Five former incels on the moment they decided to leave the toxic manosphere behind

Right now, there have been renewed conversations surrounding incels, and the so-called manosphere. This has come as Netflix has released Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere.

In the film, the documentary filmmaker catches up with influencers who identify as part of the manosphere. The guys frame themselves as a new era of influencer, pushing against the “matrix” and “helping” young men thrive in today’s society.

They’ve taken over sections of the internet, pushing “red pill” content and telling men they should “dominate” women. They also offer financial advice, all round promising to create a “real man” out of impressionable, young boys.

A further section of this online subculture is “incel” forums. Incel means involuntarily celebrate, and are groups of men who believe women aren’t sleeping with them in order to take away their entitlement to s*x. They can’t find partners, despite wanting them, and blame women for this.

The Australian Institute of Criminology has shared a study in which research was carried out with former members of incel communities. In this, some of the former incels described the moment they realised they needed to leave the manosphere behind.

It found there were four overarching motivations for disengaging from online misogynistic incel communities: Growing dissatisfaction with these communities, establishing new connections outside of them, changing interests, and intimate relationships with women.

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, via Netflix

‘There were some real crazy people in the forums’

A 28-year-old who identified as an incel for six months was asked why they no longer engage with these communities. They said: “Their views on women, they thought they were owed s*x just for existing. There were some real crazy people in the forums… Their values don’t align with my values.”

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A further added: “I first became involved because of isolation and loneliness, I felt some togetherness with others in my situation. I quickly started noticing that my views were being negatively influenced against women by the adverse opinions of the subculture, and (thankfully) snapped out of it.”

One participant said they suddenly realised online forums and everyday experiences they were having weren’t aligned. They noticed the online forums said very different things about women to what they were seeing in the real world. They described a moment when it “clicked that all of it was really wrong” when his peers, “regardless of gender”, treated him with kindness.

“At 18, it clicked that all of this was really wrong,” they said. “I guess it could be because I was already taking college classes before I graduated high school and saw how everybody else was not only getting along regardless of gender, but also because they were extremely polite and nice to me and [about] my disabilities.”

via Netflix

Some realised their isolation was nothing to do with women

Another former incel said that the online movement’s claims about women fell apart when he realised he still had a happy relationship with his wife despite being “unfit and definitely not wealthy”.

One more said: “I was exposed to the experiences of my female peers through the internet and began to understand that my loneliness was due to my own self isolation tendencies [rather] than anything to do with women.”

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.