Syed Shataj Hosain

Writing For Social Science

Professor Shamecca A. Harris

Discussion Post- 3

6th April, 2020.

                  “When Words Do More Than Just Hurt” by Ramandeep Kaur is about the K-pop community which is pretty famous around global growth of  Korean culture. In his essay he talks about a famous K-pop celebrity Suli whose real name is Choi Junri, she was a former member of K-pop girl group. Sulli attempted suicide on her own apartment since she was dealing with depression for many years. After this incident, her fans used social media platforms to show their sympathy toward her. Some used #Sulli on twitter and shared her good memories. After her death, many people apologize for their hate comments about the idol. However, it was not the first time that an idol in the online community was bullied and lost life. The author did a great job on the content and development because he provided all the content to understand the topic for the readers. I would like to give him 100%  for the content and development. Also, the organization, style and for the creativity he should get above average because he mentioned everything and followed the rubric. The author described the topic very well for the audience to understand the content and his grammar and mechanics were on point. So, it concludes total (A-).

Syed Shataj Hosain

Writing For Social Science

Professor Shamecca A. Harris

Discussion Post- 2 

6th April, 2020.

                        “Our Incel Problem” by Zack Beauchamp talks about a group of teenagers who become using a phrase to describe their romantic troubles called “Incel” on the internet. Incels are a member of an online subculture whose belief that they are unable to find romantic or sexual partners depire wishing for one. Incels are mostly white male, male and homosextulas who are mainly from East Asian, South Asian, black, and Latino. Discussions in incel forums are often characterized by those males who are mentally unstable, autism, racism, people who get violated againt sexaility and poeple who suffered personal trauma. The author  Zack Beauchamp mentioned that all the members of the intel community share the same beliefs and they have suffered the common things. Like most of the members believe that they were ugly, labelled themselves as losers, they were not capable of love because of some childhood trauma which ruined their romantic chances. The pattern and the trend for the community shows that they all believe the same thing that  they were sexually deprived due to social awkwardness. Some of them were bullied so badly that they have lack of self confidence which led me to develop severe anxiety and self-hatred. Recently, the intel community has increasingly become more extremist and focused on violence. As an insider they all went through the same thing according to them and that is why they love being a part of intel subculture. Some members of incel communities have led to numerous bans from websites and web hosts. The analysis of the author towards this community relates to a wider context by informing people about the intel subculture. Many people do not know about their subculture which can harm them on social media or in real life. Incels came to wider public notice with the banning of the subreddit and when a series of mass murders were committed by those members of the intel community. Some of them describe how so many people do not understand their feelings and the suffering except their own members who suffered the same thing as them. However, the intel world gets scary when it comes into real life. 

The Incel society had developed overtime from what they originally were when they began. The author noticed that the Incel society back then used to go online and ask each other about advice when it came to them being hurt by a significant other or a person they really liked. However, overtime that had changed. The website then became a platform of hatred for women. As the author investigated more he had seen that this platform was full of men that seen women has toxic human beings. They wish a lot of hatred on women and even banned them from the platform. The author of the writing has gotten a lot of information himself by reviewing the comments of what the people feel. He has seen that these people are full of hate but mainly because they are very hurt. So they wish bad upon women and sometimes even talk about hurting women. As stated in the text, the Incels had worshipped a man who killed people on the sidewalk with his fan, giving him praise and gratitude for eliminating people who supported being around women. Unfortunately, the author saw these patterns the more he scrolled through the site. It showed people’s true intentions on the site when it came to women. The author’s text relates to the wider text because it shows how people come together that have something in common and look for support from each other and sometimes that support may be harmful but people still want to be accepted.

Zach Beauchamp’s “Our Incel Problem” highlights the highly controversial online community and their shift to radicalism and misogyny. The Involuntary Celibacy, or Incel community was created over 20 years ago, and it gave “awkward” people a space to be themselves, since they were not comfortable with themselves in the real world. The community was open for all genders until recently, when angry young men overwhelmed the community, and changed how it is perceived as for years to come.

