Attacks by men who failed to find a girlfriend bring new scrutiny on incels and violent ideology

Deadly attacks in the UK and Japan bring new focus on incels - involuntary celibate men - and their violent ideology.

Two violent attacks by men angered by their failure to find a girlfriend have put renewed focus on the danger posed by “incels’’ – involuntary celibate men who believe they have been robbed of their right to have sex with women.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess used the term incels for the first time in March in his annual threat assessment, saying the spy agency was aware of growing numbers of individuals and groups who didn’t fit into the religious or left-right terrorism spectrum but were motivated by “a specific social or economic grievance or conspiracy.’’

“For example, the violent misogynists who adhere to the involuntary celibate or ‘incel’ ideology fit into this category,’’ he said.

While there has been no attack in Australia by a known incel, two attacks overseas have heightened awareness of the risk posed by a small minority of incels, many of whom gather online to vent hatred.

Jake Davison, 22, killed five people then himself in Plymouth, UK. He had described himself online as an incel, and ranted about hating his mother and having no love or support. Picture: Supplied

On August 12, Jake Davison shot dead five people before killing himself in Plymouth, in the UK. The 22-year-old had engaged with online incel forums, and twice described himself as an incel.

“Maybe the business owner might go bankrupt twice … but guess what – he had a wife and kids to support him. Does incel or virgin get that? No. Imagine failing at everything in life and having absolutely no support whatsoever,” he said in one post.

Devon and Cornwall Police are “reviewing’’ the decision not to deem his attack an act of domestic terrorism, given his involvement with incel ideology.

And in an attack which went largely unnoticed in Australia, a man allegedly went on a rampage on a train in the Japanese capital Tokyo on August 6, stabbing five men and five women, some critically.

Yusuke Tsushima, 36, who was charged with attempted murder, is alleged to have told police he wanted to kill “happy looking women’’ and that he had been rejected by women on social occasions and on dating sites.

Yusuke Tsushima, 36, allegedly stabbed 10 people on a train in Japan on August 6, 2021.

News Corp has been told there is nothing to suggest a particular or imminent threat posed by the incel movement in Australia, and that it was a more significant problem in the US, where incels were more likely to also be supportive of alt-right ideology, white supremacy and homophobia.

While many incels were just lonely and often suffering mental illness, authorities remained alert to the possibility of a lone wolf attack from a radicalised incel.

A study last year by researchers from the University of Western Australia’s School of Social Sciences argued that incels posed a national security threat.

The study found incels had killed at least 50 people in North America since 2014, a figure they argued was comparable to the numbers killed in terror attacks by Islamic extremists in the same region.

UWA researcher Sian Tomkinson said Davison’s actions should be considered an act of terrorism, or more specifically, violent extremism.

She also said the alleged attack by Tsushima aligned with the “violent misogynist’’ category.

“Something that makes incels unique is that yes, they are misogynistic. They hate desirable women for being successful and for not choosing them as partners,’’ Dr Tomkinson said.

“But they also hate desirable men who they see as taking all the women. Their lack of romantic/sexual success with women makes them feel persecuted by everyone, and therefore angry at everyone.’’

She noted that Tsushima had been quoted as saying: “I began feeling like I wanted to kill women who looked happy about six years ago’’ and “I came to possess a desire to kill women who appear to be on the winning side of life and couples looking happy after a woman made a fool of me at a university student society”.

“This hatred of and anger towards women, particularly women who are happy or successful, aligns with the violent misogynist category. Also like other incel violent extremists, he attacked men and women, and his comments about couples bear similarity to those in the Isla Vista killing manifesto,’’ she said.

Dr Tomkinson said her research team was “quite concerned about violent extremist incels,’’ in Australia and believed they should be “securitised.’’

“This means that governments label incels, or violent misogynists, of which incels are a category, as a security threat. By doing this governments can make misogynist crimes a public issue, rather than a private one (where victim blaming often occurs),’’ she said.

“Securitisation also allows the government to unlock resources and governance mechanisms to deal with the issue.

“We strongly prefer primary interventions to avoid creating a suspect community. These interventions involve setting social norms and encouraging social awareness and solidarity.”

Secondary interventions meant intervening when people became radicalised, and engaging them in support programs such as those designed for neo-Nazis and domestic abusers.

Tertiary interventions such as surveillance were also available, although were costly.

Co-author Tauel Harper said it was believed incel attacks were under-reported.

“While we have not had a noted, card carrying ‘incel’ mass killing here, the connection between violence and incel membership is hard to trace (forums are generally anonymised) unless the perpetrator declares it,’’ Dr Harper said.

Vile rants from incels are freely available online, and News Corp was able to find within minutes a copy of the manifesto posted by one of the original incels, Elliot Rodger, in 2014. He had made threats online about being rejected, then murdered six people in Isla Vista in California.

In 2018, Alek Minassian murdered 10 people in Toronto, Canada, by ramming them with a van, labelling it the start of the “Incel Rebellion” and calling Rodger the “Supreme Gentleman.’’

Facebook image of Elliott Rodger, who killed six people after posting a vile manifesto online.

Incels refer to women as “foids’’, a type of subhuman female humanoids, and attractive women as “Stacys’’, who they considered promiscuous and unintelligent, but highly desirable.

Successful men who form sexual relationships with women are labelled “Chads’’ and incels express violent hatred against them for taking more than their share of sexually available women.