Castration, the archive, and the incel wiki

Abstract

In recent years, the incel community has been the subject of much scholarly and public fascination due to its violent and spectacular misogyny, which has resulted in acts of mass violence. In this essay, I argue that the incel psyche can best be understood through a reading of the incel wiki, which was established after a large incel community on Reddit was banned. During the ban, all of the content was lost, and in an attempt to regain their power a group of users created a wiki as a collaborative knowledge repository and archive. I argue that this archive not only serves as a way of reclaiming power via the process of embracing the incels’ symbolic castration but reveals the social epistemology of the group, as well as their shared fantasies, by creating an imaginary order. As a collaborative knowledge space and archive, the wiki allows for the sublimation of incel desire.