This Insight is part of GNET’s Gender and Online Violent Extremism series, aligning with the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Content warning: This Insight contains discussions of violence against women, rape, and racialised violence.
While grappling with increasingly volatile political and social contexts, preventing/countering violent extremism (PCVE) research often neglects the concept of Intersectionality, which renders gender and race as inseparable from each other (Crenshaw, 1989). In the case of gendered violence, race will always have a role. This phenomenon especially manifests in online Incel networks.
Most studies on the subject focus on the gendered ideology present within involuntary celibate communities, but race is also a central point of discussion, and is key to the Incel worldview, which understands societal position as determined by Sexual Market Value (SMV) (Hoffman et al., 2020). This Insight explores racial justifications of gendered violence within Incel spaces, drawing on results from my master’s thesis (completed in 2025), which encompasses data from 11 online Incel communities (such as forums and group chats). After reviewing the literature surrounding this topic, I outline my findings and subsequently provide recommendations to researchers and tech companies on how to understand and adequately address the challenges this topic presents.
In Incel communities, racist ideas are warrants for violence. Racial stereotypes and pseudo-science stratify women into tiers so that some women are presented as deserving violence on account of race. Gendered notions of patriarchal domination and ownership interweave so that violence is also justified on the account of women in interracial relationships being conceptualised as racial traitors. In Incel communities, race and gender interlace to produce hotbeds of violent ideology, moulding members into abusers, but also presenting prime conditions for the growth of extreme-right ideas, widening the potential scope of violence.
Understanding Intersectionality and P/CVE
One’s individual experience cannot be properly understood through one vector or characteristic alone. Instead, their societal position, experience, and values are determined by said characteristics intersecting and overlapping. This is Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1989) thesis, which she posits as central to understanding both experiences within the legal system and gendered violence. Her idea had a seismic impact on multiple disciplines, with Sokloff & Dupont (2005) taking it forward to argue that race is underexamined when analysing domestic violence, and that existing racial structures must be considered. Semenza et al. (2022) find that race is a key determinant of victimisation trajectories: for example, Black women are much more likely to undergo high-level victimisation. The rise of Mixed Unclear and Unstable (MUU) motivated extremism has led PCVE scholars to turn more towards intersectionality in their efforts to decode this phenomenon. However, studies are still often slow to apply intersectionality beyond the offender themselves, and continuing this trend obscures the complex nature of social divisions and violence.
Understanding the Incel Worldview
Incels explicate their worldview through an interpretive repertoire which stratifies men and women in line with their SMV (Fowler, 2022; Hoffman et al. 2020). SMV refers to one’s aesthetic desirability and access to sex, which Incels believe grants social and political power. Through understanding women as always having more SMV than men, and that their lack of success in sex and relationships is proof of their low SMV, Incels believe society is gynocentric and they are therefore disempowered – at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Incels assign different SMV classifications to both men and women, the latter of whom are particularly stereotyped and objectified, through gender essentialising language like Femoid or Foid (Fowler et al., 2023). This lexicon is especially pressing as it is bleeding into other online spaces and broader popular culture, being used by many who may be unaware of their origins. Yet, these terms are still laced with misogynistic and hateful intent (Bogetić, 2023). The communities I studied were not algorithmically curated, meaning that the popularity of a post depended on user interaction, such as replying to or sharing it (or upvoting in the case of Reddit). As such, the use of Incel-specific lexicon is a marker of prestige in these communities and is important in promulgating one’s in-group importance.
Racialised language is also key within the Incel interpretive repertoire. Members believe that race is a key determinant of SMV, using both slurs intelligible to outsiders, and their own lexicon (usually related to foodstuffs, including Ricecel and Currycel to refer to East-Asian and South-Asian Incels, respectively) to self-define and express their understanding of race and aesthetics in White majority countries (Green et al., 2023). Incels also apply racialised ideas to women, usually in misogynistic ways, yet research into this is lacking. Consequently, this Insight is aligned with DeCook & Kelly (2023), who argue that a purely gendered analysis of the Incelosphere is not enough, and race must be investigated.
While this certainly varies depending on the community, violent rhetoric is prevalent across the Incelosphere. Temporal research shows that Incel communities may be becoming more violent over time, and sexual violence is often reconceived on a large scale, understood as a political act against women as a whole, rather than a more localised offence. This is alongside the handful of mass violence events enacted by self-identifying Incels, who many members continue to venerate.
In examining the specific Incel communities, I adopted Ebner et al.’s (2022) anthropological fusion-plus-threat model to analyse gendered violence in Incel spaces. This model builds upon the concept of identity fusion to find that intense identification with one’s in-group may lead to violence on their behalf, through the deployment of dehumanisation and violence-condoning norms upon an out-group. In this case, Incels are the in-group, and women, specifically racialised women, are the out-group.
Methodology
This study draws on data and findings from my master’s thesis, completed as part of the MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute. I scraped nearly 2 million posts from 11 Incel spaces, which included Telegram group chats, Reddit subreddits, and independent Cloudflare-hosted forums, over a 12-month period (August 2024 – July 2025). Key word search and critical discourse analysis identified central themes regarding gendered violence in incel spaces. I found that gendered violence is racially justified in two ways:
- SMV-hierarchy goes beyond desirability and becomes a central factor in determining one’s value and personhood, and the dignity they deserve; and
- Women in interracial relationships are branded as traitors to their own race.
Hierarchical Conceptions of Women and Race
While experiences and viewpoints are not homogeneous across all Incels, close reading of large amounts of data reveals a racial hierarchy that Incel members project onto women. This hierarchy is less explicitly expressed than their purely gendered one is, yet it is also organised by SMV. Overall, desirability is conflated with Whiteness, and increasing distance from Whiteness reduces a woman’s SMV. This results in a broadly structured racial hierarchy.
