“You girls have never been attracted to me, I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it.
“It’s an injustice, a crime, because I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at all of these obnoxious men.”
These are the words of Elliot Rodger, a man who killed six people in California in 2014, before turning the gun on himself.
It was revenge, he said, for being sexually and socially rejected by women.
The 22-year-old also wrote a 140 page manifesto explaining how much he despised women.
His words, his actions, and his manifesto were condemned by most, but heralded by a small online subculture called ‘Incels’.
Listen to The Quicky’s deep dive into the world of incels. Post continues after podcast.
Incels (or involuntary celibates) define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring someone.
They describe their state as ‘inceldom’.
If you delve into an incel forum online (which have delightful names like ‘Sluthate’), you’ll find resentment, misanthropy, self-loathing, misogyny, racism and a sense of entitlement to sex.
Dr Emma Jane from the University of NSW, who has been studying the subculture puts it more bluntly: