Dr Sian Tomkinson, media and communications scholar at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University, said these extreme views were the thin end of the wedge.
Australia has a huge problem with violence against women, domestic violence, and misogyny broadly – we absolutely cannot ignore it and pretend that misogynistic beliefs are only held by a small number of people "on the internet" (noting, of course, that these people exist in "real life’" too!),' Dr Tomkinson told Daily Mail Australia. The incel forum thread was flooded by others sharing anti-Semitic and racist language while celebrating Cauchi's actions in their bizarre terminology. 'To provide some extra important info, this happened in Bondi. Bondi is an area with a lot of Chads and Stacies,' wrote one. 'One of the videos some foid reporter describes one of the dead foid victims, she sounded like a Stacey.' In incel ideology, a Chad is a good-looking, successful man who will likely attract and have sex with Staceys, who are sexually-appealing women who often benefit financially from their desirability. Incels are jealous of Chads and hate Staceys because they will never be able to obtain them due to their perceived inferior looks. Meanwhile, 'foid', which is short for 'femoid', is a derogatory term to refer to women in general. One user appeared to celebrate the deaths of some of Cauchi's female victims, writing 'AnothER foid has died in hospital' followed by three 'dabbing' emojis. Another poster had a caption underneath their username which read '(the) Only good foid is a dead foid'. One shared a picture of a distressed female shopper who wept while being interviewed outside the shopping centre in the hours after the attack. 'Life fuel seeing this b**** foid cry out of fear,' they wrote. 'Life fuel' is described in incel slang as something that causes one to feel a sick sense of satisfaction, especially over the suffering of women. In their belief system, incels will never be able to attract a Stacey and this disappointment fuels their rage. 'Good riddance to all of those sexhavERs,' wrote one user.
The recurrent capitalised 'ERs' are a coded reference to the initials of Elliot Rogers, who killed six people and injured 14 more in Isla Vista, California, in 2014. During his rampage he uploaded a video to YouTube entitled 'Elliot Rodger's Retribution', in which he explained that he was motivated by a desire to punish women for rejecting him and to kill sexually active men he envied. Rodgers is lionised among incels. When it later emerged that Cauchi had been killed by a female police officer, Inspector Amy Scott, the depraved incels seized on this as an example of people celebrating women killing men. 'They don't even hide it. They despise short men. They hate you and they get off watching women kill you,' wrote one in response to a post praising the actions of Inspector Scott. Another added: 'Look how they celebrate a woman killing a man. Do they not realize she only does it because of her access to a gun? A man made weapon?' One user said he belied Cauchi acted the way he did becuse of 'loneliness and incel status'. 'No friends, no girlfriend, no kids, no job and he realised he was never going to have any of those things, he gave 110 per cent and finally just couldn't take it any more and started stabbing women,' they wrote. 'The lack of a romantic/sexual relationship was what put him over the edge. He apparently lunged at an armed female cop so he wanted to die. RIP Joel. You're free now.' The posts remained online ten days after the attack despite a recent push by the Australian government's e-Safety Commissioner to remove 'harmful content' from social media sites. Dr Tomkinson likened Cauchi's attack to those of Rogers and Alek Minassian who was motivated by a hatred of women to drive a van into dozens of people, killing 11. 'I would consider the Bondi stabbings an act of violent extremism, as he specifically targeted women,' Dr Tomkinson said. 'It’s important to keep in mind that this is a small minority of incels, however, and we don’t want to alienate people. Incels already feel alienated and disconnected from others, so we don't want to create a suspect community that pushes them even further away.' Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and his parents said he had gone off his medication, which had triggered his psychosis. Dr Tomkinson said the belief system of incels could be viewed as a 'kind of biological determinism where they see attractiveness as something that can be scientifically measured'.
'In particular, some incels talk about phrenology, the shape of one’s head and face, and analyse how someone is unattractive and has no hope of obtaining a girlfriend because of that,' Dr Tomkinson said. 'This kind of thinking leads into discussions about race. Since incels also believe in a kind of sexual hierarchy, different races fit into different levels in this hierarchy, and many refer to themselves derogatorily using racial language (for instance, some Indian incels refer to themselves as "curries" in a derogatory way).' But Dr Tomkinson warned that these fringe views were part of the 'broader Manosphere' of right-wing misogynists. 'That is, other groups or beliefs such as Pick Up Artists, Redpillers, Men Going Their Own Way, and so on,' Dr Tomkinson said. 'These groups have highly conservative and right-wing/alt-right attitudes towards women. 'Specifically, they see the sexual revolution – feminism, the availability of the contraceptive pill and divorce – as something that has seriously damaged mens’ livelihoods. 'They often say things like "feminism has gone too far" and that men are losing out. It is true that many men are feeling disconnected and let down by society, not as successful as they would like to be, but this is not because of feminism – really it’s a whole host of interconnected issues like globalisation, capitalism, and so on.' Dr Tomkinson warned an interest in misogynistic social media figures like Andrew Tate can often lead young men towards incel ideologies. 'His popularity, alongside other people like Jordan Peterson, demonstrates that disillusioned men are looking for guidance, and are finding that misogyny is the "answer",' Dr Tomkinson said. 'Wording like "chads", "staceys", and "femoids" is quite specific to incels, but the general contempt towards women, belief in biological determinism and pseudoscience, anti-feminist rhetoric is something shared among Manosphere groups.'
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