To Alleviate Stigma: How Incels Negotiate Masculinity Online

This article draws on Goffman’s stigma theory to explore how incels (involuntary celibates) alleviate stigma and negotiate masculinity by employing normification, minstrelization, and militant chauvinism. Using netnographic research, I qualitatively explore three incel forums consisting of 927 comment threads. While incels advocate antifeminism and misogyny, they also exhibit traits and behaviors usually avoided in subcultures dominated by men, such as narratives of loneliness and inadequacy related to hegemonic ideals of masculinity and hyper-masculinity. This article explores the ambiguity of gender processes online, identity negotiation among incels and the use and combination of various stigma management strategies to uphold, challenge, or reject hegemonic masculinity. I argue that closer attention to stigma can help us understand incels’ countercultural expressions within broader social and cultural notions about masculinity and shame.