Bengtsson Meuller, Elsa. 2025. Blurred Violence: Exploring the Politics of the Misogynist Involuntary Celibate Community. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

The misogynist incel community - an antifeminist men-only community that revolves around its members’ perceived involuntary celibacy - has been linked to several in-person violent attacks. And yet, they are often framed as simply existing ‘online’, thereby diminishing the scale and impact of parts of their violence. To understand why online violence is often taken less seriously, this thesis explores the wider context within which misogynist incels’ violence exists by analysing both their internal politics, and the external effects of the community on society. This thesis is thus about misogynist incels and misogyny. To achieve this, the thesis develops a Feminist (N)ethnography that critically investigates our understanding of violence, and particularly how the cognitive conceptual divide between the online and offline affects this understanding. The data is generated from a year-long observation of a misogynist incel forum; interviews with survivors and experts of violence conducted through online technologies; media analyses of newspaper reportage and YouTube videos; and reflexive praxis.

This thesis continues the discussion on misogyny as violent and political. Following previous analyses, it finds that the misogynist incel community is a re-enactment of white supremacist patriarchy and part of a continuum of misogynistic violence. However, it further argues that the study of the misogynist incel community illustrates how violence conducted through online technologies is blurred violence. In turn, the misogynist incel community can persist due to the normalisation of misogyny within society, and due to governments, tech companies, and powerful media actors’ abdication of responsibility for this violence. The thesis makes several contributions. Empirically, it explores misogynist incels’ misogynistic politics intersectionally; and it explores misogynist incels’ engagement in doxing. Methodologically, it develops a feminist (n)ethnography; and it incorporates perspectives of victims/survivors of violence conducted through online technologies to understand misogynist incels’ violence. Conceptually, it intervenes in the terms ‘online violence’ and ‘technology facilitated/enabled violence’ by introducing the term violence conducted through online technologies to more clearly assign responsibility; it develops the concept of blurred violence to analyse how enablers are active in the making of violence; and it introduces a typology of doxing to investigate politics. The thesis concludes with recommendations for governments, tech companies, and academia.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00039040
Keywords:	Incels; Incel culture; Misogyny; Violence; Online technology; Blurred Violence; Antifeminism; Manosphere; VAWG; Politics; Doxing; Incel ideology; Media representation; Feminist (n)ethnography
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Politics
Date:	31 May 2025
Item ID:	39040
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2025 15:08
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2025 15:15
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39040

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