Introduction

Incels (involuntary celibates) constitute an online community made up mostly of heterosexual men, characterized by their active participation in virtual spaces where misogynistic and racist ideologies are disseminated. These ideologies, which promote hatred mainly towards women whom they blame for their inability to establish sexual or romantic relationships (Costello et al., 2022; Fontanesi et al., 2022; García-Mingo et al., 2022; Glace et al., 2021; Heritage and Koller, 2020; Lindsay, 2022; Petreca et al., 2024), manifest both through the creation and dissemination of content, as well as through the passive consumption of narratives that reinforce these beliefs.

The term “incel” was introduced in the late 1990s by Alana, a Canadian woman who created the “Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project”. This website, started in 1997, aimed to provide support for people of all genders facing romantic and sexual exclusion (Lindsay, 2022). At its inception, the project distanced itself from violent narratives and worked to destigmatize concepts such as virginity. However, in the early 2000s, Alana stopped managing the forum. Over time, the platform drifted from its original purpose, evolving into a predominantly male-dominated space where a misogynistic ideology began to proliferate (Gheorghe and Yuzva Clement, 2023). The misogyny that began on the original platform soon spread to other online spaces such as 4chan, 8chan, Telegram, Discord and Reddit (Ging, 2019), and eventually reached social networks such as X (formerly Twitter) (Demir and Tiryaki, 2024), YouTube (Papadamou et al., 2021) and TikTok (Solea and Sugiura, 2023). This transformation marks a clear departure from Alana’s initial vision, highlighting the evolution of both the term “incel” and the communities associated with it.

Incels interact in the “incelosphere” (common online spaces) to express their misogynistic concerns, and their feelings of frustration, anger, rage, rejection and loneliness; in addition, they share comments related to violence (Lacalle et al., 2023; Speckhard et al., 2021), and discuss their needs and the grievances they suffer. Baele et al. (2023) point out that, over the past 6 years, there has been a sustained increase in the use of violent extremist language across different spaces of the incelosphere. In this context, they construct an ideology about the relational dynamics between men and women, and generate axioms about how these dynamics function. The lack of access to sexual relations with women (which they see as a basic right) further intensifies their frustration and other negative emotions linked to their “inceldom”, potentially fueling feelings of hatred and contempt for them (Daly and Reed, 2022).

Incels are part of the “manosphere”, a network of online groups comprised of men who promote antifeminist belief systems. These groups assert that men’s rights are being eroded by women, a narrative they use to justify their rhetoric and actions (Banet-Weiser and Miltner, 2016; García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b; Ging, 2019; Lindsay, 2022). The radicalization of incels is often conceptualized through ideological frameworks known as “pills” (a commonly referenced concept within manosphere discourse, inspired by the film The Matrix), which represent different worldviews adopted by community members. Although these stages are not necessarily linear, they reflect the progression of individuals’ beliefs within the incel subculture (Woodward et al., 2022). While most people take the “blue pill” (they are unaware of, or have not yet acknowledged, the truth), the manosphere frames “taking the red pill” as an awakening; this awakening reveals a reality in which men are at a disadvantage compared to women, a situation they attribute to feminist indoctrination and systemic misandry (Ging, 2019; Solea and Sugiura, 2023). This perspective also dismisses claims of female repression as a myth (Woodward et al., 2022). Incels tend to gravitate toward the “black pill” (a nihilistic extension of the red pill), accepting a worldview in which physical attractiveness determines romantic success this belief forms the foundation of their ideology (Woodward et al., 2022). It is important to note, however, that not all incels adopt the black pill ideology nor do they progress through every stage of this belief system.

Central to blackpill ideology is the belief in “lookism”, the idea that physical traits like height or bone structure solely determine the attractiveness and social worth of a man when a woman chooses to have a sexual or intimate relationship with him (Daly and Reed, 2022; Ging, 2019; Lindsay, 2022). This leads to a stratified model (García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b) where “Chads” (men with idealized masculine features) are seen as universally desired by women, while “betas” (average men) are portrayed as disposable or exploited, and incels place themselves at the bottom, claiming to be excluded from all sexual or romantic opportunities due to their appearance. Women are also positioned within a similar hierarchy, with “Stacys” at the top and “Beckys” in the middle (Daly and Reed, 2022; Ging, 2019; Menzie, 2020; Maxwell et al., 2020). Crucially, incels argue that no woman is truly excluded from sexual relationships, hence their claim that “femcels” do not exist (Cuthbert, 2023; Farrell et al., 2020; Johanssen and Kay, 2024; Pizzimenti and Penna, 2024). This worldview rests on unfounded beliefs such as the 80/20 rule (that is, 80% of women desire only the top 20% of men) (Menzie, 2020), and stereotypes portraying women as hypergamous, as they are supposed to seek men who are physically and socioeconomically superior to them (García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b); and hybristophilic, as they are sexually attracted to criminals, murderers and delinquents (Solea and Sugiura, 2023). While incels present these hierarchies as biologically determined, they in fact reflect a deeply misogynistic and essentialist ideology, not an evidence-based view of gender relations. The framework they promote distorts social dynamics by portraying men as systematically disadvantaged, when in reality it reaffirms patriarchal structures and gender inequality. However, the blackpill ideology does not limit itself to the belief that physical attractiveness alone defines access to romantic and sexual relationships. While looks are considered the primary and most valued criterion (especially for men) this worldview also incorporates transactional narratives. These suggest that, although women are believed to prefer physically attractive men, they may “settle” for those of average appearance if these men offer compensatory material or emotional resources. This reinforces the blackpill’s underlying misogynistic assumption that women are inherently opportunistic and that any relationship outside the top tier of attractiveness is driven by self-interest rather than genuine affection (Baele et al., 2021; García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b; Menzie, 2020).

