Framing misogyny in the metaverse: Theorising incel communities in virtual reality (VR) environments

Enhanced embodiment and misogynist fantasies

VR environments may allow incels to construct hyper-masculine or idealised male avatars and participate in simulations that reproduce dominance over women, reinforcing their ideological beliefs.

Virtual reality technologies can mark a significant shift in how misogynist incel communities construct and perform identity online, moving beyond earlier tactics like “chadfishing” (Halpin, 2022) or blackpilled self-improvement content (Wilson et al., 2024). While these earlier practices rely on 2D images and narratives for controlled self-presentation they remain fundamentally disembodied, with limited sensory engagement or interaction. In contrast, VR, accessed via HMDs and motion controllers, allows incels to inhabit idealised avatars that move, speak, and interact in real time, simulating physical presence and enabling more complex social rituals. Virtual reality provides new interpretive frames through which users understand and perform their identities. These immersive environments facilitate “keyings,” where fantasy is reframed as emotionally credible and socially meaningful, further blurring the boundary between fiction and belief.

For incels, looks, money, and status (LMS) are central to their perceived social standing and worldview. They idealise “Chads”—white, attractive, muscular men—with the “GigaChad” as the ultimate archetype. In VR, incels may seek to transcend the perceived limitations of their offline identities—like Goffman’s (1951) contemplations on transcending class boundaries—through carefully curated avatars. These customisable virtual bodies enable incels to mimic Chad-like traits such as exalted physiques, fashionable clothing, or high-status aesthetics. In immersive environments, avatars are deeply connected to a user’s sense of identity, presence, and social interaction. As a result, these performances blur the lines between incels, “normies,” and Chads, raising questions around authenticity and identity.

In VR, incels may see the virtual world not as fantasy but as a space to reclaim status and agency. Adopting Chad-like avatars is not deception but self-actualisation. The boundaries they cross focus less on class and more on aesthetics and social status, with virtual symbols like luxury avatars and high-status items easily displayed, bypassing real-world limits. These symbols are interpreted through a frame that equates visual dominance with social power, reinforcing incel beliefs about hypergamy (that women will only “marry-up”), female superficiality, and masculinity.

Virtual reality technologies also offer incels unprecedented possibilities for the creation of virtual partners, digital entities designed to simulate social, emotional, and even romantic interactions within immersive environments. Through AI, virtual partners can exhibit adaptive, autonomous behaviours through natural language processing, emotional recognition, and machine learning algorithms that tailor interactions to the user’s preferences and responses. Incels’ virtual girlfriends could be modelled on the “TradWife,” a white nationalist archetype promoting traditional gender roles, submission to male authority, and domesticity (Tebaldi, 2023). For incels, TradWives embody the ideal woman, the “Madonna” in the Madonna–whore binary (Sugiura, 2021). Yet these figures remain inaccessible and linked to alt-right ideology (Barcellona, 2022), doing little to humanise women in incel narratives. Instead, VR enables the creation of idealised AI partners who are compliant, sexually available, and fully subservient, thereby reinforcing patriarchal dynamics. Previous studies on AI girlfriends have demonstrated that dominant ideas of male control over both technology and women continue to persist in these virtual relationships (Depounti et al., 2023), whilst research highlights the AI bias in designing women companions (Prasad and Singh, 2025). For incels, these virtual women are not seen as artificial but as superior alternatives to “real” women, who are framed as hypergamous and disloyal. This marks a shift from exclusion to entitlement and control (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005).

Also concerning is VR’s potential to normalise and entrench these views. Goffman (1974) notes that interpretive frames shape emotional and moral responses. In immersive VR, repeated exposure to symbolic violence against women may erode moral boundaries. Over time, these beliefs are not only expressed but deeply internalised, potentially escalating radicalisation and lowering the threshold for offline harm.

“Simulated” gendered violence

The ludic structure of VR platforms may enable or encourage scenarios where sexual violence towards female avatars becomes routinised and rewarding, both socially and psychologically.

Misogynistic incels frequently discuss and even celebrate rape and sexual violence on their forums (Chan, 2023; Lindsay, 2022), while simultaneously denying rape as a harmful or a criminal act. They often frame rape not by the act itself, but by the perceived attractiveness of those involved. For them, an attractive man, the “Chad,” cannot rape, as women are presumed to always desire sex with such men (Solea and Sugiura, 2023).

