ArticlePublisher preview available
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

Although male incels have received a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years, there has been almost no research on femcels (involuntarily celibate women). After collecting data from more than 24,000 femcel posts, we drew from a recently developed sexual frustration theory and conducted qualitative analyses of approximately 1200. Overall, our findings suggest that (1) femcels struggled with multiple types of sexual frustration; (2) they frequently discussed the gender dynamics of both sex and power; (3) they were more interested in their own frustrations than men's frustrations; and (4) despite some notable exceptions, they exhibited less support for aggression, violence, and crime than what has been reported about male incels. Although some femcels referenced their anger, hatred, or desires for revenge, this antipathy may have been rooted in their concerns about how to find a suitable intimate partner while avoiding the threat women often face from violent men. Despite this challenge, most femcels who wanted to enhance their situation or increase their power sought to do so through legal means (e.g., self-improvement, group mobilization, or challenging the patriarchy) and did not express violent intent. Further research on femcels, and the evidence-based strategies that could help them, would be a significant contribution to society.
Vol.:(0123456789)
1 3
Archives of Sexual Behavior (2024) 53:917–930
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-023-02796-z
ORIGINAL PAPER
Femcel Discussions ofSex, Frustration, Power, andRevenge
HannahRaeEvans1· AdamLankford1
Received: 1 August 2023 / Revised: 15 December 2023 / Accepted: 19 December 2023 / Published online: 19 January 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024
Abstract
Although male incels have received a great deal of scholarly attention in recent years, there has been almost no research on
femcels (involuntarily celibate women). After collecting data from more than 24,000 femcel posts, we drew from a recently
developed sexual frustration theory and conducted qualitative analyses of approximately 1200. Overall, our findings suggest
that (1) femcels struggled with multiple types of sexual frustration; (2) they frequently discussed the gender dynamics of both
sex and power; (3) they were more interested in their own frustrations than men’s frustrations; and (4) despite some notable
exceptions, they exhibited less support for aggression, violence, and crime than what has been reported about male incels.
Although some femcels referenced their anger, hatred, or desires for revenge, this antipathy may have been rooted in their
concerns about how to find a suitable intimate partner while avoiding the threat women often face from violent men. Despite
this challenge, most femcels who wanted to enhance their situation or increase their power sought to do so through legal
means (e.g., self-improvement, group mobilization, or challenging the patriarchy) and did not express violent intent. Further
research on femcels, and the evidence-based strategies that could help them, would be a significant contribution to society.
Keywords Femcels· Incels· Involuntary celibacy· Sexual frustration theory· Power· Revenge
Introduction
In 2014, six civilians were murdered near a college campus
in California (Brown, 2015). In 2018, 11 pedestrians were
killed after being intentionally run over in Toronto, Canada
(CBC, 2018). These two horrific incidents, along with other
violent attacks in the USA and elsewhere, have been commit-
ted by involuntarily celibate men—also known as “incels”
(Cottee, 2021).1 More broadly, some researchers suggest that
male incels contribute to a misogynistic culture in which vio-
lence against women and mass killings become more likely
(Cottee, 2021; Hoffman etal., 2020; O’Malley etal., 2022;
Scaptura & Boyle, 2020; Speckhard etal., 2021). Although
most incels do not personally commit violent attacks, many
are angry and tend to blame women for their inability to find
romantic relationships or have sex (Cottee, 2021; Hoffman
etal., 2020).
But what about women who are involuntarily celibate?
A common assumption is that women can have sex when-
ever they want, which then leads to the false belief that if
women are not in a relationship, it is always because they
prefer to be single (Kay, 2022). However, some women are
extremely frustrated and upset that they have not found a suit-
able intimate partner, or wish they had more opportunities
to have sex when they want, how they want, with someone
they want (Donnelly etal., 2001; Kay, 2022; Wu, 2022). Not
surprisingly, given modern communication norms, frustrated
women have created online communities, such as “The Pink
Pill” website. Although “femcels” who participate in these
forums are far less common than the estimated 100,000 male
incels who congregate in online communities (ADL, 2020),
ThePinkPill.co had more than 600 registered members who
collectively wrote tens of thousands of internet discussion
posts from May 2021 to May 2022.2
Remarkably, there has been almost no research on femcel
communities or what the women who join them have to say.
