Responding to the incel ideology

This safeguarding insight was first written in 2021 following the incel linked shootings in Plymouth.  It has been updated in March 2025 to reflect the current situation and the growing knowledge base.

The 2025 release of Adolescence on Netflix has further bought the debate in relation to incel ideology and associated behaviours to light, with one of the show's creators, Stephen Graham reported as saying the “rise of ‘misogynistic tendencies’ is concerning and we’re all accountable to an extent to finding a solution.”

In 2024, the Southport tragedy devastated the lives of young girls, their families and the community in which they lived. While schools and other organisations were aware of the risks and had referred the perpetrator to Prevent on three occasions our system is not aligned to the threat posed when there is no external ideology or group. Work is underway to review our national approach, but the responsibility will remain with local agencies to identify vulnerability and risk, looking to create an effective response. 

Three years before this, the Plymouth shootings in 2021 led to government sources suggesting that Gavin Williamson, the then Education Secretary, “expects teachers to be able to tackle the risks from incel culture through the relationships, sex and health education (RHSE) curriculum within schools.” (The Guardian, 2021)

So how do we address what is being viewed as an increasingly pressing issue? In this safeguarding insight, we will consider what incel is, how this is a safeguarding issue, as well as an RHSE matter, as well as how to address incel culture.  Coupled with this, there is a need for balance - in our discussions within Safeguarding Network, the clear view has been that whilst this does need to be addressed, it also needs to be done so in a manner that does not promote the culture above others or provide it with special prominence.  Towards the end of this insight, we will therefore look at how we feel incel can be addressed within training that is already on safeguarding agendas, whilst acknowledging that where huge risk remains despite the best efforts of local agencies, this should be escalated to the local safeguarding children partnership and, where necessary, to relevant central government departments.

Incel communities primarily operate online, their growth evidenced by increasing forum activity and wider social media influence. A 2022 digital analysis found one major incel forum had 17,000+ members and about 2.6 million visits per month. Content on these forums was seen to be virulently misogynistic: users posting about rape on average every 29 minutes, and 16% of all posts containing misogynist slurs. Whilst a worldwide forum, it is of note that in 2022, nearly 7.5% of traffic came from the UK, indicating a significant British user presence.

Within Britain, educators and officials have observed a spread of incel-like attitudes among some young men. For example, Prevent (the UK’s anti-radicalisation program) recorded zero referrals for incel ideology in 2019–20, but this jumped to 77 referrals (1% of all cases) in the year to March 2022.  This however is not a steady picture as the figure dropped to 54 referrals in the year ending the 31st March 2024 (Home Office, 2024). Officials attribute the rise both to a real spread of incel ideology online in the UK and to heightened awareness after the Plymouth incel-linked attack in 2021 (The Guardian, 2023). In short, what began as a relatively obscure online subculture has, over ten years, escalated into a tangible extremist threat characterised by growing online misogyny and occasional but devastating acts of violence.

The Online Safety Act 2023 requires platforms to proactively tackle illegal content, including that which disproportionately affects women and girls, including harassment, stalking, controlling or coercive behaviour, extreme pornography, and intimate image abuse. It also requires platforms to protect children from seeing content which may be racist, antismetic, homophobic or misogynist and allowing adults optional tools to reduce the likelihood of encountering such content.  This may therefore have some impact on children and young people being able to access incel based content at source, however the true impact is to be seen.

Literature around incels refers to them talking about taking the black pill.  This builds on a concept seen in the 1999 film, The Matrix, where the lead character, Neo, is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill.  He is told that if he takes the blue pill his world will not change and he can continue to live in a world of illusion constructed for his benefit, whilst if he takes the red pill he will awaken and see the society around him for what it actually is with all its harsh realities.  For incels therefore, the taking of the red pill equates to understanding the truth of society, however it appears that this view is not limited to incels but is found within wider misogynistic groupings.  Ging (cited in Hoffman et al. (ibid)) suggests that:

Incels appear to have taken the pill analogy a step further, with reference to “taking the black pill”.  Hoffman et al. (ibid.) consider this to be a nihilistic approach, with the black pill being seen as providing an enhanced understanding of reality, one where “women and society are intrinsically biased against men who lack specific physical attributes, who therefore have no hope of ever being attractive to women or even accepted by society” (p.6), with incels who take the black pill taking the view that their position as an incel is a permanent condition from which there is no escape.  Kelly et al. (2021) build on this, stating that those who adhere to the black pill mentality hold the view that change on an individual level is not possible and issues can only be addressed on a societal level, and therefore any attempts to change their personal lot in life (which others in the manosphere may do by working out, having plastic surgery, with a view to elevating themselves to Chad status) are futile.

