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Cited by 54Gender and Feminist StudiesGender, Feminism, and MediaPopulism, Right-Wing Movements

Incels, Compulsory Sexuality, and Fascist Masculinity

Open access
Kelly, Casey Ryan, Aunspach, Chase·2020·Feminist Formations
DOI 10.1353/ff.2020.0044
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Abstract

Incel, the now-widely circulated portmanteau for involuntary celibacy, denotes a growing community of mostly cisgender men who are unable to find sexual partners or forge romantic relationships. Organizing in online networks, these men blame their exile from sexual relations on everything from feminism and sexual liberation to genetics and natural laws of attraction. In this essay, we offer an asexual critique of compulsory sexuality in online incel communities to illustrate how the sexual imperatives that animate fascism and the politics of the alt-right rest on myths of an insatiable male sex drive. We argue that incel discourse repurposes liberal conceptions of sexual liberation as well as alternative theories of intimacy crafted by queer and asexual communities to advance an abject and fascist form of masculinity. Rather than understand incels as sexually repressed and unable to assimilate hegemonic masculinity, we theorize incel discourse as a white militant extension of compulsory sexuality that transforms alternative intimacies into violent masculinist fantasies of invulnerability and the sexual will-to-power. Content warning: this essay examines potentially traumatizing discourses concerning sexual assault, racial violence, and discriminatory beliefs. Please read with caution.

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  • Dominant heteronormative understandings of sex and relationships share a common implicit commitment to compulsory sexuality.

    “Kelly and Aunspach (2020 ) argue that dominant heteronormative understandings of sex and relationships share a common implicit commitment to compulsory sexuality”

    From Agency and authority: A differentiated model of hermeneutical power (2025) · cites this paper as Kelly and Aunspach (2020 )

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Research works printed but not linked: 14

  1. Bederman, Gail. 2008. Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  2. Berger, Maurice, Brian Wallis, and Simon Watson, eds. 1995. Constructing Masculinity. New York: Routledge.
  3. Connell, R. W. 2005. Masculinities. 2nd edition. New York: Polity.
  4. Eco, Umberto. 1995. "Ur-fascism." New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995.
  5. Hollway, Wendy. 1998. "Gender Difference and the Production of Subjectivity." In Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity, edited by Julian Henriques, Wendy Hollway, Cathy Urwin, Couze Venn, and Valerie Walkerdine, 2nd edition, 227-63. New York: Routledge.
  6. ---.2020. Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and the Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood. Columbus: Ohio State University Press
  7. Nicolson, Paula. 1993. "Public Values and Private Beliefs: Why Do Women Refer Themselves to Sex Therapy?" In Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Problems: New Directions in Theory and Practice, edited by Jane M. Ussher and Christine D. Baker, 56-78. London: Routledge.
  8. ---. 2018. "Still, Nothing: Mammy and Black Asexual Possibility." Feminist Review 120, no. 1 (November): 70-84.
  9. ---. 2014. "Masculine Doubt and Sexual Wonder Asexually-Identified Men Talk About Their (A)Sexualities." In Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, edited by KJ Cerankowski and Megan Milks, 225-46. New York: Routledge.
  10. ---. 2016. "Introducing Asexuality, Unthinking Sex." In Introducing the New Sexu ality Studies, 3rd edition, edited by Nancy L. Fischer and Steve Seidman, 181-91. New York: Routledge.
  11. Rubin, Gayle. 1975. "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex." In Toward an Anthropology of Women, edited by Rayna R. Reiter, 157-210. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  12. Salter, Anastasia and Bridget Blodgett. 2017. Toxic Geek Masculinity in Media: Sexism, Trolling, and Identity Policing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  13. Seidman, Steven. 1992. Embattled Eros: Sexual Politics and Ethics in Contemporary America. 1st edition. New York: Routledge.
  14. Sontag, Susan. 2002. Under the Sign of Saturn: Essays. 1st edition. New York: Picador.

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Authors
Kelly, C. R., & Aunspach, C.
ORCID
Venue
Feminist Formations
Publisher
Project MUSE
Published
2020
Volume
32
Issue
3
Pages
145-172
ISSN
  • 1040-0656 (ISSN-L)
  • 2151-7371
DOI
10.1353/ff.2020.0044
OpenAlex
W3120701479
Cited by
54
References
26
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1
FWCI
6.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • NWSA Journal (publishedVersion)
  • Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Feminism, and Media
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Keywords
incels, involuntary celibacy, compulsory sexuality, alt-right, online communities, sexual freedom, hegemonic masculinity, white supremacy, intimacy, queer theory, will to power, feminism

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