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.

Privileges, you can obtain them by working hard and some of them are just randomly given. In my case a privilege that has be given to me is that because of my family I don’t have the need to work. Also, because of this prior privilege I get to go to college for free, thanks to Financial Aid. Besides that privileges that have been given to me, I do not posses any privileges -none that I am aware of – regarding my ethnicity, age, gender or skin color. My education level have always depended on my will to keep on studying and my effort on having high grades; this is to  be able provide a better and more stable future for my family. In considering how I would connect these privileges to my subject of study, I do could consider that the fact that my family is able to provide some “luxuries” such as a gaming console has granted me the opportunity to know about the “Super Smash Bros.” community. The reason why I chose this community was because I would like to dig deeper into why this video game has been of such relevance for a tremendous amount of people that form part of this community. On the other hand, one fixed position and subjective position I carry and would affect my research would be that people from gaming communities are people that are disrespectful to new comers. It has always been evident to me that high skilled players feel no compassion for low skilled players. This is something that happens in every game. Also, people that belong to this communities might be perceived as lazy and unorganized and that is a statement that I do not know if it would be changed. It is matter of being proved wrong.

Privileges are things that often times we overlook due to the nature of some coming without effort. Others come about because our own personal success that put us in place of those privileges. I grew up in a middle-classed Latino family in Brooklyn, and so there are many privileges that I grew in to that many times I could’ve possible overlooked. Especially in the current situation that is going on with this pandemic, I think Wi-Fi in my house is a privilege that can be overlooked. This facilitates my research on a online community by being able to easily access it from the comfort of my home. The online community that I choose to observe is the page on Reddit called AskReddit. I choose community because of all the different interesting conversations that come about. There could either be deeply political questions or completely random and funny thought-provoking questions. Its always entertaining to see everyone’s thoughts, reactions, and responses to the particular question. What’s best about it is the vast variety of people that come to the page. I do not think any age is excluded and you can see that in all the different posts. Being that I am a latin-american male who was born and raised in new York, I think I may definitely carry my own biased opinions about different topics discussed in the AskReddit page, and this is what keeps the page interesting. Everyone may have their very own opinions quite possibly stemmed from ones background, and therefore you are free to express it as you wish under this page.

I usually don’t think about the privileges I have but there are some things in my life that I suppose give me privilege. One of these things is my family. There are many people out there who don’t have parents or have to live on their own for various circumstances. My family provides me with financial and emotional support and gives me a safe environment to live in. Although my family is not the wealthiest, this is still a big privilege and I think it has made a huge difference in my life.

Another privilege I think I have is the country I grew up in. The United States is a first world country with access to a lot of things that I think many of us take for granted or don’t really think about the privileges we have here. Like for example, all the technology many of us have access to. In this Coronavirus situation we are going through, internet access is absolutely vital to have, but there are many people in the world who don’t have access to either the computers or laptops to use the internet or the electrical power, or the internet service itself and whatnot. All this technology I have access to has made a huge difference in my life. From letting me have access to vasts amounts of knowledge at the push of my fingertips to simply having a means of “escape” whenever I may be feeling down (This “escape” could be anything – like having the technology to play a video game or watch a movie or something). Something like that seems so simple to us, and yet its something many people in the world may not have access to.

This ties into the online community that I chose to observe – which is the online Fighting Game Community. I use technology a lot in my life and of course I grew up exposed to video games a lot and played a lot of fighting games as a kid. So naturally, why not observe a community that ties into something I enjoy ?

