Incel culture

The rise of misogynistic influencers and ‘incel’ (involuntary celibate) culture where ideologies of blame, distrust and hatred towards women have gained huge traction online. From incel slang to misogynistic memes and fake statistics there is an increasing risk of young men and boys being radicalised through their identities as men, with the impact being felt by young women.

Why are so many young men seduced by this toxic masculinity, what are the policymakers doing and what tools are educators and youth workers using to address this?

Chair: Vicki Ridley is currently working in the public health field of violence prevention at YouthLink Scotland and specialising in pioneering work around positive masculinity. The Imagine a Man initiative, she leads on is Scotland's first positive masculinity programme now entering its fourth year. Some of her key achievements over a career in the charities sector spanning over 30 years have included; establishing youth work organisations and developing work in youth volunteering and peer led approaches 

Panellists:

Dr Clare Duffy is the artistic director of Civic Digits, a data driven creative learning theatre company. Clare directed Many Good Men in February 2024 at Hearts Football Club after co-writing it with two groups of young people. Many Good Men is a piece of digital forum theatre addressing the radicalisation of masculinity, incel culture and the manosphere. Clare was an IASH and Traverse theatre playwright fellowship 2014-15, where she wrote Arctic Oil, which was produced at The Traverse Theatre in October 2018.

Dr Sophie King-Hill is an associate professor in the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham, UK. She specialises in sexual behaviours and assessment in children and young people, sexual health, sibling sexual behaviour/abuse, misogyny, incels, masculinities and relationships & sex education and the importance of youth voice. Previously she worked in the field of education and sexual health with many diverse groups such as teenage parents and young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.  

David Russell is the development lead and service manager at Thriving Survivors and previously held the position of community safety and justice manager at Midlothian Council. Prior to this he was a senior practitioner with Barnardo's specialising in work with children and young people with harmful sexual behaviour and / or who had experienced sexual abuse or exploitation. David is also the lead author of Restorative Justice & Sexual Harm: The voices of those who have harmed. He is currently supporting an innovative research project with the University of Birmingham, exploring vulnerability within the Incel subculture.