READ ME File For 'Data for How to Make an Incel: Mapping the Journey to Antifeminism and misogyny PhD thesis'

Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D3636 

ReadMe Author: STU LUCY, University of Southampton 0000-0002-2109-5024

This dataset supports the thesis entitled: How to Make an Incel: Mapping the Journey to Antifeminism and Misogyny.
AWARDED BY: University of Southampton.
DATE OF AWARD: 2025

DESCRIPTION OF THE DATA

Interview data:
This is text data created through semi-structured asynchronous online interviews. Anonymised participants were interviewed across email and messaging platforms/applications. Responses were collated into singular word documents using a numerical filename anonymisation system. There are nine documents in total. Each document contains the question posed and the resulting unedited response offered by the participant. Specialist software is not required to view the data.

Ethnography Data:

This is a combination of text and image data collected via an online ethnography of ten social media platforms, websites, and discussion forums. Data was either copied digitally directly from the source into Word documents, or transcribed via a video transcription website or manually and copied to Word documents. Data was collected using non-probability snowball and convenience sampling. Each site was identified after consulting recent related literature. Specialist software is not required to view the data. Due to the asymmetrical structure, nature, and content of each location, data collection from each site was approached in an individual basis: 

Blackpill.club: 
	‘BPC data’: One Word document with collated text data. 
	‘My Torched Mind autobiography’: One Word document continuing a forum user’s autobiography.

Facebook: 
	‘Collated images and quotes’: One Word document containing collated text and images from incel community pages. 
	‘Memetic image capture’ One Word document containing memes collected from incel community pages. 

Incel wiki: 
21 Word self titled Word documents containing text and image data from specific webpages of the site: 
	Blackpill; Blackpill Science; Chad, Stacy and Becky; Dating; Feminism; Femoid; Gymcel; Identity distribution; 		Incel poems; incelebrities; Incelosphere timeline; Key definitions; Timeline; Lookism; Love-shy.com; Maxxing; 		Mogging; Normie; PSL; Purple and Whitepill; Victimhood; Wiki links.

Incels.is: 
	‘Exerts’: One folder containing 27 Word documents containing text and image data collected from forums threads and grouped based on theme: autism; bad science blackpill functionality; blackpill mind washing; Comments on journal/media articles; Cope; Entitlement to sex response; Extremism; Girlfriends; Incel Wiktionary; Infighting; Introspection; Maladaptivity; Masculinity; Mental health; Misogyny; Myth Busting; On Chad; Pain; Personal Stories; Random useful; Rejection; St Incel interview thread and responses; Subordination & Chad; therapy; Whitepill; Vulnerability.
	‘Discussion Forum’: One folder containing 21 Word documents of text data collected from the top three forum posts each day between 1st-31st October. 
	‘Dating Experiments’: One folder containing five images and two Word documents of ten and images related to dating experiments

Incels.net:
	‘Incels.net data’: One Word document containing collated text and images from threads and posts on forum.

Looksmax.org:
	‘Looksmax data’: One Word document containing collated text and images from threads and posts on forum.

Love-Shy.net:
	‘Loveshy Data’: One Word document containing collated text and images from threads and posts on forum.

Reddit:
	‘Foreveralone’: One folder containing one Word document of collated text and images from the subreddit r/Foreveralone
	‘Incel Exit’: One folder containing five Word documents of collated text and images from the subreddit r/Incel Exit grouped into five themes: Falling into incel; general discussion; How I got into incel; Out of incel; Thoughts after exit.
	‘Inceltear’: One folder containing four Word documents of collated text and images from the subreddit r/Inceltear grouped into four themes: Incel Wiki info; IT vs IS; Top post memes; Top posts.
One word document containing collated text and images of pill and incel terminology collected from general/ non-incel themed Reddit forums.

TikTok:
	‘TikTok image captures’: One Word document containing collated images from incel and blackpill TikTok accounts. 
	‘TikTok quotes’: One Word document containing text and transcribed quotes collected from incel and blackpill TikTok accounts. 

YouTube:
Five folders each containing text and images from specific incel related YouTube channels.
	‘WheatWaffles’: seven Word documents of transcriptions of videos housed on the wheatwaffles youTube channel: 
Why The Blackpill is So Underrated; Top 10 Data Supporting The Blackpill; Tinder Experiment Proves How Brutal it is For Average Guys; My Most Brutal Blackpilling Story; How To Calculate Your SMV; 100 Blackpill Beliefs in One Video; 40 Differences in Treatment Between a Sub5.
’Screenshots’: One Word document containing screenshots captured from viewed videos.
	‘Misc’: Three Word documents of text and image data collected from three miscellaneous youTube channels based on three themes: List of Incelebrities; ER day of retribution video; Eggman Take the blackpill comments.
	‘Incel TV’: Three word documents of text and image data collected from the Incel TV Youtube channel: ITV videos immersion; Blackpill 101- The REAL reason why Asian men are NOT seen as attractive comments; Blackpill 101 - E07 The plight of Indian men comments.
	‘HeedAndSucceed (TFL)’: One word document of screenshots captured from videos housed within the HeedAndSucceed Youtube channel. One word document of text transcribed from videos housed on the HeedAndSucceed Youtube channel.
	‘FACEandLMS’:
		‘ Video transcripts’: Five Word documents of transcriptions of videos housed on the FACandLMS youTube channel: Women Want Ugly Men Dead (A Blackpill Pummelling); Women Want To Date Up; What Makes A Man's Eyes Attractive? - The Most In-depth Guide; Hwīte Men Have The Highest Snuggle Market Value; Do Looks Matter To Women.
		‘Screenshots’: One word document of screenshots captured from videos housed within the FACEandLMS YouTube channel.
		Two Word documents of text transcribed form FACEandLMS YouTube videos: Comments -The Red Pill on what attracts women Looks, Money, Status BRUTAL; Comments - Do Looks Matter To Women The TRUTH.

This dataset contains:

‘Interview_data.zip’: One compressed folder containing nine numerically anonymised semi-structured interview transcript Word Documents. 
‘Ethnography_data.zip’: One compressed folder containing ten folders of text and image data collected from social media platforms websites, and discussion forums. Each folder is further subdivided by digital site:

Date of data collection: March 2022 - July 2023.

Information about geographic location of data collection: Data was collected online.

Related projects/Funders:
Economic and Social Research Council (Swindon, GB); South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership.
https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.9956960 
Grant number: 2606680

Related publication:
Lucy, S. (2024). The Victim-Perpetrator Incel? In R. S. Graham, S. G. Humer, C. Seunguen Lee, & V. Nagy (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Online Deviance (1st ed., pp. 70–89). Routledge.

Date that the file was created: Aug, 2025