Editor’s Note: Researchers and practitioners are coming to a better understanding of the role that gender-based hate and violence play as pernicious forms of harm themselves, and as gateways to other forms of violent extremism. Recognizing that gendered violence impacts almost a third of women globally, the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University launched its Gendered Violence Portfolio to map and help prevent this type of extremist hate. This article examines one set of insights from a nine-month mixed-methods study on male supremacist and misogynistic tropes associated with violence. Specifically, that author argues that some of the most concerning and pressing findings were related to the “extreme black pill” incels community. These discoveries were particularly worrisome given the consistency of incels narratives (even through their internal debates and perceived inconsistencies) and the consistent, overt praise of violence and violent ideation. Building on these tropological findings, PERIL is working on prevention and response techniques to combat such gender-based violence.
Introduction
Gender-based violence is one of the most pressing and concerning spheres of contemporary hate and violent extremism. The UN notes that globally, one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence (not accounting for sexual harassment).1 The World Health Organization has similar findings, marking the number of women affected by such violence at 30%.2 In the U.S. context specifically, the National Domestic Violence Hotline notes that, on average, “24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States—more than 12 million women and men over the course of a single year.”3 Further, U.S. statistics for sexual violence against women hold near to international rates, with approximately 29% of women and 10% of men experiencing sexual or physical violence from a partner.4 The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law further evidences that LGBT people are five times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent crime, further amplifying the crisis.5
In response to such widespread and pressing violence, the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University launched the Gendered Violence Portfolio. This portfolio analyzes patterns of gender-based bigotry and violence, including violence and hate against the LGBTQ+ community. Through this targeted gendered violence codebooking, PERIL crafts and tests a wide array of tools to respond to such gendered violence.6 As part of the preliminary work on male supremacy and misogyny (MSM), PERIL, in partnership with Over Zero, conducted a ground-breaking, mixed-methods, longitudinal landscape analysis of male supremacy for a nine month period from late 2024 to early 2025. While there were over 100 unique MSM tropes and 45 key findings developed from this research, one of the most pressing and concerning was related to the black pill ideology of the incels subset of the digital manosphere. As such, this research brief sets out to define this important subset of male supremacy, provide a summary of PERIL’s methods for studying this group, and then relay some of the most critical findings from PERIL’s landscape analysis before discussing PERIL’s prevention solutions.
Definitions
Incels are a somewhat niche, less publicly visible corner of digital male supremacy and misogyny. As such, there are portions of the general public that are largely unaware of what incels are and the vocabulary used by the incel community. Accordingly, it is essential to start with a shared understanding of what constitutes an incel. As defined by Brandon Sparks and colleagues, incels is a portmanteau of “involuntary celibates” and “refers to a loose collection of individuals who are experiencing sexlessness despite their desire to be active.”7 While this definition is, in and of itself, often a temporary social condition, a subset of incels have also developed online communities focused on their hatred of women, “normies” and “Chads.”
Normies refer to individuals perceived by incels as societally “normal” or average, sometimes also derogatively referred to as “sex havers.” Beyond normies exist “Chads” and “Stacys.” Chads and Stacys are considered societal “alphas,” largely due to their conventionally attractive appearances. There are numerous subsets of incels, such as “truecels” (people who are determined to be truly involuntarily celibate, often because of physical or mental conditions), “blackcels” (people who are involuntarily celibate because they are Black), “femcels” (involuntarily celibate women, typically not accepted by the more general incel community), and “fakecels” (people who are not actually involuntarily celibate but are acting like it, often due to their successful romantic histories).8 These are merely a handful of the wide array of self-identified incel community subsets.
A key part of radicalized incel ideology is the “black pill.” Kayla Preston and colleagues define the black pill as an acceptance of “the fact that ‘it’s over’ and ‘inferior’ men have no chance of ever establishing sexual relationships with women.” This is often cast as a more extreme version of the “red pill,” a reference to The Matrix (1999). Within the manosphere taking the red pill suggests becoming aware of the “truth of the world” and the supposed “destructive force of feminism.”9 While red pill adherents promote various forms of sexism and misogyny related to pick up artistry and alpha male ideals, black pill adherents are offered no perceived recourse for rectifying their position. According to incel ideology, black pill adherents can live a solitary life referred to as “NEET” (not in education, employment, or training), “wage slave” (work without hope for future betterment), commit suicide (often ideated upon through “suifuel” posts), or commit violence as an act of rebellion against women, normies, Chads, or Stacys. This final option is often linked with suicidal ideation as a hope of “going out in a blaze of glory.” Incels that choose this latter option are often praised or given “sainthood” in the incel community. According to an independent report from the Government of the United Kingdom, almost a quarter of incels believe that violence against people they perceive as causing harm is “sometimes” or “often” justified.10 Thus, while it is important to note that not all, or even a majority, of incels have accepted the black pill or promote violence, a significant minority have. As such, part of PERIL’s landscape analysis provided a focused sample of extreme posters on the Incels.is forum.