My reasons for choosing the online community of Bernie Sanders supporters because it is very relevant considering that we are only 7 months away from our next presidential election. I am not into politics that much, at least not like how I used to be before Trump was elected. I know people who love and adore Bernie. He has 4.8 million followers on Instagram and with a health crisis going on I wonder if his promise for free universal healthcare is enticing people. I’m very skeptical of all politicians but Bernie seems like a stand-up guy, I most likely will vote for him. I come from a single-parent working-class home and this may affect what Bernie policies I agree and disagree with. Having the privilege of being an American citizen ICE does not affect me personally however the inhumane treatment of immigrants and undocumented peoples indeed bother me. The subjective positions I have from growing up in public housing I feel like minimum wage should increase, and health care should be not only a right but free. My grandmother relies on government assistance such as social security and government health insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid. I am not aware of all the changes or promises Bernie has made in his campaign nor have I kept up with any debates or the primaries but he seems like he genuinely cares about poor and middle-class families. Sanders wants to move America’s energy system away from fossil fuels to combat global warming which is important to me because as a college student I have learned both in and out of school how serious this issue is for humanity.

I understand privilege here as a special right not enjoyed by ordinary people. My family is not very wealthy, but it also provides me with the best possible. Before I immigrated to the United States, I was in a private middle school and I felt a lot of the difference between private schools and public schools. Include the resources you have enjoyed and the circle of friends you have contacted. As well as my immigration to the United States, this is a privilege that comes from my born family. I don’t have to worry about my life. My parents have provided me with protection. This is what I have now. Still, I found some jobs through my own efforts. These jobs bring me life experience and I reach different people. There are also different people applying for the same job, but they did not get it, and my spare time work is also my own privilege. Due to financial support from my family and my own work, I came into contact with some of the online communities I searched for. I also pay attention to some specific clothing brands and buy some new arrivals that I like.

It is undeniable that the friends around me let me know the online community I am studying now. The pursuit of tide brand and fashion of people of different classes brings them together. For people with enough financial means, they can buy a lot of clothes, shoes or bags, and a large part of the group is young people. There are different age groups of followers for “Hypebeast”, but most are young. From my experience, some people spend money from their parents, and some people get what they want by working. A wealthy family gives them great privileges in the online community that I research. Financial ability is one of the most important factors in this community. Many people criticize this community, thinking that some people join this community just to satisfy their vanity. Not really like and love different brands.

Some of my privileges may affect my research in the economic sense. I am researching an online trading community. In order to trade, one must need money. Unfortunately, if one does not have money that makes it complicated for a person to join the community. As a person who has their own job and who does not live at such a disadvantage, it was easier for me to join the community. I was able to wait for my next paycheck and join right away. Some of these people had to wait in order to join the company. They had to wait month or ask people for money in order to start. In my case, I was even able to fund my account and I did not have to wait months like the others did. When one person joins the platform, they are creating their own business. When they create their own business, they are able to add people to it and once they start, they get paid by the company. Once that happens, the people who did not have enough money to start, now have some money to fund their account. However, I am able to fund my account with the money that the company gives me and when my job pays me. Some of the people in the company are just able to fund their accounts with the money given to them by the company. Sometimes, I do not realize how fortunate I am to being very ambitious and hard working.

Social Privilege is “an advantage that only one person or group of people has”. Privileges that a person can have are advantages that can be based on aspects such as age, education level, ethnic or racial category, gender, religion, and social class. To a certain extent everyone without even realizing has privileges in their lives. I am lucky enough to have many privileges in my life that others don’t have.

I grew up in a home with both of my parents and being the youngest of three siblings I never had to carry any financial burdens even though both of my parents are lower-middle class. I go to a college and receive a free education from financial aid. I’ve grown in a supportive environment and being born as an American citizen I never had to deal with the same struggles my parents had. I was privileged with the freedom of speech, practice my religion, vote, and raised in a household that has made me bilingual.

The online community I chose is the Bardigang which is Cardi B’s large online fan-base. Being a fan of Cardi B since the beginning of her career when she was in Love and Hip Hop and just starting music, I have a bias towards the Bardigang. I have been a fan of the female rapper for a long time and I appreciate how outspoken she is as a person. Cardi being a New yorker and a woman of color has allowed me to have a strong bias towards her. My opinions can influence the way I do research on this online community. My fixed and subjective positions are affected as I already have a background knowledge of her. I will also have a connection as the majority of the community are minorities and I will carry my views as being part of an insider into this research.