essay analyzing incels

bottleblank · 2022-09-19T02:14:54+00:00

Specifically, the Incel identity and community is founded upon a shared hatred towards women and society

Would take issue with this as an inaccurate stereotype. There are some who display this attitude, but I don't think it's reasonable - within the very first page, even - to start shaping the reader's takeaway from reading the article by suggesting that these people are innately hateful. It simply reinforces the idea that they're evil criminals bent on being enemies of women, which I don't think is accurate.

The number of violence instances attributed (not necessarily accurately) to incels is single digit, in a "community" of thousands, in a subset of men in society who experience this social and romantic isolation likely measured in millions. That is not indicative of a violence problem, yet the whole first page is dedicated to speaking about how several tragic attacks represent the incel problem.

I also take issue with the idea that Rodger has become a "martyr", I don't think many incels legitimately hold this viewpoint and, amongst those who claim to, there is a substantial element of shock value and gallows humour, a meme culture based on being edgy, playing with the notion of unfairness and grief, and living up to the accusations levelled at them as a callous group of hate-fuelled aggressors.

Furthermore, the Incels formed within an online context characterized by anti-women and anti-feminist narratives referred to collectively as the manosphere (Ging, 2019).

Again we see a display of bias, an apparent preconceived image of who and what "incels" (and now "the manosphere" as a whole) are. This reads like many other mainstream narratives which demonise those who end up feeling the need to stand up for themselves, or seek solace in male environments with others like them.

Incels have been identified in connection with the rising threat of misogynistic violence (Center, 2021).

Yet again...

Look, nobody wants to be an incel, nobody wants to feel trapped and frustrated and deprived, nobody wants to feel like an enemy to society without good reason to display such attitudes. Incels simply want - need - socialisation, companionship, and intimacy. This is not some group of extremist woman-haters who decided out of nowhere, based on their own sexism and misogyny, to rally against women. They want to love and to be loved, they want to be social with women.

This is not some kind of violent extremist group, formed in a vacuum by those who naturally hold hateful opinions of women. This is a social problem which has external causes and reinforcement of the negative direction some men find themselves in. These men are human beings, with normal, healthy desires, trapped in social circumstances which deprive them of those things. This is what we need to be focussing on, not this almost completely untrue notion that they are a self-driven hate group who have only their own selfish motivations. We need to explore their humanity, their needs, desires, and thoughts, we need to understand the social pathways which drove them to be in this position. It is a human problem, based on human psychology, it is not simply a nebulous blight on humanity which can be dealt with in a mechanical fashion.

Social media and online forums have enabled the creation of these sorts of ideology-focused groups which can inspire a sense of community separate from that of real-world interactions and can spur the creation of extreme subcultures which lead individuals to justify violent or antisocial behavior (Holt, 2007).

Yes, well, I'm sure we can think of plenty more of those which are comprised of other types of people, but they don't get branded a social ill, they get praised as progressive groups standing up for the rights they were supposedly deprived of. Even if that's not the true nature of those groups. Attributing to social media the supposed extremism of incels, without pointing out the wider context, causes it to appear to be facilitating only this "hate group". Yes, it's a paper on incels, but in this context it simply reinforces - again - the notion that this group is somehow unique in its exploitation of social media to foster hate.

In order to address Incel groups and communities like them, it is becoming increasingly apparent that more information is needed

Really? Have you tried listening to, for example, the Incel podcast by Naama Kates, which interviews incels and incel-adjacent men (and sometimes women) in a fair and non-judgemental manner, allowing them to expose their feelings and their experiences in a relatively safe space? They're often sensible, reasonable, level-headed men who are simply frustrated and disappointed at their lack of social inclusion. They can and do express the life experiences which caused them to become who they are, discussing issues of degrading mental health, of social exclusion, of bad home lives, of wanting to be social but having been unable to due to circumstances they were unable to control. There are stories of suicide, of substance additions, of self-abusive behaviours, of having developmental disorders, of being socially excluded and treated like dirt. This is a serious problem, but not because they're hateful. It's because society does not care for those who are unable to develop social skills quickly and successfully, it does not offer help when that happens, it actively excludes and abuses those who struggle.

AndyBrown65 · 2022-11-20T07:53:06+00:00

Hi supervisor was female and the opening paragraph is all about Intel shooters, so I think the bias was going to show up early

Title	essay analyzing incels
Author	gamerlololdude
Upvotes	1
Comments	39
Date	September 18, 2022 10:11 PM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/xhtoj5/essay_analyzing_incels/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/essay-analyzing-incels.1132545 https://theredarchive.com/post/1132545

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