incels://cheeks/jaws: On fragile masculinity, fatal body ideals, homophobic homoeroticism and National Socialist aesthetics revisited

Abstract

This article is concerned with fragile masculinity and its tendency towards authoritarianism and violence by focusing on the characteristics of a specific social group/online community of men called incels (involuntary celibates). Incels are men who have no sexual encounters, blame women for their exclusion from sexual contact and create toxic online communities to share their violent and deadly misogyny. This article will detail their typical characteristics, including a discussion of their idealized body appearances. These toxic body politics are sampled by National Socialist aesthetics and charged with homoerotic looks and body styles. Like other right-wing groups, incels are driven by homophobia and racism. In their world-view, they also understand their own non-beauty-compliant appearance according to the mainstream normative of beauty as a reason for their sexlessness. The article focuses on the strategy of the misogynistic online community to achieve ‘looksmaxxing’ through cosmetic surgery. Their idealized body images sampled from various set pieces, from pop culture to Nazi chic, display consistent body ideals which feed on ancient mythologies.