Blackpill Science: Involuntary Celibacy, Rational Technique, and Economic Existence under Neoliberalism

Abstract

Background: This article explores the “scientific blackpill,” used by those in contemporary digital incel communities to describe living as involuntarily celibate. To take the scientific blackpill is to both see and develop a rigid social hierarchy that attempts to explains the incel’s sexual and social lacks. Analysis: Through a discourse analysis of the largest web forum for self-identified “incels,” this article finds that the “scientific blackpill” acts as a Foucauldian “technology of the self,” designed to both explain and reverse the incel’s perceived social oppressions. Conclusion and implications: Designed in an attempt to emulate the objectifying behaviour of masculinity under neoliberalism, the blackpill legitimates the very social behaviours that devalue the incel’s social existence.