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TV
Becca Monaghan
Nov 08, 2022
Shocking moment incel says he hit his face with a hammer to …
Channel 4
A disturbing new documentary explored the lives of self-proclaimed incels – and it's much darker than lonely men feeling unattractive and the fear of being rejected by women.
The Channel 4 show explained that incels tend to follow the dangerous belief that "looks are everything and women are the ultimate villains", often invoking hate speech or in more extreme cases, violence or murder.
A mainstream conspiracy theory called the "black pill" lies to its cult following, portraying the message that only extremely good-looking men have a chance with women and in general life.
If they don't fit into so-called societal ideals, such as having a strong jawline or being tall, they believe that women will not only ignore them but fear them.
Many of them have no friends in real life and all of their connections are made online with like-minded people, with a community of 18,000 men who believe women are the enemy. Over 2,000 of these reside in the UK.
Worryingly, one specific incel forum spoke about rape "every 29 minutes."
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UNTOLD: The Secret World of Incels | Channel 4 Documentarieswww.youtube.com
Later in the show, one incel (who had never spoken to woman before, except his mum) opened up about "looksmaxxing." He confessed to hammering himself in the face to 'make himself more attractive'.
Viewers of the show were disgusted by the dark community and took to Twitter to debate whether such a documentary should be aired.
Many believed that extremists shouldn't be given the platform, including one user who was adamant they would not be watching the show as their "daughter will never leave the house again."
Others, however, argued that shedding light could, in fact, expose "the cracks in the philosophy."
\u201c@Lulu_R81 @Channel4 It's a large international collection of people traditionally ignored and not looked at by society who have been recently causing mass casualty events due to a warped sense of the world which thrives in isolation, shining a light on it helps expose the cracks in the philosophy\u201d— Channel 4 (@Channel 4) 1667844000
\u201c@Channel4 These men are very common. Most women and girls encounter them during their lives. They\u2019re dangerous\u201d— Channel 4 (@Channel 4) 1667844000
\u201cI've been on the receiving end of hate from the incel online community and that wasn't the very worst of them. They targeted me for months with sexual harassment and one threat of being beaten up and raped. They are terrorists and they ought to be prosecuted as such.\u201d— ArabelsRaven (@ArabelsRaven) 1667912110
\u201cP0rn has created a crypto-scifi image of the world in the minds of young men, who seem to think that behind every closed door is an orgy from which they seem to think they've been cruelly, inexplicably excluded.\n\nThere's just not as much sex going on as they think.\u201d— Natasha Chart (@Natasha Chart) 1667911837
\u201cWhat looks to be truly harrowing but important viewing from Channel 4 here.\u201d— Journal of GBV (@Journal of GBV) 1667911214
\u201cThe computer is the enemy of young lonely men.\u201d— Beyte Fyr KPSS \ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f (@Beyte Fyr KPSS \ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f) 1667909522
The documentary tragically touched on real-world dangers, after 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in 2014 and took the lives of six people in California.
Last year, self-confessed incel Jake Davidson, 22, also killed five people in the UK before taking his own life.
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