We should pity (some of) the incels
Beyond the dangerous misogynists there’s a growing group of unseen incels who live in harmless but frustrated misery
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/4ab260b5-ce0b-4636-a819-4b10190290cb Lindner identifies a bigger trigger for inceldom: female autonomy. Now that women can have good careers, are often happily single and less likely to be exclusively heterosexual, many don’t need men — certainly not low-status men. Lindner cites evidence that females are sexually pickier than males. In one study, “women rated 80 per cent of men’s attractiveness as below average”. Those women who want casual sex tend to seek it among the handsome, well-paid, well-educated “Chads”. One study found that a man in the top percentile of attractiveness receives 190 times more likes on dating apps than a man in the bottom 50 per cent. The result: a male elite is enjoying a sexual boomtime, even as incels proliferate. The top 5 per cent of men increased their number of sexual partners by 38 per cent in the decade to 2013, found the US National Survey of Family Growth. In short, disconcertingly, there’s a kernel of truth in the incel worldview. While women are by no means socially dominant, increasingly empowered women do tend to shun low-status males.
