2022 — Involuntary celibacy: a review of incel ideology and experiences with dating

What the study found

A 2022 review in Current Psychiatry Reports dates the term "incel" to 1997, when a university student named Alana created a website documenting her struggles in the dating sphere. The site grew into an informal support group with discussion forums, article sharing and a mailing list. The review records that Alana was ultimately successful in her own dating life and left the website in the hands of other members; it was not until the 2014 California attack that she learned the group had splintered into male-only assemblies whose frustrations were often directed at women. ^[1]

Why it matters here

The origin of the incel label is often flattened in public debate into a single hostile movement. This peer-reviewed review sets out a more specific history: a community that began as a gender-inclusive support space before fragmenting into the male-only, grievance-driven forums now associated with the term. That account bears directly on how the site presents Alana, who coined the word and later distanced herself from what it came to mean. The distinction matters for separating the term's neutral beginnings from the ideology that later attached to it.