The purpose of this study is to investigate incels as a case of a social movement. Incels stands for involuntary celibacy and describes men who consider themselves to be unattractive and live a life without sexual relations. The group is homogenous and consists of outcast men who has created their own forums on the internet. Previous research has focused a lot on studying incels misogynic views, loneliness and violence, but yet the group has not been studied as a case of a social movement. By using netnographic hidden observations on the incelforum Incels.is, this study will answer our research questions concerning how the community is constructed on Incels.is and how they describe their exclusion from the society. The study’s theoretical framework is based on Melucci’s theory of collective identity and Goffman’s theory of stigma. To study incels as a social movement, we constructed an ideal type to help us understand what aspects of what a social movement consists of to investigate how incels community is constructed. The results shows that the incels community is constructed by using their own language and symbols, different forms of emotional investments such as empathy and compassion to support each other, and their shared beliefs of what characterize an incel where the recognition creates an opportunity for them to feel united with the group. Another explanation for incels community is that the group are in a political conflict where their common societal goal is to change the prevailing social structure. Finally, the members of Incels.is believe that society has forced them into exclusion because of not fulfilling the norms and expectations that society has. Therefore, incels has consolidate a victim role in response to the negative perception of those around them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-110299 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Robertsson, Elin, Karlsson, Josefine |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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