The incel narratives, as disseminated on social networks, reveal several alarming dimensions. Their discourse is notorious for its misogyny, sexism, antifeminism and racism, often generating content that not only offends women, but also incites hatred and violence. This content focuses on aspects such as physical appearance, sexuality or gender (Jaki et al., 2019). The study of incel discourse and narratives has spanned multiple countries, platforms, perspectives and methodologies. In the Spanish-speaking context, several authors have examined the manosphere as a whole, including incels. However, to our knowledge, there are no studies focusing exclusively on incels. On the one hand, García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández (2023a) compile information from the last five years of research conducted on the manosphere and antifeminism in the European and Spanish-speaking contexts. On the other hand, Lacalle et al. (2023) analyze the Burbuja.info forum to determine the modalities of identity construction in the selected comments. Likewise, Lacalle (2023) analyzes the attitudes and passions that emerge in the misogynist discourses in Forocoches and Burbuja.info, two reference forums of the Spanish-speaking manosphere. In Lacalle et al. (2024), the animalization of women as a strategy of dehumanization is analyzed, specifically, the use of misogynist zoomorphism in the Burbuja.info forum. García-Mingo et al. (2022) analyse the antifeminist discourse of the misogynist Spanish-speaking manosphere (decisive in shaping the social perception of sexual violence committed against women) through digital ethnography in Internet forums (Hispachan, Forocoches), websites (Stop Feminazis; Hombres, Género y Debate Crítico), Facebook groups (Men’s Rights Activists, Abused Men of Spain), as well as Telegram, YouTube, and Twitch channels and Instagram and Twitter accounts. Also, Díaz-Fernández and García-Mingo (2024) analyze how the features and dynamics of Forocoches, as part of the Spanish-speaking manosphere, foster a masculinist digital culture based on trolling that reinforces hegemonic masculinity. García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández (2023b) examine how narratives of male victimhood in the Spanish-speaking manosphere are constructed and deployed as part of an antifeminist strategy to justify misogyny and undermine feminism through multi-platform digital ethnography in forums, websites, imageboards, Facebook groups, as well as Telegram, YouTube and Twitch channels, and Instagram and Twitter accounts. Finally, in Caldevilla-Dominguez et al. (2022), Forocoches is studied to better understand what the manosphere is. This study focuses on defining this phenomenon and distinguishing it from the wider notion of machismo present on the Internet, by identifying specific categories; in addition, the authors explore various forms of masculinities and the way these groups operate in digital spaces.

Other research has examined the specific vocabulary used by the incel community, emphasizing how their discourse frames hite, cisgender men as oppressed victims. According to this narrative, these men are perceived as being victimized by both women and people of color, whom incels hold responsible for their marginalization. Consequently, they believe it is necessary to subjugate these groups (Fowler, 2022). In line with this perspective, incels use dehumanizing and misogynistic language on social networks when referring to women, often comparing them to various categories or domains that reinforce negative and denigrating stereotypes. For instance, women are disparagingly likened to: (1) dangerous or dirty animals (such as pigs, cattle, vipers, insects and pests); (2) food (with terms such as “rape meat” or “roast meat”); (3) body parts (reducing them merely to “holes”); (4) objects (such as commodities, inanimate things or, directly, “cumbuckets”); (5) androids, cyborgs or humanoids, thereby denying them their rights as human beings (Prażmo, 2020).

The vocabulary used by incels is not only deeply misogynistic, but also markedly racist. Within their lexicon, reference to racialized gender identities constitutes a recurring pattern after gender categorizations. Among the most common are the following: (1) Personal names connoting racial stereotypes: Chad (White alpha male), Tyrone (Black version of Chad), Tyroneriguez (Black and Mexican), Chadriguez (Mexican Chad), Chadpreet (Indian Chad), Chang (East Asian Chad), Chaddam (Arab Chad) and Chadullah (Arab Chad); (2) Food as ethnic metaphor: Ricecels for Chinese or Asians, or currycels for Indians; for women, noodlewhores, currywhores, ricebitch, ricecunt and curry Stacy; (3) References to skin/color: Cumskin is a pejorative term for Whites; while shitskin, pooskin or crapskin are used derogatorily to refer to Black people; (4) Genetic and animalistic terminology: Terms such as hybrid, mongrel or mutt, the latter referring to mixed-breed dogs, as well as hapas or globin/a (Bogetić, 2023), among others, are used to describe people of mixed ancestry.

