Dee Salmin and Pip Rasmussen have delved into the meaning of the term ‘femcel’ on Triple J’s The Hook Up podcast and have opened up a discussion on why some men have refused to believe women who identify as such exist.
According to the Collins English Dictionary, the word femcel is used to describe a woman who is ‘frustrated by a lack of opportunities to have sexual relationships.’
Speaking during an episode of The Hook Up podcast, the radio presenters analysed the difference between femcels and incels, noting that many femcels do not blame other people for their celibacy, rather, they choose to blame themselves.
They noted that this is different to what some perceive an incel to be, with the podcasters saying that incels tend to blame others for being involuntarily celebrate.
An incel is described by the Collins English Dictionary as ‘someone, usually a man, who believes that they are unfairly deprived of opportunities to have sex. Incel is short for involuntary or involuntarily celibate.’
The Anti-Defamation League also adds that incels are typically ‘heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success’.
Dee Salmin (left) and Pip Rasmussen (right) have delved into into the meaning of the term ‘femcel’ on Triple J’s The Hook Up podcast
Salmin, who is dating Collingwood player Darcy Moore, opened up on the definition of femcel, stating that it was a female
It adds that the ‘incel ideology is rooted in the belief that women have too much power in the sexual or romantic sphere and ruin incels’ lives by rejecting them.’
Salmin said: ‘Even the journey from the beginning of incel, to then women and fems have to create a whole new term to describe what they’re experiencing because they can’t use incel any more.
‘It’s not boy sober because they are not purposefully taking a break from dating or relationships, they are genuinely wanting that but cannot get it.
‘Now incels’ reactions to the term femcel – they refuse to believe it even exists. They’ve invalidated a term that was created by a woman in the first place.’
Rasmussen added: ‘In an incel’s mind, they’re like: “By default, because you’re a woman, you could get sex. You just need to lower your standards”.’
‘And guys were DMing us saying this,’ Salmin replied. ‘Being like: “I don’t believe femcels exist because women can have sex with whoever they want”.’
The pair read out some comments sent in by people who listen to the show, with one person writing: ‘I guarantee you that incels have fewer opportunities than femcels. The average guy, which would be two-to-the-most average women, is far less likely to have high requirements than a female equivalent.’
Salmin then went on to say: ‘I think the difference might be these incels might view sex through the lens of, “I’m owed sex” or “I have a right to women’s bodies and therefore I have a right to sex”.
Salmin delved into the difference between incels and femcels stating that many incels do not believe that the term femcel exists
‘Where is, what we’ve been saying, is femcels don’t perceive men in the same way.
‘So when they’re saying: “I’m not having sex,” they don’t mean like: “I’m going to go have sex with a sex worker”. They mean: “There is no one that I feel safe enough or connect with enough to have sex with”. Of course, if they wanted to they could go see a sex worker.
She added: ‘But I think with a lot of the femcels… going through why a lot of people are identifying as femcels, the sex they want to have is with someone they feel safe with and want to connect with.’
In their investigations on the topic on social media, Salmin found that in Reddit forums that featured discussions around the subjects of incels there was ‘a lot of anger and a lot of blame’.
She then turned her attention to some of the forums that many femcels use stating: ‘For the femcels there was a lot of people trying to uplift each other. I saw a lot of people telling each other: “Have you tried doing this?”
She added that many were: ‘Just trying to uplift each other and give each other advice.
It comes as researchers from Swansea Univerity and the University of Texas at Austin have been conducting studies on 561 incels from the UK and US to ascertain the key characteristics that incels might share.
The surprising results suggested that many incels have a history of being bullied and have poor mental health.
Dr Andrew Thomas, a psychologist at Swansea University, says: ‘If we had to point to their most consistent characteristics, it would be incredibly poor mental health and their feelings of bitterness, frustration, and disdain towards women—though even these show variation within the sample.’
More than a third of those studied suffered from moderate depression or anxiety.
Concerns have arisen in recent years following an alarming number of mass murders around the world that were linked to incel ideologies.