“I Swallowed the Blackpill and It Was Crap”: (De)construction of the Masculinities of Involuntary Celibates

Incels, short for “involuntary celibates”, are individuals unable to form romantic or sexual relationships, despite desire to. This study aims to understand the trajectories of Portuguese men into inceldom, providing insights into their experiences, subjectivities and agency. Drawing on nine semistructured interviews with former and current incels, aged 19–28, a reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021) was employed and three key themes emerged: Being a Man, Being an Incel and Coping with it. Particularly, feelings of inadequacy for not achieving dominant ideals of masculinity lead them to the incel identity. In turn, participants deal with the deleterious effects of inceldom on their well-being and some chose to disengage from incel identity, underscoring their reflexivity and agency.