This hierarchy extends beyond desirability and marks women with racialised stereotypes, which justify gendered violence. While White women are defined as being the most desirable, East-Asian women (Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) are seen as nearly equitable alternatives. Stereotypes of passivity and eroticised anime or manga infantilise East-Asian women so that certain Incel members express sexual fantasies adjacent to those of child sexual abuse. For example, many users celebrated and fantasised about the real-life rape and murder of a Japanese high school student using racialised language: “Happy Noodle***** Death Anniversary,” (User 201). Meanwhile, in line with existing stereotypes produced from myths surrounding sex tourism, Latino (Latin American) women are conceptualised as promiscuous and exotic. South-East-Asian women (Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, etc.) are subjected to similar treatment, yet they are envisioned as especially hypergamous, in that they flock to White men and initiate relationships with them to increase their economic standing. This produces resentment from Incels of colour who feel that they lack this privilege, and from White Incels who feel that their race is not awarding them the benefits they feel it deserves. This resentment manifests against these women, who become vessels for violence, branded deserving as such due to their promiscuity: “Noodle***** should be raped,” (User 361); “They are honestly the only type of humans I genuinely despise,” (User 19). Racial stereotypes render certain women as sex objects, reducing their cognitive ability, so that they become subjects for male sexual frustration and rage.
Orientalist stereotypes are invoked to imagine Arab women (this is used as a catch-all for the Middle East and is usually more of a marker of religion [Islam] than race) as innately subservient to their fathers and husbands. While they are not envisioned as sexually desirable, fictious notions of a Middle East ruled by Sharia Law are invoked as a desirable world order in which Incel members can both own and sexually dominate women: “Only good thing about Islam is the control of foids,” (User 592); “Sharia law: r*** your sister,” (User 538). South-Asian women and Black women are at the bottom of the SMV-hierarchy. The latter is especially seen as deserving of violence, in both a retaliatory and disciplinary sense, through stereotypes of Black women as aggressive and promiscuous being cited: “Black women do not love…they will cheat anyway,” (User 805).
Incel members justify gendered violence through essentialising women to existing and novel racial stereotypes. The SMV-scale does not just signify desirability, it also determines the morality of a woman, and how deserving they are of decency. Therefore, lower SMV makes women vulnerable to violence and objects to receive manifestations of male rage and frustration.
Far-Right Extremist Conspiracy Theories: Branding Women as Traitors
Racial ideology is present in Incel communities, not only in the gendered sense, but also as a broader political statement. Far- and alt-right ideas and conspiracy theories are regularly cited, especially in communities identified as more extreme. This includes conspiracy theories against immigration like the Great Replacement Theory, antisemitism and Islamophobia, and pseudoscience that endorses eugenics. These come together to form extremist political visions of ethnonationalist societies. While not all members adopt these views, extreme far-right ideologies trickle down into gendered norms. In this case, certain members express rage at interracial relationships. Some argue that women of their race should only forge relationships with them on account of SMV inconsistencies and advocate violence against those who flout this racial ownership. User 125 expresses the following regarding an interracial couple: “Should have used drain cleaners (easily available at stores) to permanently disfigure those f****.” Others go further, advocating against interracial relationships and their potential offspring by invoking pseudoscience to say this is a project to introduce less developed genes into the White race – a White genocide: “Mass immigrations is the modern form of well poisoning,” [sic] (User 125). Women are particularly blamed for this, branded as traitors against their own race and classified as deserving of violence in extremely graphic terms.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Gender and race come together in the Incelosphere to produce a sum that is greater and more threatening than its parts. Women are stratified depending on their distance from Whiteness into imagined racial categories, where they are subsequently essentialised by racial stereotypes. Returning to Ebner et al.’s (2022) model, women are dehumanised by these stereotypes, thereby validating gendered violence. Far-right ideas deem women treacherous, acting as violence-condoning norms both as an outlet of male frustration, and to prevent the collapse of so-called civilised (White) society (scare mongered through immigration and interracial procreation).
To address this, research must take into account the many verticals of gendered violence in all its intersectionality. Educative initiatives against gendered violence should also consider taking a wider scope, acknowledging factors like race and socioeconomic class. Regarding online communities and Incels, research should attempt to map information flows in the Incelosphere. How far-right ideas and conspiracy theories come to take central stages in certain Incel communities is not always clear. Situating the entry-points of these ideas is essential to crafting effective preventative measures. Mainstream tech platforms, including Reddit and Cloudflare must respond to this threatening language by imposing restrictions or removing support from these communities. Whilst Reddit has historically taken action against Incel communities, including banning the largest Subreddit in 2017, moderation is still missing on forums which appear more innocuous, yet are still espousing violent rhetoric and extremely damaging and misleading pseudoscience. Other platforms and service providers, including Cloudflare, have taken little effort against Mansophere communities and must respond to gendered and racialised violence by imposing restrictions and removing support. Additionally, in the UK, many of these communities are still not blocked by the Online Safety Act – existing trust & safety legislation must adopt a wider scope. This is especially integral as more minors enter Manosphere communities, presenting a potential crisis of youth raised on racialised gendered violence.
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Ryan Ratnam is a research lead at the Oxford Computational Political Science Group (OCPSG), a research assistant at Penn State University, and a recent master’s graduate from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), the University of Oxford. His research focusses on digital harms, including the Manosphere, the proliferation of violent content, and the formation of collective values in online communities through both qualitative and computational methods.
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