In VR, where incels can construct idealised “Chad” avatars and control environments, the risk of simulated sexual violence increases. The immersive and malleable nature of these spaces allows users to project and act out their ideological frames without external constraint. These virtual acts can be rekeyed, presented as roleplay, fantasy, or dark humour, rather than being acknowledged as reflections of real misogynistic intent. This rekeying shields perpetrators from moral accountability, while reinforcing the frame that such behaviour is either harmless or justified, that simulated is not real.

Given their denial of physical rape, incels are unlikely to take it more seriously in virtual settings. Instead, VR provides a low-risk space to rehearse and normalise ideologies that justify or glorify sexual violence. While not necessarily incel-driven, cases of virtual sexual assault against women have been reported—most notably the gang-rape of a 7-year-old girl by two male avatars on Roblox (Al-Jarani, 2019). VR’s immersive nature turns these ideologies into embodied experiences, blurring the line between fantasy and intent. Furthermore, haptic technologies in virtual environments heightens the harm of assault by making unwanted interactions feel physically real. Devices like gloves or vests translate digital touch into tactile sensations, blurring the line between virtual and physical violation. This embodied feedback can intensify emotional and psychological distress, especially in cases of gendered or sexualised harassment.

Virtual worlds often use multimedia—videos, memes, and simulations—to spread extremist ideas more effectively than text alone (Kien, 2019). These formats shape how users perceive rape, gender, and power, turning ideology into lived experience through roleplay and group rituals. Social reinforcement, such as exclusive gatherings or choreographed acts, strengthens these frames and makes them harder to challenge. Recorded content can then be shared, amplifying harm, and serving as propaganda.

In such environments, frames of misogyny and entitlement are not just passively accepted; they are actively performed and emotionally internalised. Goffman’s (1974) insight that people often become committed to the frames they use because they serve important identity or group-belonging functions is especially relevant here. In virtual incel spaces, to reject the frame is not merely to change one’s view of an issue, it is to risk social exile, loss of belonging, and the collapse of a coherent narrative through which the user understands himself and the world.

Reinforcement of echo chambers

Decentralised or user-generated virtual spaces may foster ideologically homogeneous environments, deepening group cohesion and reducing exposure to counter-narratives.

In ideologically uniform spaces, users are repeatedly exposed to content that reinforces their beliefs without challenge. This is especially concerning in misogynist incel communities, where shared grievances and hostile narratives foster group cohesion (Zimmerman, 2022). Virtual environments intensify this through emotional engagement, shared rituals, and a sense of belonging. Within these echo chambers, incels’ views are continually validated, with repeated exposure to extreme narratives driving group polarisation and increased radicalisation over time (Marino et al., 2024). In virtual echo chambers, users do not just consume content, they inhabit reframed realities. Goffman’s (1974) concept of “frame alignment” applies here: to remain accepted, users must adopt the group’s shared worldview. Immersive spaces intensify this by blurring belief and experience. The blackpill becomes not a theory but a lived lens for interpreting rejection and gender dynamics. Outside critique is dismissed or reframed as hostile, naive, or evidence of perceived social oppression (Mansour and Kidd, 2024).

The immersive nature of virtual worlds enhances this effect by increasing emotional and psychological engagement. Unlike traditional forums or social media, but like gaming, VR environments simulate physical presence and interaction, or telepresence. This makes group rituals, conversations, and shared experiences feel more vivid and impactful, strengthening bonds and group cohesion, what Kowert et al. (2022) describe as “identity fusion.” As users repeatedly perform within the frame, incel identity becomes emotionally reinforced and ritualised. Over time, this can solidify into a rigid and insular “deep frame” that shapes how users interpret reality, even beyond VR.

This framing mechanism can contribute not only to ideological entrenchment but also to resistance against deradicalisation. Once an individual’s identity and social belonging are wrapped within a particular frame, challenges to that frame may be perceived as personal attacks rather than ideological alternatives. As Goffman (1974) notes, individuals often defend their frames fiercely, since to abandon a frame is to risk losing the coherence of their social reality.

Obfuscation of accountability

Immersive technologies may complicate attribution of harm, especially where harassment occurs via avatars or through ‘playful’ interactions, challenging existing moderation strategies.

