By David Futrelle
So this is a thing that exists. Take a moment to soak it in. It’s perfectly fine if you react like this:
The good news? It’s probably a joke — a pitch-perfect parody of incel logic rather than an example of it. At least that’s my guess. The meme (a version of the “ideal girlfriend” meme) seems to have originated on 4chan — the reference to “anon” is a bit of a giveaway — and has made it to Reddit and Twitter as well.
So far the reaction on Braincels, the main incel subreddit, has been a bit muted; some of the regulars are befuddled by it, others see it, as they see every bit of “evidence” that life sucks for them, as “suicide fuel.” Though they may be joking when they say that too.
I haven’t seen it show up on Incels.me — at least not yet.
Weirdly, the meme got a much more enthusiastic hearing in the ProLife subreddit.
“Not gonna lie, this got my all teary-eyed,” admitted someone called TheEmeraldCrusader.
“I’ve seen this popping up in some sections of social media that are probably less-visited by people in this sub,” wrote Yesofcoursenaturally,
and it’s been getting a good chunk of positive feedback.
Obviously there’s a layer of (dark) humor to it. But really, this is making some people think more about the issue in a good, if hard to describe way.
OnAllLevelsIAmBoJack agreed:
Anything that gets people talking about it, honestly. The government has “made up its mind” in my country. Anyone who dissents is considered a misogynist by default… That’s why it’s critical women share things like this
EpistemicClosure thought it might be an effective recruiting tool:
This will be good for attracting “incels” into the pro-life movement. They already lean sympathetic too, so it’s very fertile ground.
But not everyone on the subreddit was thrilled by the prospect of incels joining their movement.
“We don’t want them!” declared leathercanid.
“Yeah I don’t know if men who believe they’re entitled to sex and angry that they aren’t getting it are ones to seek out for a pro-life cause,” justtotossit suggested, noting that women tend to be “even pickier” when sex could easily lead to an un-terminatable pregnancy.
Incels don’t care about that. They don’t think they’re ever going to have sex anyway. They’re happy to support anything that hurts women, even if it (theoretically) hurts them too.
H/T — This tweet from @BenIsYourHero that alerted me to the existence of this thing.