Blackpilled : Masculinity, Media and Incels

Meadhbh Park examines how the incel worldview has been formed by popular culture and also how it shapes society's perception of incels.

Incels - involuntary celibates -are often cast as violent, misogynistic loners, consumed by resentment towardswomen. With shocking tragedies like the 2014 Isla Vista killings and the 2024Bondi Junction stabbings heightening fears about the threat they pose,understanding this phenomenon has never been more crucial. But it's important not to viewincels as aliens who came down to earth on women-hating spaceships from adistant women-hating planet. Though their belief system - referred to as the'blackpill' - is no doubt extreme, they haven't constructed it from nothing. These young men are shaped by the media they consume and the society thatsurrounds us. In Blackpilled, Meadhbh Parktakes an unflinching look at the incel movement through the lenses ofmasculinity and media studies. Drawing on interviews with incels across theglobe and analysing cultural touchstones such as The Matrix, FightClub, Taxi Driver, Euphoria, Joker and Blade Runner2049, Park uncovers the origins of their beliefs and what they reallythink. She also examines potential ways to help incels break free from thenihilistic and hate-fuelled grip of the blackpill. With extremist misogyny on the riseand governments debating whether incels should be labelled a terror threat, Blackpilleddelivers urgent, thought-provoking conclusions that couldn't be moretimely.