Incels are men who hate women. Because women deny them what men are supposedly entitled to: sex. That’s the myth. Hence the name of the group that came together in internet forums around the turn of the millennium. Incel stands for “involuntary celibate”.
Many of them also adhere to right-wing extremist ideas. For some, hatred is so strong that they take up arms. In recent years, there have been repeated rampages by incel activists.
But are the offended men possibly not so involuntarily celibate? This is what the reactions to the exit of a well-known forum moderator from the scene, who calls himself “Komesarj”, suggest.
From incel leader to traitor?
“I have mixed feelings about leaving the incel community,” he wrote on Twitter earlier this week. It feels good not to be an incel anymore. At the same time he will miss all his friends. “I’m starting a new chapter in my life, albeit late.” The incel presenter claims to have finally found a girlfriend at 33. He is therefore no longer sexually abstinent – and can therefore no longer be an incel by definition.
Some react with understanding to awe: It’s as if LeBron James, a US basketball star, would retire, wrote a Twitter user. The incel community has lost one of its greatest hopes to Komesarj. But many former companions are outraged.
“It’s disgusting how you betray your community just because some chick got involved with you,” writes one. “No one will miss you fakecel,” another. The word “traitor” abounds in the comments, mixed with misogynistic abuse of the woman who snatched their comrade-in-arms.
Some worried: “The fewer of us who remain in the community, the weaker our movement and our voice will be.” Komesarj himself reacts with incomprehension. “Enjoy staying a virgin for some weird thing,” he replies to one of his haters. “Nobody wants to be Incel. We are not Jedi Knights.”
The incels celebrate their virginity
So much hate speech and killings on behalf of the supposedly oppressed and now it turns out: The incels don’t even want women to have sex with them – because that would rob them of their identity. They just want to hate.
If one of them gets what they’re all supposedly after, he’s a traitor. In fact, behind the term incel men seem to have found themselves who like to linger among their own kind and celebrate virginity.
This opens up completely new perspectives. The reformed men’s rights activists could rename themselves “Volcels”, “voluntary celibates”, limit their activities to group outings and regulars’ evenings and, above all, finally leave women alone. That would really help everyone.