* Adam Lankford
Adam.Lankford@ua.edu
1 Department ofCriminology andCriminal Justice, The
University ofAlabama, P.O. Box870320, Tuscaloosa,
AL35487, USA
1 Although the 2014 Isla Vista shooter is often associated with incel
violence, he was not a regular participant in online incel communities
like some other incel attackers.
2 At the moment we write this, ThePinkPill.co website is not avail-
able for user posts and has the following message on its home page:
“ThePinkPill.co will be right back.”
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Sexual frustration is a common, natural feeling and it can affect anyone. Sexual frustration is a natural response that many people experience at one time or another, but, not rarely, it may cause a state of irritation, agitation, or stress or degenerate in aggressiveness and violence [147][148][149][150][151][152]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Retrogenesis is the process by which the degenerative and vascular mechanisms of dementia reverse the order of acquisition in the normal development. Objective. The development of memory/knowledge after birth may help to know the biopsychosocial and functional characteristics (biosphere) of the retrogenesis. Methods. A literature review was performed in the PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus databases using 43 keywords related to retrogenesis: 234 eligible records were selected. Results. The infantile amnesia, characterized from anoesis, was described along the infant/child’s biosphere in which the limbic system progressively develops the acquisition of the body knowledge (Anoetic Body Consciousness, AnBC). Anoesis is the infant memory state characterized by the absence of long-term memories of the many stressful/painful experiences that accompany the acquisition under the long-life voluntary control of the long-term memories fundamental for the body growth and survival (mainly chewing/swallowing and walking). At the age of 3–4 years, usually, the AnBC evolves, as a continuum, into the adulthood autonoesis with the emergence, in the child/adolescent, of the consciousness of “self” trough the development of the Episodic Autobiographic Memory (EAM) and the Autonoetic Mind Consciousness (AuMC). The development of cognition and knowledge is due to the progressive maturation of the whole limbic system and not only of the hippocampus. In the biopsychosocial retrogenesis, the EAM/AuMC vanishes progressively along the mild, moderate, and severe stages of dementia when the infant AnBC resurfaces, losing progressively the basic activities of daily living in a retrogenetic order of acquisition where the last functions to disappear are chewing/swallowing. Conclusion. The transition from the adult EAM-AuMC to the infant AnBC, as a continuum in the individual biosphere, adds a contribution to the assessment of the retrogenesis in dementia from a multidimensional person-centered model.
... The femcel identity is vehemently rejected by male incels, who jealously police the boundaries of who can be legitimately involuntarily celibate along gender lines. While incels express and project their anger outwards towards women, feminists, 'alpha' men and 'Chads', 4 femcels tend to display an inward sense of melancholia, anguish, pessimism and anger that is focussed on the self (Evans and Lankford, 2024;Kay, 2021). ...
Article
Full-text available
This article analyses the shifting media visibilities of femcels: women who self-identify as being involuntary celibate. It first considers the ‘original’ femcel community which emerged on Reddit in 2018, and which was based on often-despairing, even nihilistic, text-based discussion. It then considers the more recent shift to ‘femcelcore’: a social media aesthetic or ‘vibe’, communicated through short, apparently ironic videos on TikTok. We contextualise ‘original’ femceldom within the ‘femosphere’, a complex ecology of female-centric online communities that mirrors the deeply fatalistic, gender-essentialist, ‘red-pilled’ logics of the manosphere, and we situate ‘femcelcore’ within recent histories and aesthetics of ‘sad girl’ culture. Despite their differences, both iterations of mediated femceldom ostensibly reject patriarchal notions of feminine ‘perfection’; they seem to offer a critique of neoliberal feminism, and to comprise a potentially feminist online community, and as such, we consider whether this phenomenon may signal a radical break with the hegemonic postfeminism of recent decades. However, we argue that both iterations of femceldom ultimately provide a weak and highly problematic basis for collective feminism. Drawing on Robyn Marasco’s concept of ‘womanly nihilism’ we argue that, rather than pursuing a feminism of solidarity and collective strength, these mediated femceldoms are rooted in logics of pain and fatalism; they mobilise strategies of self-numbing, dissociation and irony, coupled with the rejection of social hope. They signify not a collective feminist movement, but a fatalistic, dissociative, ‘anti-hope’ retreat from transformative politics, and a turn to the individualising dynamics of TikTok ‘vibes’. Building on Asa Seresin’s notion of ‘heteropessimism’, we introduce the concept of ‘heteronihilism’ to make sense of the widespread mood of ‘giving up’ that is increasingly entwined with, and expressed through, the radicalisation of negative heterosexual experience. We therefore introduce a new theoretical lens for analysing the politics of gender, sexuality and popular media, in a context of a growing and complex backlash against ‘liberal feminism’.