Methodology
PERIL’s collaborative codebook, in partnership with Over Zero, engaged in an analysis of non-mainstream websites where male supremacy and misogyny (MSM) festered. These websites included 4chan, Gab, Incels.is, Telegram, and Truth Social. These fringe narratives were then compared with their “mainstream” counterparts from platforms like Instagram, Reddit, X/Twitter, Bluesky, among others. The samples from each of these platforms were analyzed longitudinally over nine months.
This study was mixed methods in its approach. The qualitative coding team selected 15 particularly prolific accounts in each period to analyze, leading to the collection of over 2,000 MSM posts. Accounts were selected based on PERIL’s Male Supremacist and Misogynistic Keywords appendix. Once selected, the team engaged in discourse analysis and close textual analysis of these posts. Concurrently, the quantitative team assessed larger trends on these platforms, such as base rate analyses, word associations, geographic trends, sentiment analyses, and the interrelation of gendered hate with other forms of hate. The final output was a groundbreaking, landscape analysis report containing almost 450 pages of male supremacist and misogynistic rhetorical tropes.11 As noted, one of the most pressing and concerning findings from this research was the narrative and ideological consistency held amongst extremist black pill incels.
Findings
As a part of PERIL’s codebooking of digital male supremacy and misogyny, black pilled inceldom arose as a particularly pressing area of concern. This concern was primarily elevated for two key reasons: the ideological (in)consistency of extremist incel narratives and the promotion and glorification of violence against women and “normies.”
First, when discussing incel narratives and world views, PERIL’s research team found that incels are incredibly consistent in their topics of discussion, even being consistent in their ideological inconsistencies. For example, one of the most discussed aspects of inceldom is the actual definition of who can be included in the incel community. This often boils down to in and out group discussions of “truecels” and “fakecels.” As noted, truecels are those that the community has agreed are mainstay incels, often due to some sort of physical or mental condition. Fakecels are those who the community has determined are not actual incels, often due to some level of romantic success. Such in-grouping and out-grouping is a hallmark of demagogic, extremist rhetoric.12
Such arguments about group inclusion often play out on Incels.is. In one post, a user argued, “‘you’re 18 and say that your looks aren’t a problem’ that means you aren’t an incel. Fakecels like you have no place here.” Another suggested that “If you have social life you’re a fakecel simp.”13 However, what is most concerning about the community is perhaps not these definitional arguments in and of themselves, but just how hard some posters fight to be considered a true part of the incel community. They have so thoroughly intertwined their identity with inceldom that the idea of leaving the community causes what appears to be an existential crisis.
Indeed, given that the key identity component of incels is a status that can change—celibacy—the discussion of “ascension” as it relates to fakecels and truecels is often another arena of heated conversation. Ascension is the term for an incel losing their virginity/incel status by having sex (and often specifically with a woman, as incel culture is largely masculine and heteronormative). One poster noted how scary ascension could be in terms of identity, arguing, “Imagine she cucks you after a f—king week and then you never have another relationship ever again. Just picture how depressing that would be and then you’re never allowed here again and are right back to square one. It’s not like ascension is guaranteed to last for life.” Another poster tried to defend their position in the community, arguing that certain types of sex don’t count as ascension: “I’m TWENTY FOUR this month. Do you understand this?? 20 f—king 4 year old virgin not including prostitutes.” Thus, sex with a sex worker was rhetorically delineated from “true” ascension. Other posters argued the race and/or attractiveness of the woman impacted true ascension status. Another poster responded to the poster suggesting sex workers don’t count as ascension with words of affirmation, noting, “I’ve been active in the incel community pretty much everyday since 2018 when I was 17. I don’t take it to heart though and I’ve been banned many times for not agreeing with them.”14 The debates over ascension highlight the extreme ideological (in)consistency of the incels community. There is nearly constant, heated debate about who counts as an incel. That disagreement is an inconsistency. However, there is consistency in that these types of group identity-based debates are constantly occurring across all time periods analyzed.
Another element of what makes incels so ideologically consistent is the relative insulation from more mainstream political events. Because more extreme incel communities, by and large, reject mainstream “normie” culture, there was very little discussion of mainstream politics or current events. This was especially jarring compared to other platforms of analysis like 4chan, Gab, Telegram, and Truth Social, which were particularly politically active, especially during the periods of analysis of this study directly surrounding the 2024 U.S. presidential election. This finding tracks with an independent report from the United Kingdom’s government, which found that:
“Many commentators have suggested a link between incels and the far right. However, using Pew Research’s ‘Ideological Consistency Scale’, this survey found that incels were slightly left of centre on average. The exception was those who agreed that violence against individuals that that [sic] cause incels harm is often justified. These individuals were right leaning, though not extremely so.”15
As such, inceldom seems to be largely insulated and/or disconnected from contemporary political and current events, remaining relatively politically ambivalent.
