Fact or Value

A Prehistory of Incels

February – March 2024

Women are flawed . . . They are incapable of reason or thinking rationally. They are like animals, completely controlled by their primal, depraved emotions and impulses.
—Elliot Rodger

. . . her nature, which is more ‘natural’ than man’s, the genuine, cunning suppleness of a beast of prey, the tiger’s claw under the glove, the naiveté of her egoism, her uneducatability and inner wildness . . .
—Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

In this remarkable parallel of imagery in two sentences from wildly different sources, we see a convergent evolution of similar ideas about women, through different processes. Elliot Rodger, ‘the world’s most famous incel’ according to philosopher Amia Srinivasan, lies in the realm of delusional testimonies, Nietzsche in the realm of serious philosophy.

Of course, much of philosophy written by men has been misogynist in various aspects. But the striking thing about incel ideology is that we find its reflections, if not its roots, in unexpected sources: such as sexual Marxism in the socialist Charles Fourier who coined the term ‘feminism’. We find women such as Esther Vilar writing about a global system that disenfranchises and demeans men, that undergirds the worldview of the MGTOW movement. And we find modern feminists such as Amia Srinivasan writing on unequal access to sex.

The ideas of inceldom, though rightfully derided and produced through personal grievance rather than philosophical insight, have been taken seriously by serious scholars.

Reading List (In alphabetical order)

  • CAHILL, Ann J. ‘Sexual Desire, Inequality and the Possibility of Transformation’ in Sherri Irvin (ed.), Body Aesthetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 281–98.
  • EVOLA, Julius. ‘4. Gods and Goddesses, Men and Women’ in Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1983, pp. 115–171.
  • FOURIER, Charles. ‘The Nature and Uses of Love in Harmony’ and ‘New Amorous Institutions’, The New Amorous World, in The Utopian Vision of Charles Fourier (Jonathan Beecher and Richard Bienvenu eds). Boston: Beacon Press, 1971, pp. 332–46 and 359–80.
  • JEROME. Against Jovinianus (393 CE).
  • SCHOPENHAUER, Arthur. On Women (Joseph Godfrey trans., Guy de Maupassant intro.). New York: Felshin Publishing, 1931.
  • SRINIVASAN, Amia. The Right to Sex. London: Bloomsbury, 2021. Available online.
  • TOMASSI, Rollo. ‘Hypergamy’ and ‘The Female Imperative’ in The Rational Male (2013).
  • VILAR, Esther. The Manipulated Man (Eva Borneman trans.). London: Pinter and Martin, 1971.
  • WEININGER, Otto. ‘1. “Men” and “Women”’, ‘9. Male and Female Psychology’, ’11. Eroticism and Aesthetics’ and ‘12. The Nature of Woman and Her Purpose in the Universe’ in Sex and Character (Ladislaus Löb trans., Daniel Steuer and Laura Marcus eds). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005, pp. 12–15, 161–87 and 211–29.