{"id":24259,"date":"2018-09-07T09:09:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T16:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=24259"},"modified":"2018-09-07T09:09:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T16:09:27","slug":"cartoon-incels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=24259","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: Incels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you enjoy these cartoons, and can spare it, why not support them on Patreon?<\/a> A $1 pledge really matters.<\/p>\n

\n

Have you noticed that the more misogynistic someone is, the more likely he is to use “females” in sentences where most people would say “women”? I have no idea why they do that. (Well, I do have an idea – the effect is to dehumanize women a little. But I don’t know if they’re doing that consciously or unconsciously).<\/p>\n

I probably wouldn’t have done a comic about “incels” a year ago, because too few people would know what that word means. Since then, tragically, an incel terrorist<\/a> ran down a bunch of people in Toronto, and incels were suddenly in the news.<\/p>\n

Of course, the overwhelming majority of incels are not mass-murderers. But the misogyny is so much more extreme than I’m used to, even on right-wing forums.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to read an Incel forum for long to realize that the guys divide into two categories. Category one: those who write about “females” with white-hot rage and over-the-top contempt. Category two: those who choose to spend time in a forum filled with guys from category one.<\/p>\n

“Incels” stands for “Involuntary Celibites,” a termed coined by “Alana,” a queer woman, back in 1993. She now says,<\/a> “I can’t uninvent this word, nor restrict it to the nicer people who need it.”<\/p>\n

When Alana created the first Involuntary Celibate forum, it was a needed support group for people dealing with a real problem. As someone who has gone years between romances, I relate to that problem. Loneliness and lack of connection are painful; lack of physical affection is painful; and a better society would have institutions to help people feel less alone.<\/p>\n

Alana intended to create something like that back in 1993. Over the years, however, incels has become a group exclusively for bitter, misogynistic men to marinate in each other’s hate, to let it soak in even deeper. (We really need a new word, meaning “involuntary celibates who aren’t super misogynistic.”)<\/p>\n

The gag in this cartoon is pretty obvious, I admit, but I haven’t seen it done yet in cartoon form, and I don’t mind doing old gags if I can try to do them well.<\/p>\n

Of course, many incels would answer the question in panel four by saying that they don’t<\/em> wonder why they aren’t getting laid. Rather, they believe they know <\/em>why; they believe that they themselves are so ugly – physically, that is – that no woman would ever have them. (Or at least, no woman they’re willing to have back; many incels seem to think they have a moral right to sex with 21 year old women, and that sex with a woman in her thirties or older is a moral affront. Have I mentioned that these guys are really unpleasant?)<\/p>\n

They’re wrong about why they’re not getting laid; most of the incels I’ve seen photos of are ordinary looking guys, and often pretty good-looking guys (Elliot Rodger,<\/a> for instance). Furthermore, I was a wedding coordinator for over a decade, and in that time I attended over a thousand weddings. From that experience, I can tell you: People with all sorts of looks, including conventionally unattractive people, have been able to find love.<\/p>\n

It’s not your looks, incels. It’s you.<\/p>\n

I want to acknowledge that this cartoon was influenced by Jia Tolentino’s excellent New Yorker<\/em> article<\/a>, which was also the source of the quote I used in panel 3.<\/p>\n

\n

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels, plus a small “kicker” panel under the bottom of the cartoon.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1
\nThe panel is a close-up of a smartphone, behind held in someone’s hand. On the screen, a friendly-looking young man waves and smiles, speaking to the camera. He’s wearing a button-up shirt with white pinstripes. A caption below him on the screen says “I.C.K. Livestream.”<\/p>\n

MAN: Welcome to the online conference of the Involuntary Celibates of Kansas – AKA “Incels!” Today we’ll discuss two main topics…<\/p>\n

PANEL 2
\nA shot of the same man, no longer on a cell phone screen; he is seated in front of a desk, speaking at the laptop on his desk. His hand is in his fist and he has an intense, almost angry expression.<\/p>\n

MAN: Topic One: Females! We incels realize that females are spoiled children who are handed the world on a platter.<\/p>\n

PANEL 3
\nAnother shot of the same man, this time looking at him from behind his laptop. He’s waving his hands as he speaks.<\/p>\n

MAN: Society has become a place for worship of females. And htat’s so #$%*ing wrong! Females aren’t gods. They’re just #$%*ing cum-dumpsters.<\/p>\n

The man’s dialog in this panel has a footnote. The footnote says “actual quote.”<\/p>\n

PANEL 4
\nLike panel 1, this is a close-up of the smartphone being held by a hand. On the smartphone, the man who has been speaking now looks hurt and puzzled. He is shrugging.<\/p>\n

MAN: Topic Two: Why can’t we get laid?<\/p>\n

KICKER PANEL BELOW BOTTOM OF STRIP
\nThe same man is speaking angrily at Barry the Cartoonist. Barry is rolling his eyes.<\/p>\n

MAN: You only drew this cartoon to get laid!<\/em>
\nBARRY: Yeah, because that’s<\/em> how getting laid works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you enjoy these cartoons, and can spare it, why not support them on Patreon? A $1 pledge really matters. Have you noticed that the more misogynistic someone is, the more likely he is to use “females” in sentences where … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-feminism-sexism-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24261,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24259\/revisions\/24261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}