However, there is one absolutely critical exception to this general aloofness: content related to mass violence, especially when it is perceived to be against women and normies. One prime example from our sample was when the Florida State University shooting occurred. While this is typically the type of violence that extreme black pill incels would praise, the shooter was actually derided on Incels.is for not going far enough. For example, one poster said, “The killer killed 2 men and didn’t kill a single foid so he can go f–k himself.” Another noted, “Plenty of obnoxious foids in FSU yet none died unfortunately.” A third commented, “Ridiculously low kill count +mogs me.”16 Worth noting for clarity here are the terms “foid” and “mog.” “Foid” is “a dehumanizing combination of ‘female’ and ‘humanoid’” while “mog” stands for “(alpha) male of group,” and often suggests someone is more attractive, or “mogs,” another.17 As such, the Florida State killer was criticized for both “underperforming” and being too attractive to be considered a part of the incel community.
Yet, incel promotion of violence was not limited to discussions surrounding particular shootings. Violent ideation is another extremely consistent aspect of the extreme incel subculture. There were frequent references to fantasies regarding sexual violence, stalking, and mass killings of women. One user simply and succinctly posted, “Total Whore Death,” a transference of the racist TND and antisemitic TKD tropes.18 As such, the consistency of inconsistent narratives, as well as the consistency of violent ideation within the black pill incel community make this a particularly concerning group highlighted in PERIL and Over Zero’s male supremacist and misogynistic codebooking work.
Conclusion
The landscape, longitudinal codebooking work conducted by PERIL in partnership with Over Zero has revealed a number of critical findings related to the broad arena of male supremacy and misogyny in digital spaces. Some of the most pressing and concerning findings were related to the black pill subset of the incel community. While the narrative (in)consistency and violent ideation is of high concern, PERIL is also developing strategies for preventing such radicalization from happening in the first place. As a part of PERIL’s Gendered Violence Portfolio, tools are being designed and tested which can help respond to gender-based violence and prevent it in the first place. Accordingly, the findings of this codebook are not only critical in and of themselves, but they also inform efforts for training educators, building support networks, and developing public health-based approaches toward countering such extremist hate. Continued research is essential, as the narratives surrounding gender-based violence are ever shifting.
VIOLENCE PREVENTION NOTICE: Warning signs often appear before violent acts. If someone you know makes general or specific threats, shows unusual interest in weapons, or fixates on previous violent incidents, you’re not overreacting by taking action. Ask direct questions and help them connect with professional support (or alert authorities if danger is immediate). Your intervention can prevent tragedy.
References
1 “Fact and Figures: Ending Violence Against Women,” UN Women, November 25, 2024, https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/facts-and-figures/facts-and-figures-ending-violence-against-women.
2 “Violence Against Women,” World Health Organization, March 24, 2024, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women.
3 “Domestic Violence Statistics,” National Domestic Violence Hotline, https://www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-statistics/.
4 Ibid.
5 “LGBT People Five Times More Likely Than Non-LGBT People to Be Victims of Violent Crime,” UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, February 13, 2025, https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/lgbt-volent-crime-press-release/.
6 “Division: Gendered Violence,” American University School of Public Affairs Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab, https://perilresearch.com/division/gendered-violence/. See also founding director Cynthia Miller Idriss’s essential primer on gender-based violence and extremism: Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Man Up: The New Misogyny & the Rise of Violent Extremism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025).
7 Brandon Sparks, Alexandra M. Zidenberg, and Mark E. Olver, “Involuntary Celibacy: A Review of Incel Ideology and Experiences with Dating, Rejection, and Associated Mental Health and Emotional Sequelae,” Current Psychiatry Rep. 24, no. 12 (2022): 731-740.
8 “Fakecel,” Anti-Defamation League, https://extremismterms.adl.org/glossary/fakecel.
9 Kayla Preston, Michael Halpin, and Finlay Maguire, “The Black Pill: New Technology and the Male Supremacy of Involuntarily Celibate Men,” Men Masc. 24, no. 5 (2021): 823-841.
10 Joe Whittaker, William Costello, and Andrew G. Thomas, “Predicting Harm Among Incels (Involuntary Celibates): The Roles of Mental Health, Ideological Belief, and Social Networking,” GOV.UK, May 22, 2024, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/predicting-harm-among-incels-involuntary-celibates/predicting-harm-among-incels-involuntary-celibates-the-roles-of-mental-health-ideological-belief-and-social-networking-accessible.
11 To request a copy of this report, please reach out to [email protected] and request Peril and Over Zero’s “Full Codebook of Digital Male Supremacy Surrounding the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election” from Summer 2025.
12 See Patricia Roberts-Miller, Rhetoric and Demagoguery (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2019).
13 Posts found in PERIL and Over Zero’s “Full Codebook of Digital Male Supremacy.”
14 Ibid.
15 Whittaker et al., “Predicting Harm Among Incels (Involuntary Celibates).”
16 Posts found in PERIL and Over Zero’s “Full Codebook of Digital Male Supremacy.”
17 Kurt Fowler, Robert Green, and Allan Palombi, “From Stacys to Foids, a Discursive Analysis of the Incel’s Gendered Spectrum of Political Agency,” Deviant Behavior 44, no. 12 (2023): 1775-1791.
18 “TND and TKD,” Anti-Defamation League, https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/tnd-and-tkd.
