The Blue Pill, Red Pill, and Black Pill: Understanding Triadic Discursive Interplay and Animating Meanings of Violence in Online Incel Forums
Understanding how involuntarily celibates (“incels”) become radicalized in online forums is essential for preventing acts of mass- and gender-based violence. Yet, researchers have yet to explicate how the systems of meaning incels use to make sense of reality (i.e., discourses, or “pills”) interact to create local meanings about violence (Hintz & Baker, 2021). Online incel forums are spaces in which normative perspectives (the “bluepill”) are suppressed, and otherwise marginalized perspectives (the “redpill” and “blackpill”) become dominant (IncelsWiki, 2024). These spaces are both sites of online violence and also catalysts for offline violence.
The proposed study will analyze online incel forums using contrapuntal analysis (Baxter, 2011) to identify how these “pills” compete in online incel forums to create meanings about violence, identify specific practices that close down alternative perspectives which might otherwise threaten incel beliefs, and in doing so outline strategies for discursive disruption and transformation.
This study will produce peer-reviewed presentations, conference papers, and lay groundwork for future interventions.
References
- Baxter, L. A. (2011). Voicing relationships: A dialogic perspective. Sage.
- Hintz, E. A., & Baker, J. T. (2021). A performative face theory analysis of online facework by the formerly involuntarily celibate. International Journal of Communication, 15(1), 3047–3066. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/
- Incels Wiki. (2024a). What is an incel? https://incels.wiki/w/Main_Page
Main Research Topics
- Interpersonal, Family, and Health Communication
- Women’s Health Issues
- Gender and Feminist Approaches
- Qualitative Methods
Curriculum Vitae
- Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Connecticut (UConn)
- Co-Director, Communication Methods Innovation Lab (CMIL; UConn)
- Faculty Affiliate, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (UConn)
- Faculty Affiliate, Intimate Communication Lab (Directed by Drs. Cooke-Jackson and Rubinsky)
- Collaborator, Family Comm. & Relationships Lab (Directed by Drs. Dorrance Hall & Scharp)
Publications and Presentations
- Hintz, E. A., & Baker, J. T. (2021). A performative face theory analysis of online facework by the formerly involuntarily celibate. International Journal of Communication, 15(1), 3047–3066. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/16847/3487
