Speaker
Description
More than a decade after the Isla Vista attack, several individuals associated with the incel subculture have carried out acts of mass violence. Existing scholarship has largely sought to determine whether the subculture satisfies established definitional criteria for terrorism. Some scholars argue that incel ideology constitutes an extremist formation with a clear and ideologically driven doctrine of violence, while sceptics contend that incel discourse lacks sufficient ideological consensus to meet definitional thresholds of terrorism, as attacks are merely expressions of individual, disconnected grievance. This paper argues that resolving this debate requires attending to the ideological work performed within incel communities themselves. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis of discourse from incels.is, it examines how community members frame, justify, and condemn acts of mass violence. The findings suggest that incel discourse oscillates between the register of personal grievance and the articulation of a broader political agenda, resisting any straightforward classification. This tension, the paper argues, bears directly on how incel violence should be understood within terrorism studies, gender-based violence frameworks, and counter terrorism policy.
| Institutional Affiliation | Malmö University |
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