These expressions, which carry strong dehumanizing and derogatory connotations, do more than reflect the group’s discriminatory attitudes; they actively construct and reinforce an exclusionary worldview that delegitimizes the humanity of those outside the incel identity.

Regarding the use of Topic Modeling to analyse the incel subculture, we can find some previous research in the international context, most of which originates from Anglo-American scholarship. Ali and Zannettou (2024) conduct a large-scale quantitative analysis in Reddit and in a specific incel forum of how incel communities discuss self-harm compared to general mental health communities; their findings reveal significant differences in language, temporal evolution, and associated factors, with negative perceptions of physical appearance playing a central role among incels. Another research conducted by Farrell et al. (2020) identifies and analyzes the jargon of online subcultures, applying it to Reddit’s manosphere to characterize its norms, values, and hostility toward women. Petreca et al. (2024) analyse texts from incel (among other groups), finding both shared narratives of disenfranchisement and aggression, and distinct ideological markers. In a similar vein, Petreca et al. (2025) conduct a linguistic analysis of 23 manifestos written by violent offenders between 1974 and 2022 (three of them from incels) to assess their usefulness in forensic linguistics and risk assessment; the authors identify topics related to ideology, grievances, and direct threats, and demonstrate how these methods reveal semantic patterns and relationships between themes can help uncover the motivations behind violen acts. Baele et al. (2021) map the incel community’s misogynistic worldview linked to Alek Minassian’s van attack in Toronto (in 2018) and Elliot Rodger’s school shooting in Isla Vista (in 2014), showing how its social categories and causal narratives contribute to supporting and inciting politically motivated violence. Chua and Wilson (2023) analyze posts from the ExtremeBB dataset to explore the ideological links between misogyny and far-right extremism in the manosphere (including incels), finding overlaps in race and gender discourse and similar radicalization mechanisms that may facilitate the adoption of more extreme ideologies. Solopova et al. (2025) examine how members of different ranks within the incel community express sentiments and ideology, finding distinctive linguistic patterns that vary by rank and can predict a user’s status; this highlights the community’s structured hierarchy and role in spreading misogynistic narratives. Jelodar and Frank (2021) analyse comments from the Incels.co forum, and conclude that AI can effectively uncover semantic themes and emotional patterns in large volumes of posts, enabling insights into community issues that would be difficult to detect manually. Shi et al. (2024) examine Reddit’s incel community (2016–2017) with computational grounded theory, showing a shift from self-help to extremist ideology as discussions moved from real-life experiences to simplified group symbols; the latter amplified deviant beliefs. Finally, Wedel and Coufal (2025) examine how the first COVID-19 lockdown affected the radicalization of the incel community on the incels.is a forum, finding that social isolation temporarily reduced mental health complaints but increased participation (especially among veteran members) in extremist-themed threads.

As can be seen, there is very little research that specifically analyzes only incels in the Spanish-speaking contexts and/or on the X platform through Topic Modeling (LDA). Although their preferred metaphors or terminology have been examined (among other aspects), to our knowledge, there are no studies that examine the topics discussed by Spanish-speaking incels. Based upon this, here we intend to answer the research questions posed below:

  1. 1.

    What are the main topics of the discourse of Spanish-speaking incels on X?

  2. 2.

    What similarities and differences exist between the topics used in Spanish-speaking and Anglo-American incel discourse?

Therefore, the present research proposes the following aims:

  1. (1)

    Analyze the topics of the discourse of Spanish-speaking incels in X;

  2. (2)

    Examine its unique characteristics in comparison with Anglo-American discourse.

The following hypotheses are derived from these objectives:

H1: It is expected that misogyny constitutes the main core component of Spanish-speaking incel discourse on X, consistent with previous findings in Anglo-American contexts.

H2: Although the general topics should be similar, there must be significant differences between Spanish-speaking incel discourse and Anglo-American discourse, especially in the subthemes addressed on each topic.

Analysing the fundamental topics of discourse among Spanish-speaking incels on X can allow us to identify the central narratives around which their interactions are structured. This, in turn, makes it possible to compare them with the better-documented Anglo-American context, highlighting both shared dynamics and potential local specificities. Beyond its empirical contribution, this may have some social relevance: understanding the key themes within Spanish-speaking incel discourse can provide insights into how gender relations, hostility and identity are being constructed in these online spaces, which can inform broader discussions on digital subcultures, extremism and gender-based violence.

Method

The present research uses content analysis techniques to identify and unravel the topics of discourse in the Spanish-speaking community of incels on X, with a particular focus on the opinion leaders of this group. This approach seeks to deepen the understanding of the key narratives that may shape and influence the perspectives and behaviors of this community.

Sample

The identification of opinion leaders was carried out through an open-source screening of accounts most actively disseminating incel content on X. Following Romero-Rodríguez et al. (2020), four dimensions were operationalised with observable indicators: credibility (consistency of incel-related content), visibility and reach (number of followers and average views per post), influence capacity (engagement in terms of likes, reposts and replies), and active participation (frequency of posting and involvement in discussions). In this research, the term opinion leader refers specifically to accounts that combined these traits and demonstrated a sustained presence in shaping the discourse of the Spanish-speaking incel community.

