They’re desperate to be accepted’: How boys as young as 14 are sucked into the world of incels
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A recent report concluded the incel community is ‘waging a war’ on women and poses a danger to other young men, but are there warning signs when boys are headed down this path?
By Natalie Gil
Derek* had never had a proper conversation with a woman in real life beyond simple exchanges. He didn’t have any friends, he had been bullied at school, and now as an adult he was unemployed. He had always felt like he was on the outside of life, looking in.
‘He never felt a part of mainstream society and always felt there was something inherently wrong for him,’ says journalist Ben Zand, who met Derek, as part of a new Channel 4 documentary, and many others like him who belong to the incel – involuntarily celibate – community in the UK.
There are unifying themes between many of the men finding solace in the incel space, says Zand. They had troubled childhoods, were picked on in their younger years, and became isolated from a young age.
‘They [are] desperate for a community, a place to be acce...
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