... Mirroring the challenges faced by their male counterparts, femcels often contend with unique social labelings and challenges. Femcel rhetoric emphasises the struggle to find suitable partners amidst fears of violence from men, highlighting a broader critique of gender relations and societal expectations (Evans and Lankford, 2024). Contrary to incels and femcels, there are voluntary celibates (volcels) who consciously abstain from sexual activities for personal or ideological reasons, challenging normative sexual expectations. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Incel is a popular term which is an abbreviated version of “involuntarily celibate” (Bono, 2023), Originating in the late 1990s, the term incel has come to represent self-identified individual (predominantly men), most of whom hold (mainly feminist) women responsible for their failure to have romantic relationships and express highly adversarial (misogynistic) views against women and gender equality. Incel is sometimes defined as a reactionary, exclusionary and separatist rhetoric of gender relations (O’Malley, Holt and Holt, 2022). Disciplines of criminology, psychiatry, sociology and psychology have commonly studied incels as a pathological and deviant identity, as some mass murderers, aggressive and violent individuals self-identified as incels. In this paper, we examine incel narratives and the consequences of having incel views and rhetoric in workplaces (Williams & Arntfield, 2020). In particular, we explore the implications of incel rhetorics concerning diversity and inclusion works in organisational settings. Some scholars argue that incel rhetoric presents a backlash against gender equality and broader diversity and inclusion discourses (Scaptura and Boyle, 2020; Lopes, 2023). We explore the mechanisms through which incel rhetoric interacts with diversity and inclusion efforts at work. We also present recommendations for tackling incel rhetoric, mechanisms, and discourses at work to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
... Numerous literary pieces center around their stories regarding the lives of women, delving into their struggles and experiences. In these narratives, female leading roles frequently confront a variety of challenges, such as physical antipathy, sexual harassment, discrimination, and financial hardships (Evans & Lankford, 2024) (Håkansson, 2024), These portrayals frequently mirror the more extensive obstacles that women encounter in society and emphasize the intricate relationship between personal initiative and systemic limitations. ...
Article
Full-text available
Modern women frequently encounter challenges in their perspectives on life's struggle, such as focusing on social expectations of women, experiencing a lack of spiritual support in relationships, and facing a disconnection between education, job, and marriage, which hinders their pursuit of an ideal partnership. This research examines the life of education, marriage experiences, ideas, and inspirations of Jo March in the movie "Little Women" to face the challenges of women in their views on life. The data was collected from two sources the movie Little Women (2019) and other sources of literature. The result revealed that the feminist thought of life struggle found in several aspects, such as the struggle for freedom, the struggle for education, and the Struggle for happiness. These struggles were fueled by the unfair treatment of women, who were subjected to a patriarchal society that taught them they were less important than men and should adhere to men's decisions. The societal expectation that women's happiness was contingent upon male support further limited their pursuit of independence. In this era, the concept of freedom seemed distant and unattainable for women, highlighting the pervasive and systemic barriers they faced.
... Although women have a power advantage in short-term markets that gives them abundant access to male sexuality, the complexity of female mate preferences makes this access, for some women, only a theoretical advantage. Incel women exist (Evans & Lankford, 2024), but this article does not investigate these. Romare has been uncomfortable referring to herself as a female incel, which she has done due to a lack of more descriptive terms (Stokstad, 2021). ...
Article
Full-text available
Modern mating markets relegate a growing number of men to being incels (involuntary celibate). Increasing attention befalls another group struggling in the same markets: female insings (involuntary single). In the partly autobiographical novel, Half of Malmö Consists of Guys Who Dumped Me (2021), Amanda Romare dramatizes how urban dating and technologies like Tinder exploit women’s evolved mate preferences in a manner that drives addiction and dysfunction. Many women have practically unlimited access to serial dating and short-term sex with highly attractive men, but such experiences can leave women less able to calibrate their mating strategies, thus making it harder to acquire a long-term partner. Romare argues that incels get too much attention, as our culture blinds us to the plight of lonely women. To investigate the insing phenomenon, we apply sexual strategies theory, sexual conflict theory, and other frameworks from evolutionary psychology. Mismatch, conflicting desires, and exploitative technologies make many women prioritize mate qualities that misalign with their pair-bonding ambitions. Juxtaposing Romare’s novel with the TV series Sigurd Can’t Get Laid (2020–2022) aids us in comparing insings to incels. Our analysis illustrates how both groups fall victim to our evolved mate preferences. Communities that develop a better understanding of these preferences could improve intersexual communication, which might help them find more productive ways to mate.