Using X’s API and Python (Python Software Foundation, 2022), all posts and responses to user posts between 26 January 2023 and 10 February 2024 were extracted. We analyze this interval because it constitutes the full period for which data are available for both leadership accounts: the older account was created on the start date, which we adopt as a common baseline to align observation windows and mitigate left-censoring; the terminal date corresponds to the close of data collection.

The responses to the posts were used to identify all users interacting directly with incel content posts; this approach made it possible to extract a complete list of unique users and detect the possible presence of opinion leaders not pre-selected by the researchers, provided they met the established criteria. The requirement for selecting such a sample was to have 30,000 followers on X and to have participated in some of the conversations among incels on this platform. A total of 10,581 posts from opinion leaders (Fig. 1) and 99,417 posts from responses to opinion leaders’ posts (Fig. 2) were extracted. We also reviewed 143 (Supplementary Materials, Appendix 1, Table A.2) of the 43,567 unique users of the responses to opinion leaders with more followers than the leaders studied. After conducting the analysis, and based on the previous scientific literature, none of the analyzed posts met the criteria for inclusion in the study sample, as their content focused on other unrelated topics.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Distribution of posts by incel information disseminators.

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Fig. 2
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Distribution of posts by respondents to incel information disseminators.

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Content analysis

Content analysis is a systematic and objective method for describing and quantifying communicative phenomena. It allows interpreting textual, visual or auditory data by identifying patterns and recurring themes. It is used in fields such as media, sociology and psychology (Krippendorff, 2018). In the present paper, such analysis was carried out in two phases. In the first stage, the keywords (Baker 2004; Baker et al., 2013; Scott, 1997) used by opinion leaders to disseminate incel discourse were identified. Subsequently, posts containing these characteristics were filtered, and Topic Modeling was applied. This statistical natural language processing technique uncovers latent topics in large text collections by clustering co-occurring words into meaningful groups. It is widely used in textual data analysis (Blei, 2012). The application of Topic Modeling aimed to identify the core discourse of Spanish-speaking incel opinion leaders in the context of X.

Topic modeling (LDA)

The method applied in this research is not traditional discourse analysis but topic modeling. While discourse analysis provides a qualitative and interpretive examination of how language constructs meaning in social and cultural contexts (Fairclough, 1995; Wodak and Meyer, 2009), topic modeling, specifically Latent Dirichlet Allocation (Blei et al., 2003), is a computational approach that uncovers latent themes by identifying patterns of word co-occurrence in large corpora. This method allows for scalability and replicability but cannot capture context, pragmatic meaning, or discursive strategies, making the resulting topics statistical abstractions that require interpretation. Therefore, topic modeling should be regarded as a complementary tool rather than a substitute for qualitative discourse analysis (DiMaggio et al., 2013).

The LDA model detects the main topics present in the posts and the keywords associated with each topic. This technique operates under the assumption that each document is a mixture of multiple topics, with each topic characterized by a specific distribution of words (Blei et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2023; Grimmer et al., 2022; Maier et al., 2018). Unlike embedding-based clustering approaches such as BERTopic, which infer the number and granularity of topics from clustering parameters, LDA allows explicit control and reporting of the chosen number of topics, an advantage when qualitative oversight is needed for texts with double meanings, metaphors and community-specific neologisms. While covariate-aware models such as STM are designed to estimate how external variables influence topic prevalence or content, our aim here is descriptive characterization; accordingly, we adopt LDA for the main analysis, prioritizing interpretability, reproducibility and computational efficiency.

Prior to model selection, special text preprocessing was performed due to the unique characteristics of this type of online communities and the account suspension they face due to X’s policies. This results in a discourse that is less accessible, more cryptic, and characterized by frequent use of irony and metaphors. For this reason, many of the concepts used by users were standardized (Supplementary Materials, Appendix 1, Table A.2), while “stemming” and “lemmatization” were avoided to prevent potential loss of information. In addition, “stopwords” as well as other terms deemed irrelevant or likely to generate noise were removed (Supplementary Materials, Appendix 1, Table A.2). Once the data preprocessing was completed, a DTM (document term matrix) was constructed, representing the number of unique words per document; in this case, the number of unique words per post. This document served as the input for applying LDA using the textmineR package (Jones, 2021), with the Gibbs method (Griffiths and Steyvers, 2004).

In the social sciences, several strategies exist for choosing the number of topics (Maier et al., 2018). Given the corpus’s complexity, we combined quantitative screening with qualitative validation. We trained a series of LDA models with topic counts from 3 to 30, running 500 iterations per model with a burn-in of 180. We set the document–topic prior to 0.1 and the topic–term prior to 0.05, allowed the document–topic prior to be optimized during training, computed likelihood, topic coherence, and pseudo-R², fixed a random seed (12345), and used four CPU cores. We ranked models by the Cv coherence score (an NPMI-based measure of how semantically consistent the top words of each topic are) (Röder et al., 2015) and retained the four best-scoring models.

