HCRG Webinar 'Incel ideology, discourse, and extreme forms of misogyny'

As part of International Women’s Day (8 March 2026), this hate crime research group webinar will focus on ‘Incel ideology, discourse, and extreme forms of misogyny' with guest speaker, Anda Solea (She/Her), PhD Candidate and Lecturer in Cybercrime in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth.

Abstract: Once considered a niche ideology confined to fringe forums and marginal online spaces, misogynistic incel ideology has increasingly migrated into mainstream platforms, discourse, and youth vernacular. This presentation deconstructs mainstream incel multimodal communication on TikTok, analysing the linguistic and visual strategies through which this subculture denigrates women, inflicts symbolic harm, and rhetorically constructs women as a malicious and dangerous outgroup that must be controlled, punished, and, in extreme cases, eliminated. Drawing on recent empirical findings, the presentation interrogates the communicative practices that enable incel ideology to circulate in the mainstream, including its rebranding as a benign self-improvement community (e.g. “looksmaxxing”), the mobilisation of pseudoscientific misogynistic and racialised ‘evidence’, and the strategic deployment of male victimhood to attract audiences and generate engagement. Crucially, the talk situates these discursive practices within a broader continuum of gender-based violence, showing how extreme misogyny is normalised, legitimised, and increasingly rendered indistinguishable from everyday cultural practices. While these ideologies are not new, their repackaging and popularisation on mainstream social media have significantly amplified their reach, embedding harmful misogynistic and sexist narratives into everyday online life, with tangible negative implications for both women and men beyond the digital sphere.

If you have any questions, please contact the chair of this webinar, Dr Irene Zempi (irene.zempi@ntu.ac.uk).