Kinda using the philosophy tab super properly here.
So yeah. Nietzsche was an incel.
Biographically speaking, he was attracted to this one woman named Lou Salomé who literally friendzoned him and another guy and then proceeded to suggest that they live celibately together in an apartment.
Here's the citation from Salomé's biography on Encyclopedia Britannica:
"In 1882, while visiting German writer Malwida von Meysenbug’s salon in Rome, Salomé met the German philosophers Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche. Both men fell in love with her, but she rejected their proposals of marriage. Instead, she suggested that the three of them (plus an older female chaperone) live together in a communal arrangement in which they could enjoy one another’s company and discuss philosophy and other topics of mutual interest. This plan did not materialize (for one, it scandalized Nietzsche’s sister) except for three weeks spent sharing an apartment in Leipzig, Germany."
Accordingly, Nietzsche showcases his disdain for women throughout his philosophical work.
Here are two paragraphs from his book, Beyond Good and Evil:
Paragraph 232:
"Woman wants to be independent: and to that end she is beginning to enlighten men
about ‘woman as such’ – this is one of the worst developments in the general
uglification of Europe. For what must these clumsy attempts on the part of female
scientificality and self-exposure not bring to light! Woman has so much reason for
shame; in woman there is concealed so much pedanticism, superficiality,
schoolmarmishness, petty presumption, petty unbridledness and petty immodesty –
one needs only to study her behaviour with children! – which has fundamentally been
most effectively controlled and repressed hitherto by fear of man. Woe when the
‘eternal-boring in woman’ – she has plenty of that! – is allowed to venture forth!
When she begins radically and on principle to forget her arts and best policy: those of
charm, play, the banishing of care, the assuaging of grief and taking lightly, together
with her subtle aptitude for agreeable desires! Already female voices are raised which,
by holy Aristophanes! make one tremble; there are threatening and medically explicit
statements of what woman wants of man. Is it not in the worst of taste when woman
sets about becoming scientific in that fashion? Enlightenment in this field has
hitherto been the affair and endowment of men – we remained ‘among ourselves’ in
this; and whatever women write about ‘woman’, we may in the end reserve a good
suspicion as to whether woman really wants or can want enlightenment about
herself… Unless a woman is looking for a new adornment for herself in this way –
self-adornment pertains to the eternal-womanly, does it not? – she is trying to inspire
fear of herself – perhaps she is seeking dominion. But she does not want truth: what is
truth to a woman! From the very first nothing has been more alien, repugnant,
inimical to woman than truth – her great art is the lie, her supreme concern is
appearance and beauty. Let us confess it, we men: it is precisely this art and this
instinct in woman which we love and honour: we who have a hard time and for our
refreshment like to associate with creatures under whose hands, glances and tender
follies our seriousness, our gravity and profundity appear to us almost as folly. Finally
I pose the question: has any woman ever conceded profundity to a woman's mind or
justice to a woman's heart? And is it not true that on the whole ‘woman’ has hitherto
been slighted most by woman herself – and not at all by us? – We men want woman to
cease compromising herself through enlightenment: just as it was man's care and
consideration for woman which led the Church to decree: mulier taceat in ecclesia! It
was to the benefit of woman when Napoleon gave the all too eloquent Madame de
Staël to understand: mulier taceat in politicis! – and I think it is a true friend of women
who calls on them today: mulier taceat de muliere!"
[TN: The Latin towards the end translates to:
"Let the woman be silent in church!"
"Let the woman be silent in politics!"
"Let the woman be silent about woman!"
]
Paragraph 234:
"Stupidity in the kitchen; woman as cook; the dreadful thoughtlessness with which the
nourishment of the family and the master of the house is provided for! Woman does
not understand what food means: and she wants to be the cook! If woman were a
thinking creature she would, having been the cook for thousands of years, surely have
had to discover the major facts of physiology, and likewise gained possession of the
art of healing. It is through bad female cooks – through the complete absence of
reason in the kitchen, that the evolution of man has been longest retarded and most
harmed: even today things are hardly any better."
[Nietzsche is literally saying women shouldn't cook lol]
What's the point of this post? Besides showing that Nietzsche was an incel, this is an opportunity.
Nietzsche, as one of the most significant and popularly known philosophers of all time, brings a philosophical legitimacy and gravitas to our plight than practically anyone else can.
Works Cited:
René Ostberg. “Lou Andreas-Salomé.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Lou-Andreas-Salome#ref385023. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025.
Nietzshe, Friedrich. Penguin Classics beyond Good and Evil. Penguin Books, 2014.
