Men’s rights group rejects Reddit’s 'involuntarily celibate' men

Culture By Lindsey Kline

“Incels” is a community of men who are involuntarily celibate.

“These are men who have been unable to secure any kind of romantic relationship,” explains Solaris, senior figure in the Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) — a like-minded “male empowerment” community.

Incels aren’t young men with their whole dating lives ahead of them. They aren’t suffering from some short dry spell. These men have endured an entire lifetime of never touching a woman, and a lot of them are pretty pissed about it .

On the community’s 40,000-member Reddit group, Incels created a support group, of sorts. But their rhetoric was pretty toxic. It was a lot like an angry echo chamber, where the Incels discussed how they want to have sex with women, "but those stuck-up cunts won’t let them."

Among some controversial posts from the last few months: “All women are sluts,” “proof that girls are nothing but trash that use men” and “reasons why women are the embodiment of evil”.

This past week, as part of a crackdown on forums that glorify and incite violence, Reddit banned the Incels community.

First the ladies rejected them. Then the Reddit administration did, too. As a last resort, they turned to other men’s empowerment communities, like the MGTOW, Men’s Rights and Red Pill subreddits. Now, even those groups are rejecting the Incels.

As Solaris explains, this is certainly the case with the Men Going Their Own Way. “Following the banning, a lot of Incels showed up ... and weren’t welcomed. We’d tell them, ‘We’re not interested in validating your victim status, so don’t expect some kind of pity party.’”

It’s highly likely that the Incels did expect some sense of sympathy from the MGTOW. After all, the two groups seem to have a lot in common.

Many Men Going Their Own Way have vowed to swear off relationships with women forever. The Incels can’t come anywhere close to a relationship, either (although not for lack of trying). Both groups generally believe women have deceived or otherwise wronged them. They agree that feminism is utter bullshit, and a direct detriment to men.

In any of these many men’s rights communities, “The members feel victimized in some way, like they haven’t been allowed to take part in society,” Solaris says. “In any community that feels marginalized, there’s probably going to be some undercurrent of anger. I don’t think its unjustified. But it doesn’t have to erupt into an advocation of violence.”

After all, Reddit claims it’s not simply misogyny that ended the Incels — it was inciting violence. They say the group advocated rape. Although all Incels content is now closed, plenty of evidence for this remains on the watchdog online community, IncelTears.

In an online petition that called on Reddit to ban the Incels, authors claim that the community appeared to worship Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who killed six people and injured fourteen others in a rampage near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.

"Rodger claimed in his YouTube manifesto that being denied attention from women his whole life has driven him to seek 'retribution'. On the subreddit, Rodger is often referred to as 'Saint Elliot,' with many praising his actions and claiming that they would like to follow in his path,” the petition reads.

With these horrifying allegations surrounding the Incels, it’s no wonder there’s been a schism within the men’s rights fraternity.

In washing up on Solaris’ platform, the Incels have brought a wave of new negative attention to the MGTOW. More than ever, the group’s members have been carefully distancing themselves from the disgraced Incels, for fear that outsiders will equate the two communities, and MGTOW will be next on the chopping block.

“We have limited power with who identifies as a member of MGTOW and the ways they act on that. But we are shoving the Incels away,” Solaris says.

It’s safe to assume he speaks for all other men’s rights communities when he says, “Don’t come here and pretend that you’re a part of our community. Because you’re not.”