Incel
You truly learn something new every day.
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I was editing a piece yesterday that used the word incel. I got the little red line under it which per ProWritingAid shows a misspelled word. Unlike some others, I am not arrogant enough to think I know everything about everything at all times. So my bestie Google and I had a chat.
From Oxford languages:
a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually, typically associated with views that are hostile toward women and men who are sexually active.
“self-identified incels have used the internet to find anonymous support,”
A hybrid of involuntary and celibate. Well, I’ll be damned. It appears according to this graph to have peaked in 2019. Where have I been while this was becoming a thing?
The term was coined 20 years ago by a woman known only as Alana, who used the term as a name for an online support forum for singles, basically a lonely hearts club. Why am I not shocked that something so pure, so simple and created by a woman to help all people became polluted by a man? And yes, this may very well turn into a man bashing rant. I haven’t gotten that far yet. My fingers go where my brain tells them to. I just get out of the way.
Jennifer Wright of Harper’s Bazaar may have been on to something when she said, “Their existence is not about being lonely. It is about blaming women for their loneliness.” Wright even referred to incels as a hate group.
“Incels aren’t really looking for sex. They’re looking for absolute male supremacy.” says Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker.
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