The Metro: How the mainstreaming of misogyny created the blueprint for modern day incel culture

 You’ve heard about it. You probably think you understand what’s going on with “Incel” culture. Maybe you picture men with extreme ideologies about women. Maybe you picture violence. And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

Most people don’t know the word “incel” didn’t start that way. It began in 1997, in a small online forum, built by a young woman who was tired of feeling like she was the only one struggling with loneliness and looking to find love and connection. 

She called it Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project. It was open to anyone. Alana stepped away around 2000. When she did, the word “incel”  was taken from her. It was turned into a space for misogynistic incel to connect over shared ideologies and victimhood. 

However, the forums didn’t create the problem overnight. The loneliness was already there. The entitlement was already there. The misogyny that fueled all of this was already in the culture. What social media did was find all of that and give it a megaphone, a community, and an algorithm.

Neither the internet or social media created the problem. It just gave it an audience. So how does a term born out of compassion become a banner for some of the most dangerous ideologies circulating online today? When did loneliness curdle into something this destructive? 

Dr. Julia DeCook is a researcher and former professor of advocacy and social change at Loyola University Chicago, and one of the leading academic voices on misogynist incel communities and male supremacism. 

She joined The Metro to explain the mainstreaming of misogyny contributed to the current culture.

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