Next, we conducted a qualitative validation based on Levy and Franklin (2014), which involved manually analyzing the 100 posts with the highest gamma score (i.e., strongest association) for each topic, along with the 12 most frequent words or bigrams (i.e., common pairs of consecutive words). Two researchers independently assigned a primary theme to every topic using these materials, then compared their annotations to mark agreement or disagreement and resolved discrepancies through discussion. We quantified inter-rater reliability using Cohen’s Kappa. This procedure allowed us to evaluate the interpretability of each topic and refine our understanding of the underlying themes. To assist in topic labeling, we also used a function that selects the most representative bigram for each topic, ensuring coherence between the model output and our qualitative insights.

Data processing

In order to safeguard the privacy of the subjects studied and comply with the privacy policies of X and the European regulations concerning the protection of personal data, the Python hashlib library was employed to anonymize sensitive information by using hash functions, specifically the SHA-256 cryptographic hash function (Python Software Foundation, 2022). All data related to this research can be consulted in the project repository (Gorostiza et al., 2025).

Results

Among the four candidate models (14, 15, 24, and 27 topics), the 24-topic model exhibited the highest agreement in topic definition, characterized by conceptual clarity and internal coherence, with inter-rater reliability measured through Cohen’s Kappa at 0.87 (Supplementary Materials, Appendix 1, Table A.2). Quantitative diagnostics further supported its selection. First, a positive association was observed between the estimated values of alpha and empirical topic prevalence (Fig. 3), indicating that the learned prior was well calibrated to the distribution of topics across documents and did not impose excessive sparsity or uniformity. Second, probabilistic coherence values (Fig. 4) ranged between 0.0 and 0.33; nearly half of the topics scored 0.0, lacking a well-defined semantic core and resulting in noisier clusters, while those with coherence values between 0.2 and 0.3 revealed identifiable semantic cores, albeit with overlapping vocabulary. This pattern reflects the short and informal nature of the posts, where themes frequently intersect and full separation is difficult to achieve. Finally, model likelihood stabilized over successive iterations (Fig. 5), consistent with adequate mixing and convergence under the chosen hyperparameters and preprocessing. Taken together, the alignment between prior and prevalence, the presence of moderate yet interpretable coherence, and the stable likelihood indicate that the 24-topic LDA captures meaningful structure in the corpus without overfitting, with residual uncertainty addressed through the qualitative validation described elsewhere.

Fig. 3: Quantitative values of the quality of the model topics.
figure 3

Relationship between prevalence and alpha.

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Fig. 4: Quantitative values of the quality of the model topics.
figure 4

Histogram of probabilistic coherence.

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Fig. 5: Quantitative values of the quality of the model topics.
figure 5

Log likelihood plot.

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Based on the selected model, a detailed analysis of each of the topics was carried out. Table 1 shows the topics, as well as their prevalence, coherence and the 12 most important words associated with each topic.

Table 1 Topics, bigrams, coherence, prevalence and the 12 most important top terms associated with each topic.
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To achieve the research aims, the content of the topics was grouped into broader categories, with some topics integrated into multiple categories.

Topic 1 “just entered” focuses on the criticism of how women in general and streamers in particular dress, as well as on the desire to make sex taboo, reflecting a longing for a return to past times, when this did not happen.

Topic 2, labeled “lia sikora”, questions women’s decision-making capacity regarding men, criticizing them for offering moral lessons, and for humiliating and rejecting girls with certain characteristics.

Topic 3, known as “redflag”, combines two ideas; on the one hand, it refers to the fall of the West, suggesting that contemporary society is being destroyed by factors such immigration (the most prominent), feminism, the LGTB community and evolving relationship dynamics; on the other hand, it highlights redflags, which are the negative signs a person has (usually women) from which we must flee to bond at a relational level, and contrasts this with “greenflags”. Examples of redflags in girls include the absence of a father figure or “daddy issues”, demanding emotional responsibility, having colored hair, a tattoo on the chest, claiming “I’m in my peak”, or having an OnlyFans account, among others.

Topic 4, “erasmus girlfriend”, appeals to infidelity, specifically to the distrust that men must feel when their girlfriend goes on an Erasmus trip; in addition, it also despises female humor ironically and negatively mentions the use of sex toys by girls.

Topic 5, “daily gym”, issues a negative criticism, aimed primarily at overweight women, who imply that going to the gym every day is synonymous with having an eating disorder.

Unlike the other topics, Topic 6 (“get out of my sight”) is a hodgepodge of issues (e.g., fatphobia, fertility age, bodypositive, employers and workers, immigration, streamers, redpill ideology, government, etc.). This result is to be expected due to the low levels of coherence presented by this topic. This thematic fragmentation may also reflect one of the limitations of topic modeling, particularly when applied to short, informal texts such as social media posts. LDA tends to prioritize word co-occurrence over nuance, which can make it difficult to distinguish between subtle or overlapping discursive elements, especially in communities where irony, sarcasm and coded language are frequent.