Beauchamp provided many patterns of trends that describe members of the Incel community. For instance, he shows how the early years of the Incel community had members who were shy and awkward in real life. He describes this community as an environment where both genders had the platform to ask their burning questions about the opposite gender in a welcoming way. Afterwards, Beauchamp shows the shift in the community where it became more hostile. This new trend in members became young boys and men who are angry at the world because of their lack in romantic relationships. This shift is very remarkable because the once peaceful online community became one of the internets infamous groups.

These patterns and trends inform the insider experience in the community. It does because the Incel environment before the shift was more welcoming compared to the modern Incel community.  Beauchamp calls the members “Social Justice Warriors” because they positively impacted the lives of other Incel members. Thus, you can characterize the members of the old Incel group as caring individuals. However, after the Incel community shifted into what it is now, we can consider the members of the community as violent because of their anger the members have against women. He writes, the members of the Incel community “reject of women’s sexual emancipation, labeling women shallow, cruel creatures who will choose only the most attractive men if given the choice.” Thus highlighting the drastic shift in the community. To summarize, Beauchamp’s analysis of the Incel community displays the ideals former Incel members had compared to modern members.

In conclusion, the Involuntary Celibacy, or Incel group is a group who helped people feel more comfortable with themselves for over 2o years. The group, who was once welcoming to men and women, provided a sense of community for people who considered themselves as outcasts in society. However, the community’s members and focus shifted into something darker; destroying the welcoming community and twisting into something unrecognizable to its original members. Nevertheless, the community still resonates and gives a strong sense of belonging to the current members which is the communities goal in the first place.

The author notes that the members of the incel community tend to blame women for not being able to date. According to Beauchamp, this led to violence and mistreatment of women. What was meant to be a community for those who deemed themselves awkward when it comes to dating turned into a misogynistic community. Another pattern is of how they despise women and believing that they are shallow and only go for cute or attractive guys after dating does not work out for them. They also tend to be cruel to the women in their life and are prone to commit harassment and sexual assault. 

These patterns inform the insider experience in this community by highlighting shared opinions and activities among the incel community. They tell us that they have a low-self esteem, they think that since their relationship did not work is because the woman they were with did not find them attractive thus prompting them to despise women. The incel community managed to find people whom they can relate to and vice versa and somewhat comfort each other. But over the years, the community became a place for hatred that for the most part was directed at women from men who experienced rejection.

The author’s analysis of this community relates to a wider context that involves violence. The author managed to find out that those who were and still are part of the incel community tend to become more violent and prone to commit mass rape, sexual assault, and even kill others as seen in the Toronto incident.

“Our Incel Problem,” by Zack Beauchamp, is an essay that focuses on learning about the online community of incels. The group include members who have difficulty in forming romantic relationships. The members originally described their romantic troubles as “involuntary celibacy”, but later this phrase developed and became the term incel. 

Patterns Mr. Beauchamp decided to include in his essay was how the members viewed themselves, and why they considered themselves incels. Each individual in the community shares some sort of insecurity. This insecurity causes them to be shy which creates the awkwardness in their relationships.  According to Miguel, a member of this community, incels have either been bullied, or have autism, or unattractive faces. These traits are said to lead himself as well as others to rejection by women. John, a 30-year-old incel, describes his personal trauma with the community. He says that he tried everything he could think of to succeed in the dating field. Nothing worked, and when he went to his female friends for help in searching for women to date, his friends never described him as being attractive or cute. With these conceptions John concluded that he was ugly and hopeless with women, which led him to the community.

Reading Zack Beauchamp analysis on the incel community I was able to conclude that the incel community is misguided. Mr. Beauchamp concluded in the excerpt that the incel community was filled with misogynistic rage. A perfect example of this misogynistic rage and misguided energy would be when incel individuals began to call for acid attacks and advocate for killers who destroyed relationships.  In most of the personal stories, originally each individual that joined the incel community came to the internet for help. They were in search of new ways/methods to improve on their insecurities, so that they can pursue romantic relationships. The wider context is that if the community does not change they will go down a path of hatred instead of pursuing their original goals. 