Article
Full-text available
This study explores experiences of ex-incels-men who have withdrawn from incel communities-through eleven qualitative interviews analysed using R.W. Connell's hegemonic masculinity (HM) framework. Findings reveal some ex-incels adopt flexible masculinities, while others struggle with prescriptive norms perpetuated by the anti-feminist 'manosphere'. Findings spotlight identity reconstructions, where men both reject and remain influenced by rigid archetypes, performing hybrid masculinities. This study deepens understanding of incel ideology, its impact on identity, and interplay between inceldom and masculinities via contributing to hybrid masculinities theorising. Insights presents applications for gender theory and inform further research on HM's influence within unique cultural contexts.
Article
Full-text available
Examines the Dollard et al. (1939) frustration–aggression hypothesis. The original formulation's main proposition is limited to interference with an expected attainment of a desired goal on hostile (emotional) aggression. Although some studies have yielded negative results, others support the core proposition. Frustrations can create aggressive inclinations even when they are not arbitrary or aimed at the subject personally. Interpretations and attributions can be understood partly in terms of the original analysis but they can also influence the unpleasantness of the thwarting. A proposed revision of the 1939 model holds that frustrations generate aggressive inclinations to the degree that they arouse negative affect. Evidence regarding the aggressive consequences of aversive events is reviewed, and Berkowitz's cognitive–neoassociationistic model is summarized.
Article
Full-text available
Purpose of Review Incels (involuntary celibates) have recently garnered media attention for seemingly random attacks of violence. Much attention has centered around the misogynistic and violent discourse that has taken place in online incel forums as well as manifestos written by incels who have perpetrated deadly attacks. Such work overlooks the experiences and issues faced by incels themselves, the majority of which have not engaged in any violent behavior. Recent Findings A small number of studies have recruited incels. Results from these studies highlight the nuanced nature of the incel identity. It is also apparent that incels suffer from high levels of romantic rejection and a greater degree of depressive and anxious symptoms, insecure attachment, fear of being single, and loneliness. Summary Incels report significant issues pertaining to their mental, social, and relational well-being and may seek support from forums that often feature misogynistic and violent content.
Article
Full-text available
Incels (involuntary celibates) are a subculture community of men who build their identity around their perceived inability to form sexual or romantic relationships. To address the dearth of primary data collected from incels, this study compared a sample (n = 151) of self-identified male incels with similarly aged non-incel males (n = 378) across a range of measures related to mental well-being. We also examined the role of sociosexuality and tendency for interpersonal victimhood as potential moderators of incel status and its links with mental health. Compared to non-incels, incels were found to have a greater tendency for interpersonal victimhood, higher levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness, and lower levels of life satisfaction. As predicted, incels also scored higher on levels of sociosexual desire, but this did not appear to moderate the relationship between incel status and mental well-being. Tendency for interpersonal victimhood only moderated the relationship between incel self-identification and loneliness, yet not in the predicted manner. These novel findings are some of the earliest data based on primary responses from self-identified incels and suggest that incels represent a newly identified "at-risk" group to target for mental health interventions, possibly informed by evolutionary psychology. Potential applications of the findings for mental health professionals as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Article
Full-text available
The online presence of incels, or involuntary celibates, has been an increasing security concern for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in recent years, given that self-identified incels – including Alek Minassian and Elliot Rodger – used the Internet to disseminate incel ideology and manifestos prior to committing acts of violence. However, little is empirically known about the incel movement in general or their online communities in particular. The present study draws from a set of comments from r/Incels, a now defunct but once popular subreddit dedicated to the incel community, and compares the most highly-upvoted comments (n = 500) to a random set of other comments (n = 500) in the subreddit. This qualitative analysis focuses on identifying subcultural discourse that is widely supported and engaged with by members of the online community and the extent to which incels utilize this online space to reaffirm deviant behavior. Our study underscores the importance, as well as the difficulties, of drawing from online sources like web-forums to generate new knowledge on deviant communities and behaviors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this analysis, its limitations, and avenues for future research.