A significant factor in the recent discourse around masculinity and violence has been the rise of online influencers like Andrew Tate, who promote extreme misogyny and hyper-masculinity. Tate, a British-American former kickboxer turned social media personality, presents himself as the “king of toxic masculinity.” Through 2022–2023, his content – rife with derogatory comments about women, endorsements of male dominance, and glorification of wealth and aggression – gained enormous popularity among young men and boys, including in the UK.  Research by the University of York suggested that one survey found that 80% of 16 and 17 year-old British boys had consumed content created by Tate. 

Tate’s views are not identical to incel ideology – he encourages men to pursue sexual conquests and projects an image of personal success, in contrast to incels’ identity of involuntary celibacy. However, there is considerable overlap in the toxic attitudes toward women. Tate routinely describes women as property or inferior and has justified using violence to control them (he infamously stated “women belong in the home” and that men have authority over women). This brand of performative misogyny resonates in the broader “manosphere”, and there are numerous, lesser-known creators who emulate his style.  The concern is therefore that Tate and others effectively serve as a gateway: his flashy lifestyle and anti-feminist tirades attract young males, potentially normalising hatred of and hostile attitudes towards women, whilst desensitizing them to more extreme ideologies like incel forums.

The forums then appear to have their own “influencers” who further the cause. The 2022 research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate identified that on the forum they reviewed, 406 ‘powerusers’ (around 2.5% of the total users) accounted for around 75% of all posts to the forum.

Kelly et al. (ibid.) suggest that there should be a distinction in the terms that are used between incels and misogynist incels, echoing the wider views above.  In putting this argument forward they recognise that there are a significant number of people, including women, who identify as incels, whilst there is only a minority who dehumanise women and espouse male entitlement.

Within the wider involuntary celibate group there are a number of different groupings, including those who are married or living with their partner, but the partner no longer desires sex, as well as un-partnered singles who are unable to currently find a partner.  This group includes both men and women of all sexual orientations and is a grouping that has been around for a long time (Donnelly et al., 2001).  This of course is in stark contrast to the misogynist incels, however within the misogynistic incels, research has found that the incelosphere is not a homogenous, high aggressive community, but one where different groupings exist, with only a minority being aggressive individuals who have the potential to act out the violent commentary that they express in forums.

Therefore, whilst in this safeguarding insight we refer to incels as this is the colloquially accepted term, we need to look to the individual, their experiences and beliefs. The majority do however say that they had never had a sexual encounter, as well as having self-identified high levels of mental health issues, and experience of ostracisation from peers and others whilst growing up.

Stijelja (ibid.), summarises research completed by Hintz and Baker (2021) which looks at how incel identities are developed and maintained.  This found:

Using thematic analysis, the authors identified several factors explaining how Incel identities are developed and sustained. Physical appearance (e.g., body weight, height), ability status (e.g., speech impediment, learning disability), mental health issues (e.g., social anxiety, depression), and emotional and physical abuse at home (e.g., emotionally abusive mother or father) were common themes. Other themes included: personality issues and social ineptitudes, being closeted about one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, a lack of effort, and certain beliefs about masculinity, sex, and relationships. (p.10)

Hall (2019) in his review of terrorism legislation identifies that there are occasions where the sexual frustration will then be translated into violence, with perceived incel based 'revenge' attacks against women appearing to take place in America from 2014 onwards.  Michael (TES, 2021) recounts an attack in Canada where a white van mounted the pavement and ran over pedestrians, killing 10 of them.

In relation to the UK, Hall (ibid.) suggests that; “In 2019 the arrest of Anwar Driouich raised the spectre of incel-inspired violence in the United Kingdom. Driouich had acquired a component of high explosives and seven terrorist manuals and was obsessed by terrorism and other mass casualty attacks. Although he had searched for materials about incels, it was accepted by the police that he did not have any “terrorist mind-set”.” (p.22)

Between 2020 and 2025 there have been a handful of cases in the UK with links to incel, including one heard in a Scottish court in January 2021 where the male had bought together a significant collection of weapons and was found to have researched incel and, more specifically, mass murders, “including some motivated by incel” (Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service, 2021).  Others include the Plymouth shootings in 2021 and the Southport stabbings in 2024.

As we have already seen above however, incel linked attacks continue to be considered sporadic.

Brace (2021) suggests that “the incel ideology exhibits all the hallmarks of an extremist ideology”.  He continues that this includes views around belonging and ostracisation (in and out groups) as well as the development of narratives to resolve the inherent presenting issue.  As with extremist ideologies, the out groups (in this case women, Chads and Normies) are depicted in an extreme negative light and then further dehumanised by the language that is used.  All this is considered to be very much in line with supremacist ideology.

Hoffman et al. (2020) demonstrate how the first perpetrator of recognised incel violence has been elevated to the position of patron saint of the incel movement:

Estimates in 2021 suggested that the incel movement had claimed approximately 40-50 lives around the world between 2014 and 2020 (The Guardian, 2021), although it is accepted that this is likely to be a high figure, as it includes several school shootings in America where the perpetrators listed incel ideology as part of their wider grievances.

