Activities per year
Abstract / Description of output
In recent years, online “involuntary celibate” or “incel” communities have been linked to various deadly attacks targeting women. Why do these men react to romantic rejection with not just disappointment, but murderous rage? Feminists have claimed this is because incels desire women as objects or, alternatively, because they feel entitled to women's attention. I argue that both of these explanatory models are insufficient. They fail to account for incels’ distinctive ambivalence toward women—for their oscillation between obsessive desire and violent hatred. I propose instead that what incels want is a Beauvoirian “Other.” For Beauvoir, when men conceive of women as Others, they represent them as simultaneously human subjects and embodiments of the natural world. Women function then as sui generis entities through which men can experience themselves as praiseworthy heroes, regardless of the quality of their actions. I go on to give an illustrative analysis of Elliot Rodger's autobiographical manifesto, “My Twisted World.” I show how this Beauvoirian model sheds light on Rodger's racist and classist attitudes and gives us a better understanding of his ambivalence toward women. It therefore constitutes a powerful and overlooked theoretical alternative to accounts centered on objectification and entitlement.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 134-156 |
Journal | Hypatia |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 29 Mar 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- Simone de Beauvoir
- incels
- misogyny
- objectification
- feminist philosophy
- entitlement
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Public Panel: Resentment, Guilt, and Shame Under Patriarchy
Filipa Melo Lopes (Speaker), Louise Richardson-Self (Speaker), Tracy Llanera (Speaker) & Kate Manne (Keynote/plenary speaker)
9 Aug 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Public Engagement – Public lecture/debate/seminar
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What do incels want? Explaining Incel Violence Using Beauvoirian Otherness
Filipa Melo Lopes (Speaker)
2020 → 2021Activity: Other activity types › Other