned the Incel subreddit forum, which was previously one of the leading Incel forums (Hauser). Though they have relocated, this ban was an important step in inhibiting the destructive power of Incel language.

Works Cited

Doras, Nathan Aurnel. “Putting the 'Cult' in 'Subculture': Investigating Group Identity Formation Among Incels.” Dalspace, April 2022, https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/81700/Nathan%20Doras%20Sociology%20honours%20thesis%20.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed 25 April 2024.

Hauser, Christine. “Reddit Bans 'Incel' Group for Inciting Violence Against Women (Published 2017).” The New York Times, 9 November 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/technology/incels-reddit-banned.html. Accessed 25 April 2024.

Hayakawa, Samuel Ichiyé, and Alan R. Hayakawa. Language in thought and action. Edited by Alan R. Hayakawa, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.

“Incels: A Guide to Symbols and Terminology.” Moonshot, 26 May 2020, https://149736141.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Incels_-A-Guide-to-Symbols-and-Terminology_Moonshot-CVE.pdf. Accessed 25 April 2024.

Sparks, Brandon, et al. “Involuntary Celibacy: A Review of Incel Ideology and Experiences with Dating, Rejection, and Associated Mental Health and Emotional Sequelae.” National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 17 November 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9780135/. Accessed 25 April 2024.