Zeroes in a Zero-Sum Game: A Netnographic Analysis of Incels’ Construction of Inequality in the Manosphere

Abstract In the Manosphere, a digital space hostile to women, men are depicted as victims of women’s gains. The belief that women’s advancements come at the expense of men is a product of a zero-sum worldview, which posits that one group’s success comes at a cost to others. Importantly, research on zero-sum ideology tends to focus on power between rather than within groups. This focus overlooks grievances of less-advantaged members of privileged groups, such as men who do not receive full benefits of masculine privilege. In this analysis, we examine the ways incels (i.e., involuntary celibates) construct inequality in a presumed zero-sum game. Through a netnography of incels.is, we find that users cast inceldom as a disability and marginalized sexual identity, calling for an uprising to secure reparations for the denial of masculine privilege they believe they are owed (e.g., women’s sexual attention). We call this process zeroing out , defined as the strategic adoption of systemic inequality in a way that appropriates the experiences of the underprivileged to secure the entitlements one feels owed, but denied, as a lower-status member of a privileged group. We believe our findings have implications for the way we view hierarchies of power within privileged groups.