Kan: Week 3—When Did We Let Incels Control Our Slang?
Every day, people use different slang words to describe their day. For example, when one wants to attain a better physique, they might say they’re on a “looksmaxxing arc.” Other times, when someone is perceived to be more attractive than them, the latter may say that they are being “mogged” by the other person. Initially, I took this lingo for granted, thinking that they were but parts of the modern language with no inherent harm associated with them.
So, I was surprised, almost appalled when I realized that most of the above slang originated from the incel community, a community dedicated to hating on and wishing to subjugate women. The question then becomes, when did incels have so much influence on our popular culture? To answer that question, we have to go to the late 90s, during which a majority of people started having access to the internet.
The term “incel” originated in 1997, ironically, from a website made by a woman. “Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Program” was initially created to foster a supportive, inclusive environment for those who struggled with loneliness, with forums dedicated to blossoming discussion around the topic; however, by the mid 2000s, the formerly fostering space had turned festering, being dominated by males who believed their issues stemmed from their physical appearances/lack of masculinity, choosing to blame others (particularly women) for their own inability to accept themselves and form meaningful social relationships. This is where incel culture began taking its modern forefront as the representation of everything wrong with masculinity.
Slowly, incel culture has infiltrated modern society through its steady diffusion of terms into the mainstream. As outlined by Portsmouth University, this is achieved in three main steps: first, the “normification” of the terms in smaller internet spaces. This process involves slowly spreading the usage of the word by any means, whether it be through irony or hate, aiming to plant the words in people’s subconscious.
The next phase is to “mainstream” the word. In this phase, such words, which are now seemingly detached from its source material, spread across the world, further normalizing its usage in society. Over time, the irony from the word detaches, and the word reaches its final phase: the outcome of normalization.
In normalization, no one realizes that the words they use are misogynistic, or part of something harmful. They just say it without a second thought.
All of this is perpetuated by the dominance that incels have over the internet, especially in places like X/Twitter or TikTok, where hate speech and rhetoric are allowed to prosper and neologisms spread to the mainstream. While we can’t change these platforms’ moderation, we can certainly promote awareness of these words’ origins. Next time your friend says you’re “mogging” them, give them a subtle hint of the term’s beginnings. This way, we can slowly remove both conscious and subconscious misogyny from the slang we use and move towards a better society with better support systems for those who are lonely.
I think this is a really interesting topic and it really connects back to Arya’s blog from week 2. From what I remember, Arya talked about whether the grammatical masculinity/femininity of a language had any relation or impact on how the society views gender roles and whether it reinforces patriarchy or not. This sort of retackles that question, but isolates it within a specific subculture: incels. So the question I think it raises is whether terms like “mogged” or “looksmaxxing” simply reflect the ideologies of the people who created them, or whether they can perpetuate the same ideologies as it sort of spreads past that group. As you pointed out, you yourself lacked the knowledge of the deeply misogynistic origins of these words, yet these terms regardless promoted the standards of attractiveness and toxic masculinity these communities first promoted. There is a cool nuance I want to push though—where a marginalized group can reclaim a term historically used against them as an expression of solidarity. An example of this would be the term “queer”. Historically queer was used as a derogatory label against LGBTQ+ individuals, yet during the late 20th century activists began actively reclaiming that label as a symbol of defiance and resistance. So perhaps the normalization of these words aren’t necessarily harmful depending on who is using them, in what context, and with what purpose. Yet, as we’ve largely seen, these terms have not really been reclaimed in mainstream culture, as we still tend to use words like “mog” to denote looking physically more attractive than someone else, thus failing to establish a positive use of the term.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate how this sort of idea of misogynistic language ties back into my last blog! This was also super eye opening because I didn’t know the origins of these words, so this is a really cool point that you were able to add on! While I focused on the subconscious gender roles, you were able to dig deeper into specific social groups and how their beliefs can affect the language of the majority. The internet is interesting in that way, people who would usually be more quiet can suddenly be very opinionated online in a very…unfiltered way. Looking at these slang words with this new perspective, I can definitely see how these words focused on who is “better” and more attractive than another person can tie back into misogyny and objectification. Through this, there is a very interesting thing happening: the incel community known for objectifying women are now objectifying themselves too. This mirroring effect of unhealthy beauty standards on women is now reflected onto incels themselves. I wonder if any other communities have done something similar to this. Either way, this gives me another reason to dislike this type of slang!
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