Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women

by Kate Manne

So why do incels sometimes resort to such dehumanizing and objectifying language in speaking about women—for instance, by calling women “femoids” (or “foids,” for short)?21 As we have seen, it’s not because they believe that women are literally nonhuman animals, mere sexual objects, robots, or similar. There is a simple alternative explanation: it is an expression of rage and the resulting desire to put women down. Incels are passionately invested in social hierarchies, including one that resembles the great chain of being, with god at the top, nonhuman animals at the bottom, and various ranks of human beings positioned in between them. So implying that a woman is something nonhuman may serve as the ultimate insult.