Incels and Ideologies

This book explores how incels use language and other semiotic resources to construct ideologies of gender and race/ethnicity. The author theorises and positions incels' performances of masculinity against a backdrop of broader social sciences and linguistic literature, and discusses some of the limitations of different lenses through which incels have previously been understood, as well some of the ethical issues involved with researching a hostile community. Corpus linguistic methods and netnographic reflections are used to explore how incels construct ideologies about gender, gendered social actors, and race/ethnicity, as well as where these concepts intersect. Taking a post-structuralist critical analysis to this community reveals a number of way ideologies towards different groups based on social identities are linguistically constructed. This book will be relevant to those researching or studying language, gender, and sexuality, sociology, and criminology. Outside of academic applications, it is also written in a way that is accessible to external organisations interested in equality and the prevention of incel-ideology-motivated offline attacks.

“In Incels and Ideologies Dr Frazer Heritage provides significant and original insight into the language of incel communities. Drawing on rich, critical corpus linguistic analyses of empirical online data, Heritage expertly demonstrates how incels construct gender and race. Of further importance is the consideration of the ethics and implications on researcher well-being and safety when studying groups renowned for hostility, an issue currently under-explored in the literature. Heritage’s book is a compelling and outstanding contribution to the field and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in how language is weaponised as a tool for misogynistic, racist, and other intersecting supremacist ideologies.”

“Readers interested in linguistic analysis of manosphere will find that this book is an exciting new step in understanding misogynist ideologies through the lens of discourse analysis. Frazer Heritage offers insightful and thought-provoking discussion of an impressive corpus of data from three incel-specific websites. By going beyond content analysis and relying on corpus methods, Heritage contributes much-needed empirical research to this area of great societal controversy.”

—Daria Dayter, Associate Professor of English Linguistics, Tampere University, Finland

“In this long-overdue book, deeply reflective and meticulously researched, Heritage delves into the linguistic world of incels and the manosphere. Uncovering the relationship between hegemonic masculinities, misogyny, and racism, and offering a deep understanding of male spaces in the digital domain through the lens of corpus-assisted (critical) discourse analysis, Heritage's revelations are a clarion call for anyone seeking to decipher the hidden intricacies and dark undercurrents of incel ideology. While Ideologies and Incels might challenge readers at times with its confronting material, it serves as a profound reminder of the pressing importance to engage with these issues head-on.”

—Sofia Rüdiger, Chair of English Linguistics, University of Bayreuth, Germany

​Frazer Heritage is a Lecturer in Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is primarily interested in how gender and sexuality are represented in different forms of media. His main area of research looks at corpus linguistic approaches to the representation of gender in videogames and in online communities. He has been examining the language used by the incel community since 2018.