‘An ugly subhuman like me’: Using computer-assisted move analysis to examine incel identity performance in posts containing ‘subhuman’ as a self-referent

Incels (involuntary celibates) are an online community united by a shared inability to form intimate relationships. This study is the first to focus solely on incels’ self-referential uses of ‘subhuman’. Compiling the first dedicated corpus of ‘subhuman’ incel posts, the Subhuman Corpus, we use move analysis to explore how forum users employ derogatory self-referential uses of ‘subhuman’ to perform incel identities. Two moves are typical of the corpus: Referencing Women and Describing Appearance/Genetics , reflecting the community’s fixation on romantic rejection by women and its belief in genetic determinism. Among the atypical moves, expressions of users’ troubled psychological states emerge as grounds for further study. We conclude that the ‘subhuman’ identity is upheld through labelling, the hierarchical categorization of social groups, and an emphasis on incel victimhood. Moreover, in applying ‘subhuman’ to both the in-group (incels) and an out-group (women), incels treat physical, social and moral attributes as criteria of ‘subhumanity’. Finally, we evaluate the efficacy and suitability of an automated move-coding tool in novel application of move analysis to an incel forum. Automation presented practical and conceptual challenges, notably, a partial shift in focus from linguistic function to lexical form: some moves lend themselves readily to cue-based identification, while others require human analysis.