Editorial Issue 9: How the Cult of Incels and Andrew Tate Fuels Femicide
Photo Courtesy: Michelle Dahlmanns, Wikimedia Commons
In September, a fifteen-year-old girl was stabbed in Croydon after her friend rejected flowers from her ex-boyfriend. This is only the latest example of extreme gendered violence in London. Although little is known of the seventeen-year-old’s motivations, his violent preparation for and reaction to rejection exemplifies ‘incel’ ideology.
Meaning ‘involuntarily celibate’, the ideology has gained popularity as an online subculture amongst men who share feelings of unwantedness and blame women for their loneliness. Their conversations are underscored by a belief that sex is their birthright, and witholding it should be punished by rape or murder.
Carefully-curated social media algorithms exacerbate incel networks, rapidly reinforcing and cementing susceptible young men’s worldviews through extremist content from an early age. YouTube is by far the most popular platform; incel channels receive over 24.2 million views. Although most young boys never even hear the term ‘incel’, they become radicalised, parroting patriarchal depictions of traditional masculinity.
Sky News found one leading incel forum had users posting about rape every 29 minutes and bent rules to accommodate paedophilia. Posts featured misogynist, racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric alongside mentions of mass murders. Another study found the comment: ‘I enjoy walking behind women in the parking garage after work…the sheer terror gives me a massive erection.’
Extremist violence may seem entirely unpredictable, but it often takes root through normalised casual sexism online. Incel ideology justifies men punishing women for their loneliness and sexually harassing women on and offline.
Indeed, the Femicide Census found 51% of British women murdered by men in 2020 were killed by a partner. Worldwide, on average, a woman is murdered by a family member every 11 minutes— totalling an estimated 47,000 murders annually.
Femicide data is notoriously scarce due to several factors, including competing definitions (i.e. murder of women by intimate partners versus motivated by misogyny), so it is difficult to determine whether there is an increase in femicides by young men. Determining the motives behind non-sexual violent crime can also be difficult
Surveyed data on beliefs is more readily available. While many studies suggest younger generations are less likely to hold sexist beliefs, research by Frontiers in Political Science suggests that in Europe, younger men are more likely to see ‘advances in women's rights as a threat to men's opportunities.’
The European Journal of Criminology found that in North America and Europe, the rate of women killed tends to increase as the overall homicide rate decreases, suggesting the murder of women is less likely to be motivated by social factors encouraging other kinds of violent crime, like poverty and instability.
Although gendered violence has always existed, far-right, misogynistic social media personalities have ushered in a new era of toxic masculinity. Perhaps most notorious is Andrew Tate, currently facing charges of rape and human trafficking.
A self-marketed ‘success coach’ (and self-declared misogynist), Tate advocates a shockingly violent lifestyle, known for quotes like: “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck.”
Despite being banned from TikTok in August 2022 for “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanises an individual or a group” (women), the Independent found that from March to June, videos relating to Tate were viewed over 75 million times in the UK alone.
Perhaps most alarming is Tate’s influence among susceptible young boys. YouGov found that 60% of boys aged 6-15 had at least heard of Tate, and roughly one-in-six viewed him positively, one-in-four for 13-15. End Violence Against Women director Andrea Simon identifies Tate’s consciously “aspirational” projection of excessive luxury as “a dangerous mask for the violent and misogynistic content being drip-fed to his young viewers.” The proof is tangible - when Tate and his brother were detained in Romania, dozens of teenage boys in Athens protested in the streets.
In February, schoolteachers across the country shared their observations of Tate’s toxic influence. One teacher explained: “There seems to be an increased need for boys to control girls”, highlighting an “[expectation] that girls are going to do what they tell them to do.”
Although more information is needed to quantify observable changes in misogynistic attitudes, preliminary measures can combat the rise of incel culture. UCL’s Jessica Ringrose, professor of sociology of gender and education, emphasises a holistic, proactive approach should be integrated into school curricula to counteract misogyny before it embeds itself inside young boys’ psyches.