The first person I speak to, who asks to remain anonymous, is 18 years old. But very little has been written about the tiny proportion of gay men among them, and it’s worth asking: who are they? Much has been written about incels, mainly in the context of toxic masculinity, far-right radicalisation, and mental health. The ‘blackpills’ (read: hopeless nihilists) amongst them share ‘suifuel’ (suicidal rant) posts stating there’s no hope, and encouraging fellow incels to kill themselves. They obsess about ‘looks theory’, fantasising about shaving away a few millimetres of bone to ‘looksmax’ into a vision of flawless masculinity. These compulsive men – and a handful of equally obsessive ‘femcels’ – have been likened to terrorists, and their forum posts have been unpicked ad nauseam. Six years after Rodger’s murder spree, this notorious community is still making headlines. They expect us gays to date anyone who looks our way, yet they’re allowed to be picky!” – an anonymous ‘gaycel’ “There’s a lot of double standards coming from ‘the straights’. These aren’t just sexually frustrated men with bruised egos, they are dangerous radicals determined to lash out. In these hidden spheres of the internet, what began as fury spiralled into far-right ideations of white supremacy, genetic superiority, and mass revenge on so-called ‘ hypergamous’ women. Some are on 4chan and Reddit, but some are standalone – and one of the most popular currently has more than 10,000 users and some 150,000 threads.
Reddit male gay videos series#
Now, it’s used mostly to describe men like Rodger, and over the last two decades, it’s been applied to a series of prolific ‘incel forums’, whose posts have gradually become more violent and misogynistic. This is no longer the case – and she’s spoken about her fury at the term being hijacked.
In a rare 2018 interview, she described originating the term as a description of a “lonely community” that couldn’t find love. His rampage cast an international spotlight on incels – a portmanteau of ‘involuntarily celibate’, coined by a blogger known only as Alana back in 1993. By way of explanation, he posted a chilling, seven-minute video detailing the specifics of his murder rampage, describing it as ‘retribution’. He then drove to a local sorority house, shot three women, continued to a local deli and shot a man to death there, too. On the evening of May 23, 2014, 22-year-old California native Elliot Rodger stabbed three men to death in his apartment.