Topic 7, “cry one’s eyes out”, focuses on humor and memes on various topics, addressing politics, Spanish nationality and criticism of immigrants, especially Muslims.

In topic 8, “damn miss”, they ironically criticize and question the conventional need for a girl’s consent to receive compliments and the perceived contradictions in certain behaviors that they do.

Topic 9, “scary”, mainly talks about people waking up, making reference to the redpill, the realization of how reality works, calling for community unity in an environment seen as disconnected from mainstream society. It also includes criticism of various issues the speakers find unacceptable, often targeting diverse behaviors among women and occasionally touching on political matters.

Topic 10, “human rights”, alludes to political issues, specifically expressing their opinion and criticism on aspects related to voting and its implications; criticism of political parties is also mentioned, specifically PSOE (a social democratic, center-left party) and, more specifically, the normalization of mass migrantion.

Topic 11, “average woman”, reflects the derogatory stereotype that incels hold towards women deemed to have little value. It criticizes aspects such as female empowerment, female social media influencers (e.g. tiktokers), bodycount (number of sexual partners), hybristophilia (attraction to criminals) and the sexualization of women online. As a consequence, according to incel ideology, such women will hit “the wall”, a point after which no man will be interested in them due to their extensive sexual history, infidelities, or having passed their “fertility peak” (18–25 years old), thereby condemning them to a life of solitude with cats and wine.

Topic 12, “average man”, criticizes certain men using labels like “soy boys”, “average ally”, “simps”, “provider man” and “deconstructed man”. Incels argue that these men set no boundaries for women, allowing themselves to be exploited economically and otherwise. In addition, mention is made of the “average baboon” and “average degenerate simp”, who supposedly only pursue lewd sexual encounters with women. This critical perception of “average men” is accompanied by references to and criticism of “average women”. This topic interconnects with Topic 11 by also criticizing women who take advantage of such men, reiterating notions like “the wall”, and mentioning derogatory stereotypes linked to immigrant Muslims.

In Topic 13, “fertility display”, the leader self-identifies as the CEO of the incel community, also showing the sense of community, brotherhood and belonging of the members, talking about their vulnerabilities, feelings and the rejections they face from women. On the other hand, it also introduces the concept of fertility display, referring to women who post provocative photos on social media to capture male attention, and reiterates the idea of the fertility peak, as the ideal age for female fertility.

Topic 14, “social network”, refers to the validation and approval that women seek from men on social media, either by exposing their bodies, expressing their discomfort or sharing personal experiences. In addition, the criticism extends to anyone who overshares online, such as couples who display their tastes or hobbies, or individuals posting content that the speakers find unacceptable.

Topic 15, “beautiful friends”, addresses several interrelated topics. On the one hand, they criticize women who avoid taking responsibility for their actions (for example, drinking alcohol, being unfaithful, etc.), alluding to superior reasons such as horoscopes, menstruation, contraceptives, among others. It also discusses false allegations, and critiques women with a high bodycount, suggesting that such behavior has negative consequences.

Topic 16, “center field”, alludes to the topic of football.

Topic 17, “its over”, focuses on topics such as feminism, equality, consent (with a reference to Jenni Hermoso, the all-time leading scorer for Spain's women’s national soccer team, who received an unwanted public kiss from the President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and Vice-President of the Union of European Football Federations, after Spain's World Cup victory), and criticizes women who use filters on their social media photos. The expression “it's over” is used to comment on various aspects of the incels themselves and certain behaviors attributed to women.

Topic 18, “fits duvet”, revolves around relationships, discussing what is considered acceptable behavior in couples. It posits that women (often specifically Latinas) seek a “financially present boyfriend”, a man with the means to support them. It also touches upon issues of infidelity and relationships based on convenience.

Topic 19, “crying laughter”, talks about various aspects of social media interactions, employing irony by describing women as beings of light, while using the expression crying with laughter to comment on various topics.

Topic 20, “Richard Alpert”, references TV series character Richard Alpert, and also expresses personal opinions on several topics, expressing how they would act in certain situations.

Topic 21, “I apologize”: They use this sarcastic expression for different aspects, but in general, they criticize certain attitudes exhibited by women.

Topic 22, “give ideas”, focuses on the use of this expression to dissuade particular actions, as well as on the expression “modus operandi”, which refers to a systematic and concrete way of acting. Both expressions are applied in different contexts (especially misogynist criticism and football), adapting to the communicative intent and discursive environment.

Topic 23, “Pedro Sánchez” (current Prime Minister of the Spanish government) predominantly criticizes Pedro Sánchez and his political party in a negative and humorous way, while also talking about politics in general.

Topic 24, “I just got dizzy”, is used to refer to different aspects, especially football and immigration, in a humorous tone.

From these results (Figs. 6, 7), this information can be classified into nine main themes: (1) misogyny, (2) men, (3) migration, (4) politics, (5) incel community, (6) football, (7) social networks, (8) sex-affective relationships, and (9) humorous and metaphorical expressions.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Proportion of tweets by dominant topic (Gamma values).

