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Swallowing the Black Pill: a Qualitative Exploration of Incel Antifeminism Within Digital Society

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Swallowing the Black Pill: a Qualitative Exploration of Incel Antifeminism Within Digital Society Swallowing the Black Pill: A Qualitative Exploration of Incel Antifeminism within Digital Society By Angus Charles Lindsay Supervisor: Professor Jan Jordan Co-Supervisor: Dr Carol Harrington A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Criminology Social and Cultural Studies Victoria University of Wellington 2020 Acknowledgements To those who said I could do it, but even more so to those who said I could not. I’d like to acknowledge those individuals whose comments were analysed in the production of this thesis. In this study of your subculture, I can almost guarantee you will not like some of what you will read. However, I did my best to carve out a critical understanding of your world and the pain you experience. This thesis was inspired by the adage “Hurt people, hurt people.” I do not think that you are individually bad, evil or morally contempt. I wish you all find peace and love in your journey. I would like to acknowledge the victims of violence. In particular, those who have passed at the hands of cultures which encourage militant misogyny, of which this thesis is primarily concerned. I would also like to acknowledge their families, friends and communities who continue to deal with the blight of male-violence every day. I wish to acknowledge my supervisors (including my unofficial supervisors) who I have leaned on greatly to create a thesis (hopefully) worth reading. I also want to acknowledge the many informal meetings, elevator discussions and impromptu coffees with the lecturers and post- grads in the School of Social and Cultural Studies – your comments, feedback and support have been greatly appreciated in conducting this interdisciplinary work. I particularly want to thank the School of Criminology and the admin staff on level 9; you have backed me entirely throughout my university career and every one of you has pushed me in different ways. You have helped to shape and inform my critical view of the world and I will be forever grateful for that. My proofreaders: sorry, just sorry. To my family. When I completed my undergraduate degree, I was the first in my immediate family to go to university. Without you, this would not have been possible. I hope that I have made you proud. To my partner, thank you for putting up with my grumpiness, my impecuniousness and my constant need for validation while researching this dark topic. Thank you for your rationality and calculatedness, they have certainly helped me throughout the last few years at university. Finally, I am grateful to the Victoria University of Wellington’s Master’s by Thesis scholarship which provided me with financial support for the duration of this thesis. Abstract This thesis explores the online ‘manosphere’ subculture of Involuntary Celibates (Incels). Incels have been widely discussed in contemporary media in recent years and have been cited as harmful after several mass-murders and attacks have taken place offline. Previous academic research has largely focused on individual-level explanations for Incel mass-murderers, with few studies seeking to uncover the structural determinants of the rise of Incels. This thesis attempts to fill this gap, exploring the subculture’s negotiation with the changing features of contemporary society. The study utilised internet-based qualitative research methods over a period of three-months to collect data on two Incel forums: r/Braincels and Incels.co. The data was then interpreted through thematic analysis within a constructivist grounded theory approach. The research found that Incels negotiate their anxieties of a rapidly changing globalised world with a sense of victimisation and ‘aggrieved entitlement’ through a worldview that understands society as set up to economically, socially, and sexually favour women. It was also found that through such a sense of entitlement, Incels conceive of a hetero-patriarchal racial caste-system that relies on uncritical readings of selected biological and evolutionary psychological studies. This worldview is known as the ‘Black Pill’ and is employed to ideologically condition Incels against out-groups. Through a shared mythology of victimisation, the Incel ideology of the Black Pill functions to produce a form of ‘stochastic terrorism’ in which individual users interpret the spectrum of beliefs from enacting online gender-based hate-speech to mass violence in the terrestrial world. This thesis presents understandings that could inform future educational programs in critical literacy skills that aim to dismantle the conceptual apparatus that feeds the ideologically charged hatred of groups like Incels. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Context: ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Thesis Overview: ................................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 7 Cybercrime and Online Violence: ....................................................................................................... 7 Men’s Rights Activism and the ‘Manosphere’ .................................................................................. 10 Incels: hegemony and ‘beta-masculinity’ ......................................................................................... 18 Summary / Academic contribution: .................................................................................................. 21 Chapter 3: Methodology and Methods ................................................................................................ 22 Methodological Framework .............................................................................................................. 22 Researching Online Misogyny ........................................................................................................... 22 Epistemological Underpinnings ........................................................................................................ 23 Methodological Approach ................................................................................................................ 26 Research Methods ............................................................................................................................ 27 Research Design ............................................................................................................................ 27 Data Collection .............................................................................................................................. 28 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 30 Limitations..................................................................................................................................... 31 Ethical Considerations and Research Challenges.............................................................................. 32 Chapter 4 – Masculinity and Incels ....................................................................................................... 38 Ideals of Hegemonic Masculinity: Painting the picture of ‘Chad Thundercock’ ............................... 38 Revealing the Incel (beta) Masculinity: ............................................................................................. 43 Economic Anxiety and the ‘beta’ masculine style ............................................................................ 51 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 5 – ‘Postfeminism’ and Incel backlash .................................................................................... 56 Postfeminism as antifeminism? ........................................................................................................ 56 Incels: Postfeminism or backlash? .................................................................................................... 60 Summary: Why blame (post)feminism? ........................................................................................... 71 Chapter 6 – ‘The Black Pill’ .................................................................................................................... 73 Unpacking the Black Pill .................................................................................................................... 74 ‘Radical Dualisms’ ............................................................................................................................. 80 Normalisation of ideologically structured hatred against women ................................................... 83 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 90 Chapter 7 – Discussion/Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 91 Conclusion: .......................................................................................................................................
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