Incel is short for “involuntarily celibate”. The term rose to prominence because of its adoption by a subsection of the “manosphere”, a loose collection of movements united by misogyny that also includes some men’s rights activists, pick-up artists, and Mgtow/volcel – heterosexual men who refuse to have sex with women for political reasons.
2018, Judah Weinerman, "Meet incels, the internet's resident anti-women hate brigades", The Justice (Brandeis University), 30 October 2018, page 11:
All of these subsets have a shared loathing of “volcels,” otherwise known as voluntary celibates.
2018, Jesper Greve Kristensen, "The Angry Male: A Conceptual Analysis of Language Use in the Men’s Rights Movement", thesis submitted to the University of Iceland, page 91:
Incels seek to rebalance by putting the blame of their own perceived failures on women, and Volcels by boycotting women entirely, and thereby removing the risk of rejection.
2019, Thea Høiland, "Incels and the stories they tell: A narrative analysis of Incels’ shared stories on Reddit", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 89:
If you are good-looking, or not ugly enough, you are a volcel, a voluntary celibate.
2019, anonymous, quoted in Zhané Hunte, "‘Female Nature, Cucks, and Simps’: Understanding Men Going Their Own Way as part of the Manosphere", thesis submitted to Uppsala University, pages 65-66:
I wonder. Whatever or whoever may be the originator of this bizarre game must not be very happy at us MGTOW (especially the hard MGTOW which are monks, volcels, pay no heed to women, etc.) for deviating from the pre-programmed directives which are very hard-wired, and almost impossible to expunge.
2020, December Maxwell, Sarah R. Robinson, Jessica R. Williams, & Craig Keaton, "'A Short Story of a Lonely Guy': A Qualitative Thematic Analysis of Involuntary Celibacy Using Reddit", Sexuality & Culture (2020):
One commenter explained he was “a tiny bit of a volcel” since he did not like women from his country because of their personalities.
2020, anonymous, quoted in Angus Charles Lindsay, "Swallowing the Black Pill: A Qualitative Exploration of Incel Antifeminism within Digital Society", thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington, page 76:
No shit 80% of men aren’t virgins. But most men will have to bust their assess off and take scraps to get laid with any consistency. Men who can’t (autists) or won’t (volcels who demand a fair looksmatch) do this generally won’t have foids available to them even if they are 7s physically, unless they excel in some other field.
Could being volcel be a path to enlightenment in a time where heterosexual interactions in the media appeared to be endlessly marred by patriarchal power dynamics?
2018, anonymous, quoted in Maria Wiklund, "The Misogyny Within The Manosphere: A Discourse Analysis In A Swedish Context", thesis submitted to Malmö University, page 9:
Firstly, a lot of you people claiming to be “volcel” are simply coping, pretending you could get laid if you tried when in fact, you probably couldn’t.
2023 March 10, Robert Bourbon, “The Journey to the West: Familiarity in Foreign Lands”, in Reed College Quest[1], archived from the original on 10 March 2023[2]:
The titular journey is fraught with conflict; every mountain houses an army of demons seeking to eat Tripitaka, each river’s guardian bars the path, every king either persecutes Buddhists or has a daughter who lusts after the volcel monk.