Van attack reveals anti-women bent
TORONTO — The deadly van rampage in Toronto is training attention on an online world of sexual loneliness, rage and misogyny after the suspect invoked an uprising by “involuntary celibates” and gave a shoutout to a California killer who seethed at women for rejecting him.
The world of self-described “incels,” where sexual frustrations boil over into talk of violent revenge against women, has become a virtual home for some socially isolated men like the 25-year-old computer science student charged in Monday’s carnage on Toronto’s busiest thoroughfare.
Minutes before plowing a rented van into a crowd of mostly women, killing 10 people and injuring 14, suspect Alek Minassian posted a Facebook message that seemed to offer one of the few clues so far to what was on his mind. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” it read.
Police confirmed Minassian posted the message but have declined so far to discuss a motive for the attack as they continue investigating. But the post has revived concerns about the antiwoman vitriol embraced by California mass killer Elliot Rodger and invoked by Minassian in his post.
The incel community is “one of the most violent areas of the internet,” said Heidi Beirich, who tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It may seem to some people that this is kind of a group of pathetic, victimized white males who just are lonely. It’s not. It’s ugly.”
Yet some incel sites insist they don’t condone violence or misogyny. And Judith Taylor, a University of Toronto professor who focuses on social movements, notes that some participants in incel discussions simply feel forsaken, while others “can become very graphic and very toxic.”
Until Monday, Minassian had a life that never attracted authorities’ attention.
Minassian’s family hasn’t commented on him or the murder and attempted murder charges against him. His father, Vahe Minassian, looked distraught and only said, “I’m sorry,” as he left a courthouse Tuesday. It’s not clear whether Minassian has a lawyer who will represent him as the case progresses.
Whatever emerges about his mindset and alleged motivations, his mention of an “incel rebellion” immediately put the virtual community under scrutiny. Discussion forums buzzed with reactions.
The “involuntary celibate” identity dates to the 1990s, coined by a Canadian woman aiming to launch a supportive exchange about sexual solitude, according to Taylor.
But over time, “incel” has become a buzzword for certain men infuriated at being rejected
by women and prone to float ideas for violent payback, according to sociologists and others who follow incel circles.
A man who killed three women and wounded nine others in a Pennsylvania dance-aerobics class in 2009 left behind a vitriolic diary about his lack of a love life. In 1989, a 25-year-old man who blamed feminists for ruining his life killed 14 women at a Montreal engineering college in Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.