Date of Award
8-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Social Sciences
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Heather Hensman Kettrey
Committee Member
Dr. Heidi Zinzow
Committee Member
Dr. Matthew Costello
Committee Member
Dr. Natalia Sianko
Abstract
In a gender-segregated digital space known as the Manosphere, a group of men calling themselves “Incels,” or involuntary celibates, express feelings of hostility and hatred towards women. Incels hold a low position on a masculine hierarchy where the men who hold the most power in society are those who have access to women’s emotional and sexual services. Incels are characterized by feelings of entitlement to women’s services and aggrievement by their inability to access them. As a result, they often appear to fantasize about or engage in acts of violence to compensate for their lack of masculine privilege. However, there are men who try to escape these harmful ideologies and leave the Incel community altogether. In this study, I analyze 130 Reddit threads from a community of men attempting to leave the Incel community. This case study permits the examination of the ways low-status men challenge and/or reinforce the masculine hierarchy. Findings demonstrate the pervasive power of the masculine hierarchy. Aside from a few exceptions, men who were presumably attempting to leave the Incel community embraced their low status on the masculine hierarchy and accepted the inevitability of that hierarchy. Their reluctance to challenge the masculine hierarchy suggests they recognize that this hierarchy both justifies their subjugation under more privileged men and their power over women. In other words, for these men, the masculine hierarchy is simultaneously a prison and a bastion of masculine privilege.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Alyssa Jewel, "CLIMBING THE MASCULINE HIERARCHY: EXAMINING CONSTRUCTIONS OF MASCULINITY THROUGH INCEL IDENTITIES" (2022). All Theses. 3878.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3878
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-0676-3781
Included in
Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Other Psychology Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons