Weekend Read: For incels, it's not about sex. It's about women.
Most of the victims in Alek Minassian's van rampage in Toronto were women. There鈥檚 reason to believe that was his goal.
Before on a crowded sidewalk in April, Minassian posted on Facebook that he was a 鈥減rivate (recruit)鈥� in what he called the 鈥淚ncel Rebellion.鈥�
鈥淎ll hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!鈥� wrote Minassian, referring to the mass 聽murderer who killed six people in 2014 to 鈥減unish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex.鈥�
Minassian is part of a聽growing subculture of men calling themselves 鈥渋ncels鈥� 鈥� or involuntary celibates. To them, the murderer Rodger is a patron saint. Now, since the Toronto mass killing, they have a new one. Users of the website 鈥渋ncels.me鈥� have begun , paying twisted homage to the killer they say 鈥渃ould be our next new saint.鈥�
That either man should be canonized for his deadly misogyny is both horrifying and utterly predictable.
Male supremacy 鈥� an extremist ideology we added as a category of hate groups this year 鈥� has spawned a network of online communities that advocate violence against women. On these sites, women are called 鈥渇oids,鈥� or 鈥渇emoids,鈥� a term combining 鈥渇emale鈥� and 鈥渉umanoid鈥� to suggest that women are not fully human.
Collectively known as the 鈥�manosphere,鈥� the websites include so-called 鈥渕en鈥檚 rights鈥� forums and how-to communities hosted by 鈥減ickup artists鈥� who advocate rape.
Underpinning it all: the idea that women owe men sex; that women exist purely for their reproductive and sexual capabilities; that men should dominate women.
The extreme hatred among incels has too often been dismissed as mere sexism. Just 10 days after Minassian鈥檚 van rampage, New York Times recapped arguments that sex is a resource like 鈥減roperty and money,鈥� one that the sexual revolution intended to be 鈥渕ore justly distributed than it is today.鈥� He writes:
鈥淭he sexual revolution created new winners and losers, new hierarchies to replace the old ones, privileging the beautiful and rich and socially adept in new ways and relegating others to new forms of loneliness and frustration.鈥�
Douthat 鈥斅爈ike many 鈥斅爐akes incels at their word that their animus is driven by their inability to find a sexual partner. That鈥檚 a mistake.
As our , told ThinkProgress, incels 鈥渉ave taken this moniker as almost a badge of honor for men who feel like women are not being the docile sex toys for them that they think they should be.鈥�
In other words, for incels, it鈥檚 not just about sex. It鈥檚 about the women supposedly withholding it.
We define hate groups as organizations that attack or malign an entire class of people for their immutable characteristics. Incels like Rodger and Minassian target women in violent attacks because of what they see as the most immutable female characteristic of all: women鈥檚 sexuality.
鈥淚 hate women. Truly, they are the scum of the earth. Yet I am still biologically predisposed to want them,鈥� a user named Madrame this week on incels.me.聽
鈥淚 hold too much contempt to feel attraction to them. I want to riddle them each with 250 with [sic] tec-9 rounds,鈥� user _incelinside.
The hatred these men feel stems 鈥� crucially 鈥� not from their belief that they鈥檙e entitled to sex, but from their belief that women are required to give it to them. When women don鈥檛, incels weaponize their hate.
It cannot be women鈥檚 job to pacify men who hate them because of their gender 鈥� just like it cannot be the job of people of color to disarm white supremacists.
We began tracking male supremacy in 2012. In the wake of the 2016 election, we saw how essential male supremacist ideas were to the rise of the so-called 鈥渁lt-right鈥� and formally added male supremacist groups to our hate map the following year.
Now more than ever, it鈥檚 clear that we ignore male supremacy at our peril.
The Editors
P.S. Here are a few other pieces we think are valuable this week:
- by Janet Reitman for Rolling Stone
- By Brittany Packnett for The Cut
- by Michael Grabell for The New Yorker
- by Alex Amend for 人兽性交
人兽性交鈥檚 Weekend Read聽is聽a weekly summary of the most important news reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequality, and hate and extremism.聽Sign up to receive the Weekend Read聽every Saturday morning.