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Fig. 7
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Proportion of tweets by researcher-created topic categories.

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Based on this classification, the different topics have been included within each main theme (see Table A.1 in Appendix 1, Supplementary Materials).

Discussion

The aim of the present research was to analyze the topics of Spanish-speaking incel discourse on the X platform and compare them with the characteristics of English-speaking discourse as documented in existing literature.

Notably, the discourse originating from the Anglo-American world has largely permeated the Spanish-speaking context, although certain differences are evident. Although there are no studies that specifically analyze the topics of Anglo-American incel discourse on X, comparisons can be made using other evidence that performed topic modeling in other forums such as Reddit (Ali and Zannettou, 2024; Farrell et al., 2020; Shi et al., 2024), ExtremeBB (Chua and Wilson, 2023), specific incel forums like, for example, incels.is (Ali and Zannettou, 2024; Baele et al., 2021; Jelodar and Frank, 2021; Solopova et al., 2025; Wedel and Coufal, 2025), and original incel texts such manifestos (Petreca et al., 2024; Petreca et al., 2025). We can also make comparisons with evidence that used different methodological analysis of data from other social networks such as TikTok (Solea and Sugiura, 2023), on forums such as Reddit (Helm et al., 2022), and existing research on their discourse in general.

As Hypothesis 1 posits, the analysis has confirmed that misogyny is the main ideological axis in Spanish-speaking incel discourse. This coincides with findings in the literature on Anglo-American incel discourse (Daly and Reed, 2022; Jaki et al., 2019; Petreca et al., 2024; Prażmo, 2022). In the Spanish-speaking context, this misogyny is expressed through multiple subthemes, such as the rejection of women for their physical appearance (“fertility display”, Topic 13) and their decisions (“lia sikora”, Topic 2), as well as narratives related to infidelity (“erasmus girlfriend”, Topic 4) and validation in social networks (“social network”, Topic 14). These findings reinforce Hypothesis 1, by evidencing that misogyny is a central element of the incel discourse analyzed.

In relation to Hypothesis 2, the results show that, although the Spanish-speaking incel discourse shares ideological principles with the Anglo-American discourse, it also exhibits specific cultural characteristics. For example, within the Spanish-speaking context, subthemes such as “bodycount”, “fertility peak” and “the wall” are notably prominent, in contrast to their lesser presence in the English-speaking discourses documented in the literature (Solea and Sugiura, 2023; Glace et al., 2021). In addition, narratives specific to the Spanish-speaking context include themes such as hatred of Latinas for supposedly “taking advantage” of men (Topics 7 and 18), and a strong perception of cultural threat associated with immigration, as seen in emotionally charged expressions like “redflag” (Topic 3), “get out of my sight” (Topic 6), and “cry one’s eyes out” (Topic 7). These themes are particularly significant because they reflect a localized articulation of resentment, in which incel discourse intersects with racialized and xenophobic anxieties common in broader right-wing populist narratives. Such framings suggest that gender-based grievances are being refracted through national and cultural lenses, turning the figure of the undesirable or “dangerous” woman into not only a sexual but also a cultural and ethnic threat.

At the same time, concepts rooted in Anglo-American incel discourse (such as the “80/20 rule” or archetypes like “Stacy” and “Becky”) are noticeably less frequent in the Spanish-language corpus. However, their ideological logic (based on hierarchies of beauty, hypergamy and sexual value) remains present, albeit through different metaphors and references, which is in line with previous evidence, such as García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, (2023b)’s research about Spanish-speaking incels in online communities. This supports Hypothesis 2 by demonstrating that, while incel discourse retains a core ideological structure across languages, it adapts to reflect local socio-cultural dynamics. These findings underscore the importance of examining how online misogyny operates not just as a global phenomenon, but also as one deeply shaped by national contexts, histories of racialization, and regional notions of gender and power.

In summary, the analysis reveals that the Spanish-speaking incel discourse is structured around the same ideological topics as its Anglo-American counterpart, such as misogyny, while also incorporating cultural elements specific to the Spanish-speaking contexts.