Article
Full-text available
Involuntary celibates, or “incels,” have received increased public attention in past years, likely as a result of media reports that link incels to incidents of mass violence. Although prior research has examined various elements of the online community, none have directly engaged with incels to understand the causes and effects of their inceldom. Using a hegemonic masculinity framework, this article analyzes data from interviews with incels (N = 10) to identify emergent themes about their situations, attitudes, and experiences. The data reveal that the participants feel that they 1) experience masculinity challenges that affect their romantic opportunities, 2) are marginalized or treated as “subhumans” due to their appearance or other characteristics, and as a result, 3) experience negative emotions related to their inceldom. This, in turn, affects their belief in the BlackPill and their online behavior such as shit-posting. Supported by interview data, these findings can highlight both the similarities and diversity of thought within the incel community while also examining the ways that hegemonic masculinity can lead to the marginalization of specific groups of men. As such, this study can inform future research about incels, suggesting that it should include continued interaction with members of the community and quantitative survey research about incels. Furthermore, it can outline and inform intervention strategies addressing the negative effects of gender hegemony that should be considered for individual approaches to inceldom.
Article
Although several mass killings by incels have received much attention, the overall phenomenon of sexually frustrated offenders seems even larger. This study drew from a recently developed sexual frustration theory to closely examine public mass shooters in the United States from 1966 to 2021 (n = 178). Results showed that some sexually frustrated perpetrators just wanted sex, while others lusted after unavailable partners or had illegal urges that were difficult to satisfy. Quantitative analyses indicated that compared to other mass shooters, sexually frustrated perpetrators were more frequently young, male, unmarried, childless, and unemployed. They were also more likely to be misogynistic, sex offenders, and fame-seekers, and their attacks killed significantly more female victims. Concerted efforts to reduce toxic masculinity and provide better guidance to young men could help reduce this threat.
Article
The present study intends to contribute to the analysis of digital discursive practices of hate speech expressed throughout the so-called ‘Manosphere’, a group of online communities in which men express their considerations about masculinity. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, it investigates how one of the main Manosphere groups, the Incels, creates its in-group/out-group discourse through its representations of women and of themselves. Driven by Critical Discourse Studies and studies on the ideological function of metaphors, the first part of the analysis reveals a conflation of apparently sarcastic metaphors, dark humour, and misogyny used to talk about women, while the second section of the study focuses on the peculiar self-representations of the men who participate in the forum, which breach Van Dijk’s ‘us vs them’ identity square pattern: rather than emphasising the positive traits of the in-group, incels describe themselves through self-derogative nominations and predications that give way to a spiral of self-pitying and self-contempt, which might be used to create fraternal bonds within the community.
Article
How do members of extremist groups think about violence conducted by individual members on the group's behalf? We examine the link between extremism-motivated violence and extremist groups through a case study of misogynist incels, a primarily online community of men who lament their lack of sexual success with women. To learn how misogynist incels talk about mass violence committed by members of their group, we conduct a qualitative content analysis of 3,658 comments relating to the 2018 Toronto van attack, in which self-declared incel Alek Minassian drove a van into pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring 16. We find overwhelming support among self-proclaimed incels for the attack and violence more generally. Incels viewed mass violence as instrumental, serving the following four main purposes: garnering increased attention, exacting revenge, reinforcing masculinity, and generating political change. Our findings indicate the need to examine misogynist incels as a potential terrorist group and male supremacism as a basis for terrorism.
Article
Background: Sexual frustration is a common experience for many people; it is one of the biggest frustrations in some individuals' lives; and it has been cited as a cause of immoral behavior for centuries. However, it does not feature prominently in any leading criminological theories. Methods: This review builds on findings from frustration-aggression, strain, self-control, and sexual selection theories—along with research on a wide range of sexual and non-sexual behaviors—to propose an overarching sexual frustration theory of aggression, violence, and crime. Findings: Sexual frustration is not only a problem for those who are “involuntarily celibate”; it also affects many people who are sexually active. Frustration arising from unfulfilled desires to have sex, unavailable partners, and unsatisfying sexual activities appears to increase the risks of aggression, violence, and crime associated with relief-seeking, power-seeking, revenge-seeking, and displaced frustration. Conclusion: Although sexual frustration does not provide a sufficient explanation for aggression, violence, or crime on its own, understanding its influence on behavior is important. Specific recommendations are offered to facilitate theory-testing and future research.