Cathy’s Clown became a murderer
THE inception of the misogynistic terrorist group in Toronto, Canada was likely caused not just simply by frustration over their inability to date a girl, but by loneliness and rejection. They felt ostracized to the point of madness.
The “incels,” short for “involuntary celibates,” are violent misogynistic men who are linked with certain incidents of mass murders. They have returned to the public’s attention when 25-year-old Alek Minassian rammed a rental van on a sidewalk on April 23 where eight women and two men died and 16 others were injured.
Before the carnage, he posted on Facebook “the incel movement has begun.”
This was preceded by the suicide of Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old bachelor who described himself as an incel, after he murdered six people by stabbing and shooting on May 2014 in California. He uploaded his video on YouTube and manifesto about his loneliness, the rejection he has experienced, and frustration “all because girls have never been attracted to me.”
He agonized over still being a virgin at age 22 and for never kissing a girl yet. He said he was an “ideal magnificent man,” yet, no woman liked him.
He then shot himself inside his BMW after broadcasting his message to the world. His death and declaration made him the “hero” of the incel movement.
Incels also have certain jargons such as “chads” for men who were desirable among women and are able to date any girl, and “staceys” for hot, datable women. The movement wants to “overthrow” these two.
The vicious actions of the incels, according to authorities, come from their sexual frustrations. They have subcultures over the internet, and when there is discourse among those who share the same sentiments and “sufferings,” a “crusade” is most often born, according to identity politics.
Various criticisms rose against the movements. Most were mockery and ridicule about why “some virgins” couldn’t get a girl.
Memes were posted online about them shooting possible dating partners that they could have had, not trying hard enough to woo a girl and be attractive; that they make really bad choices instead of working hard to get a girl, and their objectification of women.
According to AJC news website, their belief system might be from insecurities and anger during their adolescent years when they were rejected by girls.
These rejections may have been too cruel. Often, it was not because girls didn’t look at them, it may be because the way most of them were casted off which included insults that struck too deep in the ego of boys who were still trying to find their way through the social realms of the society. As teenagers, they struggled to create an identity to be accepted by people – only to be hardheartedly rejected and scorned.
The kind of rejection they may have had can be seen in one meme on 9gag about an “incel bingo.” It says that you are an incel if you do not shower daily, is overweight, have lots of acnes, got friendzoned, never kissed a girl yet, has low income, and many more.
It’s not a tale about heartbreak-turned-absurd when the depraved man wants to exact revenge to a woman.
The “ludicrous” manifestos that incel sympathizers post on the internet, especially those that they send before they kill somebody – then take their own life afterwards – are the very same words girls and guys alike throw as insults at them.
The standards among people grow more rigid day by day. Complying to them is a daily strife for some people as people chase after recognition in vain by going after vain standards.
Philip Devine, professor at Providence College, Rhode Island, wrote that the incels should not have been called terrorists because they did not have any political intentions. He wrote that it was wrong “to treat the killings committed by incels as terrorism. Most mass killers have no political intentions; they are working out their private agonies by killing innocent people.”
Though the murders they have committed is still dreadful, Devine believes that incels are still victims.
In the 1961 song by the Everly Brothers entitled Cathy’s Clown, the persona expresses “I die each time I hear that sound: Here he comes, that’s Cathy’s clown.”
Cathy toyed him around because she knows that the persona will continue to chase after her. She probably didn’t like him very much, but she might have found it entertaining to make him twirl around her fingers, or to see him agonize over her rejection over and over again.
“Don’t you think it’s kinda sad that you’re treating me so bad,” the persona said. In the song, the guy declared that he will stop pursuing Cathy.
In the case of the incel movement – people who were scarred to the point that they could no longer bear how the world laugher at them – they took on violent means to vent their anger to the world.