In VR, avatars act as both masks and identity extensions, blurring the line between roleplay, intent, and real harm. This ambiguity complicates accountability. Incels may exploit VR’s immersive features to enact fantasies of domination or symbolic violence against women, which could be framed as role-play or gaming. Simulated acts like stalking or groping can be dismissed as jokes or in-game behaviour, masking their harmful intent. Undermining harmful actions is especially salient in misogynist incel communities, where members often append the phrase “in a video game” to violent or sexual threats in online forums as a form of plausible deniability (Jones, 2020). Such rhetorical strategies allow users to flirt with the boundaries of acceptable discourse while shielding themselves from social or legal consequences. The immersive, embodied nature of VR may exacerbate this issue, as the realism of user interactions increases, but the same mechanisms of denial remain in place.

In these environments, harmful actions can be reframed or keyed as playful or non-serious, thus obscuring their violent or violating nature. Behaviours that would be seen as harassment offline can be dismissed as part of the game, reducing their perceived seriousness and shielding perpetrators from scrutiny. This rekeying offers plausible deniability, allowing users to deflect accountability by claiming their actions were misunderstood or merely performative. This gamification of gendered violence would reduce its visibility and reshape how it is morally perceived. Incels can more easily evade responsibility, as misogynistic acts are framed as entertainment or fantasy. This framing sanitises harm, making it more acceptable, and even rewarding, to incels.

Incels may also become adept at navigating or undermining moderation systems. Since much of their rhetoric is coded in memes, irony, or “edgy humour,” their harmful activity often evades detection by automated systems or appears ambiguous to human moderators (Horta Ribeiro et al., 2021; Solea and Sugiura, 2023). Bad actors online are also becoming increasingly adept at enacting “awful but lawful” strategies. In virtual worlds, these strategies can extend into physical gestures or private spatial interactions (e.g. “cornering” female avatars, using VR proximity for intimidation), difficult to document or verify. Here, Goffman’s (1974) notion of frame disputes is relevant, victims may see these acts as harassment, while perpetrators frame them as harmless interaction or in-game performance, complicating moderation and accountability.

This creates a toxic environment where women and gender minorities feel constantly vulnerable, while perpetrators exploit technology and ambiguous framing to avoid accountability. Without a shared understanding of harm between users, victims, moderators, and platforms, systemic misrecognition becomes not only possible but likely, especially when acts of violence are strategically concealed behind the veil of interactivity and play.

Extension of incel mythology

The symbolic and narrative potential of virtual spaces may allow incels to mythologise their worldview in more elaborate ways, constructing immersive lore that reifies concepts like the ‘blackpill’ or ‘Chad/Stacy’.

Static archives like the Incel Wiki shape and legitimise incel ideology by cataloguing terms, narratives, and pseudo-scientific claims that frame misogyny as rational truth (DeCook, 2021). Such archives provide users with interpretive structures through which social grievances are understood and reified. However, VR extends this knowledge production from the textual to the performative. In immersive environments, ideology is not only consumed but enacted and embodied. Here, avatars and spatial interaction allow incel users to rehearse identity and belief systems in real time, transforming ideological knowledge into lived, affective experience.

Online, misogynistic incel beliefs, like the blackpill, or the Chad/Stacy archetypes, are transformed from marginal internet subcultural discourse into immersive, emotionally charged, and mythologically reinforced narratives (Rothermel, 2023). In immersive virtual environments, these frames can become even more tightly bounded, self-reinforcing, and oppositional to mainstream norms. For example, the blackpill can become a primary framework organising not only personal experience, but also interaction, appearance, and expectations. Everything, whether social rejection, female agency, or success of others, is read through the lens of irreversible sexual hierarchy and genetic determinism. Virtual encounters are thus framed not as playful or creative, but as symbolic reenactments of real-world dynamics, rigged games in which incels are destined to lose, and the social order is inherently unjust. Opposing views, especially feminist or egalitarian ones, are further discredited as delusional or naïve reframing, entrenching the incel frame as the only “truthful” interpretation of society.

Immersive platforms enable “thick framing,” a layering of sensory, social, and symbolic cues that reinforces the chosen worldview. Users would not just talk about the blackpill, they would see it, embody it, and inhabit it through avatar design, environmental symbolism, and scripted interactions. These frames can become affectively charged, binding users emotionally to the incel mythology.