In his government commissioned independent review of terrorism legislation in the UK, Hall (2019) sets out that The Terrorism Act 2000 has three cumulative criteria that must be met for an act to qualify as terrorism, namely there must be a certain level of seriousness, there must be a particular target (which serves to influence government, a government organisation or a section of the public) and the use must be for the purpose of advancing a cause (which includes an ideological cause).  Hall (ibid.) sets out that the broadness of these criteria means that incel violence could be captured under the definition of terrorism, however he goes on to add a note of caution about the drawbacks of doing this, linked with the associated powers and the public perception if something is classified as terrorism (i.e. leads to questioning what is understood by terrorism, a potential increase in feelings of insecurity in the population and also risks glamourising the ideology and pulling others in).  He notes that it is the Police who in practice apply the definition of terrorism and therefore decide whether to class something as a terrorist act, and mandates the use of a incremental approach, stating:

This incremental approach is therefore also a key issue when discussing incel ideology – there is a need to balance up the media and public perception of associated acts of violence with the knowledge that they remain rare, sporadic and uncoordinated, and only enacted by a relatively small minority of a larger group.  This balance is important when discussing incel ideology in your settings as to not do so could risk children and young people being labelled as a terrorist by their peers and targeted through social media if they appear in the view of others to have incel characteristics.

Bates (2020), offers a counter view to this approach, suggesting that such acts of violence linked to misogynist views are not being labelled as terrorism as that would offend men and that the response is therefore inherently wound up in wider societal issues that potentially contribute to the development of the incel ideology in the first place:

In 2023 William Shawcross undertook a review of Prevent for the Home Office in which he agreed with the prevailing view that incel is not a terrorist ideology but could well be classified as a hate crime and dealt with through hate-crime legislation.  Current legislation does not however recognise misogyny as a hate category. Thus, there is a gap: incel violence is motivated by gender hatred, but that hatred has no formal label in law (unlike racism or religious hate).  Currently the CPS and police work to the following agreed definition for identifying and flagging hate crimes:

Research in 2024 funded by the Commission for Countering Extremism looked to establish whether there is a predictive relationship between incel mental health, networking and ideology and the extent of their harmful attitudes and beliefs. It found that “In line with previous research, incels typically display extremely poor mental health, with high incidences of depression and suicidal ideation”.  Taking a wider demographic viewpoint, the research identified that approximately one third scored above the cut-off for a medical referral on the autistic spectrum questionnaire (identifying that around 80% of people who meet this criterion receive an ASD diagnosis).  The research concluded that “interventions targeting mental health and ideology may yield more effective harm reduction than interventions targeting networking.

In response to the findings, the Commissioner for Countering Extremism, Robin Simcox suggested that “the report’s findings suggest that adopting a security or counter-terrorism lens towards incels is not often going to be the most appropriate response. Neither is scaremongering about them forming part of a global extreme right-wing threat. Where there is a risk of violence, the appropriate authorities must always be informed. However, finding ways to ensure this desperate, depressed cohort of men, often with poor mental health, are integrated into society and given appropriate support should also be a key part of any response.” (Swansea University, 2024)

As mentioned throughout this insight, there are slang words which are associated with incel ideology.  Some more common ones are below:

• Ascend - leave the bounds of inceldom and have sex with a woman (without payment being given).
• AWALT - Acronym for "All Women Are Like That".
• Black pill - Dating success is driven by physical attractiveness and determined at birth. Those who are inferior will therefore not be able to access sexual and romantic relationships.
• Blue pill - Those who have not taken the red pill and live unaware of the real state of affairs.
• Chad - an attractive, successful man desired by all women (also known as alpha male).
• Cuck - an average man who has not yet taken the red pill and is inferior to the alpha male but happy to continue living in a society that oppresses them.
• Femoid / foid - short for 'female humanoid', mostly used by incels as a way of dehumanising women.
• GBITKYB - Acronym for "Get back into the kitchen you b***h".
• Great replacement - A far-right conspiracy theory suggesting the global elite is deliberately replacing the population of white people (mainly in Europe) with non-white people. It's related to 'white genocide' (see below).
• Gymmaxxing - going to the gym to improve appearance to be able to access sex.
• Landwhale - overweight women.
• MMASYB - Acronym for "Make me a sandwich you b***h".
• Normie - a person who is not part of the incel community.
• Red pill - Learning about and understanding the truth about male oppression.
• Roastie - sexually attractive woman.
• White genocide - A far-right conspiracy theory about a plot to make white people extinct.

Further terms can be found here, however Safeguarding Network takes no responsibility for the veracity of the content.