So yeah. Nietzsche was an incel.
Biographically speaking, he was attracted to this one woman named Lou Salomé who literally friendzoned him and another guy and then proceeded to suggest that they live celibately together in an apartment.
Here's the citation from Salomé's biography on Encyclopedia Britannica:
"In 1882, while visiting German writer Malwida von Meysenbug’s salon in Rome, Salomé met the German philosophers Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche. Both men fell in love with her, but she rejected their proposals of marriage. Instead, she suggested that the three of them (plus an older female chaperone) live together in a communal arrangement in which they could enjoy one another’s company and discuss philosophy and other topics of mutual interest. This plan did not materialize (for one, it scandalized Nietzsche’s sister) except for three weeks spent sharing an apartment in Leipzig, Germany."
Accordingly, Nietzsche showcases his disdain for women throughout his philosophical work.
Here are two paragraphs from his book, Beyond Good and Evil:
Paragraph 232:
"Woman wants to be independent: and to that end she is beginning to enlighten men
about ‘woman as such’ – this is one of the worst developments in the general
uglification of Europe. For what must these clumsy attempts on the part of female
scientificality and self-exposure not bring to light! Woman has so much reason for
shame; in woman there is concealed so much pedanticism, superficiality,
schoolmarmishness, petty presumption, petty unbridledness and petty immodesty –
one needs only to study her behaviour with children! – which has fundamentally been
most effectively controlled and repressed hitherto by fear of man. Woe when the
‘eternal-boring in woman’ – she has plenty of that! – is allowed to venture forth!
When she begins radically and on principle to forget her arts and best policy: those of
charm, play, the banishing of care, the assuaging of grief and taking lightly, together
with her subtle aptitude for agreeable desires! Already female voices are raised which,
by holy Aristophanes! make one tremble; there are threatening and medically explicit
statements of what woman wants of man. Is it not in the worst of taste when woman
sets about becoming scientific in that fashion? Enlightenment in this field has
hitherto been the affair and endowment of men – we remained ‘among ourselves’ in
this; and whatever women write about ‘woman’, we may in the end reserve a good
suspicion as to whether woman really wants or can want enlightenment about
herself… Unless a woman is looking for a new adornment for herself in this way –
self-adornment pertains to the eternal-womanly, does it not? – she is trying to inspire
fear of herself – perhaps she is seeking dominion. But she does not want truth: what is
truth to a woman! From the very first nothing has been more alien, repugnant,
inimical to woman than truth – her great art is the lie, her supreme concern is
appearance and beauty. Let us confess it, we men: it is precisely this art and this
instinct in woman which we love and honour: we who have a hard time and for our
refreshment like to associate with creatures under whose hands, glances and tender
follies our seriousness, our gravity and profundity appear to us almost as folly. Finally
I pose the question: has any woman ever conceded profundity to a woman's mind or
justice to a woman's heart? And is it not true that on the whole ‘woman’ has hitherto
been slighted most by woman herself – and not at all by us? – We men want woman to
cease compromising herself through enlightenment: just as it was man's care and
consideration for woman which led the Church to decree: mulier taceat in ecclesia! It
was to the benefit of woman when Napoleon gave the all too eloquent Madame de
Staël to understand: mulier taceat in politicis! – and I think it is a true friend of women
who calls on them today: mulier taceat de muliere!"
[TN: The Latin towards the end translates to:
"Let the woman be silent in church!"
"Let the woman be silent in politics!"
"Let the woman be silent about woman!"
]
Paragraph 234:
"Stupidity in the kitchen; woman as cook; the dreadful thoughtlessness with which the
nourishment of the family and the master of the house is provided for! Woman does
not understand what food means: and she wants to be the cook! If woman were a
thinking creature she would, having been the cook for thousands of years, surely have
had to discover the major facts of physiology, and likewise gained possession of the
art of healing. It is through bad female cooks – through the complete absence of
reason in the kitchen, that the evolution of man has been longest retarded and most
harmed: even today things are hardly any better."
[Nietzsche is literally saying women shouldn't cook lol]
What's the point of this post? Besides showing that Nietzsche was an incel, this is an opportunity.
Nietzsche, as one of the most significant and popularly known philosophers of all time, brings a philosophical legitimacy and gravitas to our plight than practically anyone else can.
Works Cited:
René Ostberg. “Lou Andreas-Salomé.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Lou-Andreas-Salome#ref385023. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025.
Nietzshe, Friedrich. Penguin Classics beyond Good and Evil. Penguin Books, 2014.