The article, “Our Incel Problem,” by Zack Beauchamp investigates the incel community. 90% of the people who tend to be part of the culture are men under the age of 30 – this information from an informal poll. They are also likely to reside in countries in Europe or North America, with half identifying as White and the others classifying as Asian, Black, and Latino. All have suffered from some form of rejection by society leading them to agree with the core concepts of the culture. The insiders conclude that they are too physically unattractive to receive love from the opposite gender. Incels also believe that women will inevitably choose an attractive partner. The members also exhibit a great deal of anger towards women and the circumstances they’re in.

By informing the reader of these trends, we can get a sense of how the community has come to be at its current state. These patterns tell us that these men are lacking in support or advice outside of these groups. They seek comfort online from those who can understand their situation, gaining guidance from men whose attitude have already been set. Beauchamp takes his research on the incel community and relates it to a much bigger problem. The mindset of incels now is very much rooted in misogynistic ideologies. Beauchamp believes that incels are just a reflection of the dominant principles that are present in Western society. His analysis within a wide context forces the reader to think about the situation at hand: how incels empower the contemporary obstacles women face on a day to day basis.

Mohammed Hossain

Shamecca Harris

English

4-6-20

The essay by Zack Beauchamp is about an online community lead by incels. While reading the essay, I have noticed many patterns about this community. For example, most of the people in this community are men who are considered unattractive, been cheated on, bullied, or a loner. Also, most are from Europe or America. These are the people who have trouble making friends and are afraid to open up to others because of their insecurities. This leads them to isolate themselves from the outside world and spend most of their time online communicating with the group. Also, this group was made to help the people who have these issues but later this group became something else. In a way, the incel was fueled with rage and was jealous of others who are not like them. In April 2018, a college student in Toronto named Sohe Chung and her roommate, So Ra, was walking to the library. “Chung and So never made it to the library. On the way there, a van hopped the curb onto the sidewalk and slammed into pedestrians. Chung was one of 10 killed; So was one of 16 wounded.” (Beauchamp). This was done by an incel. Also, they were calling for other incels to follow up with “acid attacks” and “mass rape.” (Beauchamp) This goes to show that they are becoming criminals. Their hate for others is not doing any justice to them. I feel like, these are the reasons why there are attacks on schools because most of the people create their friend circle early in schools. Being a loner for all those years can be very hard for anyone in general. Also, I watched many documentaries online about serial killers and surprisingly, most of them were loners.

While reading Beauchamp’s essay I noticed a big trend within the incel community, which is these men are unattractive, insecure, and bullied (she also notes that some of these men may have autism). These traits, in the mind of an incel, make them unattractive to women, and make women reject or just plain out treat them as though they are not human. One could sympathize for them, but the misogyny of these men simply can’t be ignored, and I feel conflicted whether to be sympathetic or disgusted by their ideology that women are selfish. So, with this being said they also have some rage, and the radicals of this group have off ramped the whole objective of the group by killing actual human beings since they aren’t accepted by women. The reader of the essay is informed that the incels of today’s day and age, the radical ones, aren’t the ones of the past, and that when creating this original group it was a safe space for men to talk about their experiences (a safe space for misogynistic remarks as well). The reader is informed that these men have had it rough due to their looks, and this is why they behave in this way, but the reader should keep in mind that their behavior isn’t excusable. Beauchamp’s essay gives us a view into a wider context through these men because if one group can be derailed like this, imagine other groups with the same demographic. This essay reminded me of the New Zealand shooting that happened last year where a group of men shot up a mosque, and used the phrase “sub to pewdiepie” while doing so. This completely devasted the YouTuber, and led to him telling his fans to stop using the phrase because it had been soiled by these men. So, if incels want to continue to use forums to talk about women or their own life experiences they should find another name, one which doesn’t carry the deaths of human beings.