In 2018, female Canadians made up 88 per cent of sexual offence victims and 76 per cent of criminal harassment victims, according to Statistics Canada. Anti-female hate is alive in Canada, but gender-motivated Incel attacks were only deemed a form of terrorism at the end of May.
Incels, or involuntary celibates, are an online-oriented group of men who say they are unable to find romantic or sexual relationships with women. These men use social platforms such as Reddit in order to organize and share ideas ranging from men’s rights, to anti-feminism, to experiences of rejection from women. Fairly harmless, right? A group of men sharing their frustration with the world around them — particularly, their frustration with women.
But, what happens when this group grows? When their frustration morphs into hate? Into a misogynistic monster? What happens when a man or boy decides that simply writing on a forum is not enough? When they’ve been encouraged by others in these forums to “not take it anymore”?
That’s when Incel ideals turn into terrorism.
With the internet, frustrated and misogynistic men have found each other. What was once seen as an isolated incident, such as the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre that claimed fourteen engineering students’ lives, has bubbled up and exploded into a new form of home-grown terrorism in Canada.
A killer proclaimed the “Incel rebellion has already begun” online before hitting 26 people and killing 10 with a van in Toronto. Canada’s worst-ever shooting in Nova Scotia began as domestic violence against a female partner and ultimately claimed 22 lives. Publishers of “Your Ward News” — a free anti-semitic and misogynistic newspaper — frequently publish anti-female rhetoric. Violent attacks and outspoken hatred against women have become more and more common in Canada.
While not all of these attacks are directly related to the Incel movement, they are gender-motivated. These actions fuel the fire for the Incel movement to grow increasingly bold.
Now, 31 years after the Polytechnique massacre, Canada has finally charged a 16-year-old boy with the first Incel terror attack. In February, he fatally stabbed 24-year-old Ashley Noelle Arzaga, a Toronto masseuse who was doing her job.
This charge is a huge and important step in Canadian history for finally acknowledging Incels as a terrorist organization. It shows the importance of teaching young people why our society functions the way that it does. We need to teach the systemic, patriarchal issues that affect everyone in Canada because we all suffer under its oppression.
The controversy surrounding labelling Incel activity as terrorist activity comes from the idea that new-wave feminism has no regard for men and their issues. For some reason, the rise of female empowerment makes many assume the ‘fall of men,’ like there is some cosmic scale that takes from men in order to give to women.
The Incel group is a terrorist organization, there is absolutely no denying that. What we should be questioning is what we are doing in our society that creates such animosity and toxic masculinity amongst men. Why do we teach men that they have an entitlement to women’s bodies? That failing to connect with women makes them less of a man?
We as a collective must acknowledge that our society needs to change the way we educate youth in order to confront large social issues. Teaching kids the struggles women and minorities face every day will help them to navigate these issues within their own lives.
Featured graphic by Jillian Piper.