Specifically, as mentioned, the main theme of both discourses is misogyny (Daly and Reed, 2022; Jaki et al., 2019; Prażmo, 2022), due to the high number of subthemes referring to it (see Table A.1 in the Appendix 1 of the Supplementary Materials). However, differences are identified in the subtopics addressed, some of which are particularly idiosyncratic to the Spanish-speaking context. For example, Topic 3 highlights redflags such as the absence of a father figure or the so-called “daddy issues”, certain physical characteristics (such as colored hair or specific tattoos), or behaviors such as having an OnlyFans account, among others. In Topic 4, it is mentioned, for example, the concern about one’s girlfriend going on an Erasmus trip. On the other hand, in Topic 11, the concept of the “average woman” is addressed, revealing points of convergence with English-speaking discourse, such as hybristophilia, hypergamy (García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b; Solea and Sugiura, 2023), as well as feminism and female empowerment (Blake and Brooks, 2023; Sparks et al., 2023). However, other elements differ and are more characteristic of the Spanish-speaking context, such as the “bodycount”, “the wall” and the “fertility peak” (Topic 13). This is evident in the multiple references to “roasties” (Kolano, 2022; Meier and Sharp, 2024; Menzie, 2020; Scotto di Carlo, 2023). The term serves as an analogy, suggesting that the outer lips of the female genitalia distend and deform with each sexual encounter, becoming reminiscent of roasted meat (Kolano, 2022; Menzie, 2020). This metaphor is employed to label women who are perceived to have engaged in excessive sexual activity, implying that such encounters alter a woman’s genitalia in a way that signals promiscuity and consequently diminishes her attractiveness (Menzie, 2020). Additionally, the expression “they ride the cock carousel” (Kolano, 2022) is used in a similar derogatory context. Related to Topic 5, “daily gym”, we found that in the incel community forum analyzed by Ali and Zannettou (2024), an important topic was Health and Fitness. This was about working out and eating healthy to attain a better physique; however, here incels focused on, and referred to, only themselves, that is, men. Aligned with that is the analysis of Petreca et al. (2024), as incels expressed difficulties in the gym. This evidence differs from our data, as incels criticized women who complain about people doing too much sport, suggesting they suffer an eating disorder. Both discourses rest on the belief that social structures unfairly favor women in the sexual marketplace, resulting in unjust outcomes for certain men (Halpin, 2022; Petreca et al., 2024). This perception is often accompanied by resentment toward women, who are blamed for incels’ lack of sexual and romantic success (Broyd et al., 2023; Petreca et al., 2024).

Another theme characteristic of the Spanish-speaking incel discourse is the disdain towards Latinas, who are portrayed as seeking “economically present” boyfriends. These concepts are more prevalent in this context (Topics 7 and 18), than in the English-speaking discourse, where similar ideas are applied more broadly to women perceived as taking economic advantage of men (Glace et al., 2021; Meier and Sharp, 2024; Woodward et al., 2022). This subtopic is also intertwined with issues related to immigration. The issue of consent is also discussed in Topic 8, with Solea and Sugiura (2023) noting that the predominant consensus in the discourse is that reports of sexual assault or harassment made by women are seen as subjective. This theme also emerges in Topic 15, where false allegations are discussed, reinforcing a recurring narrative in these spaces. In addition, they argue that Chads are not required to give the same consent as other men for sexual relations. This perception can be compared to the narrative of Spanish-speaking incels, who criticize feminists for allegedly defending the reinsertion of immigrants who commit abuse or rape, while advocating for the incarceration of national citizens in similar situations. On the other hand, as manifested in the topic, we can observe in both cultures the idea of returning to past times because they were better, referring to the golden age of patriarchy, with traditional values and gender roles (Baele et al., 2021; García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b; Tomkinson et al., 2020; Woodward et al., 2022). In this sense, both discourses coincide in the preference for monogamy (Baele et al., 2021; Ging, 2019; Hoffman et al., 2020; Perliger et al., 2023; Sparks et al., 2023; Woodward et al., 2022), as well as an extreme aversion to infidelity (Glace et al., 2021; Lacalle et al., 2023; Sparks et al., 2023; Woodward et al., 2022).

Another major theme that emerges in both corpora is racism, which intersects with misogyny in distinct but structurally comparable ways (Jaki et al., 2019). In the Spanish-speaking context, a particularly salient concept is the so-called “fall of the West” (Topic 3), which reflects a narrative of civilizational decline. This narrative centers on the idea that Europe (and, by extension, Western cultural identity) is being eroded through Islamization, immigration and the spread of liberal social values. These ideas are part of the “Great Replacement Theory” (Anti-Defamation League, 2018; Ekman, 2022; Jesús and Pierre, 2020; Petreca et al., 2024; Wilson, 2022), but Spanish-speaking incels rename it as the “fall of the West”. Women are portrayed as complicit in this decline, especially when they engage in relationships with criminalized immigrants. A striking example is the figure of the “Moha” (a term derived from Mohammed), which refers to women attracted to Muslim or North African men, often associated with the concept of hybristophilia. This theme reflects a fusion of racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic discourses, in which racialized men are constructed as dangerous and hypersexual, and women as traitors to the imagined cultural in-group.

In contrast, the Anglo-American discourse displays a different configuration of racial anxiety. While it also reflects hierarchical and exclusionary logics, it does so through the racialization of beauty prototypes within the incel taxonomy itself. Terms such as “Tyrone”, “Chang”, and “Chadpreet” are used to assign racial identities to the figure of the “Chad”, thereby reinforcing a hierarchy in which White masculinity remains the ideal. Additionally, incels often define themselves using racialized labels such as “blackcel”, “currycel”, “ricecel”, or “muslimcel”, emphasizing a perceived intersection between racial identity and sexual exclusion (Bogetić, 2023; Woodward et al., 2022). These categorizations highlight the internalization of racial hierarchies and essentialist beliefs, as well as the way incel discourse globalizes by adapting racial frames to different contexts. Petreca et al. (2024) found that the intersection between White supremacist and incel rhetoric had thematic crossovers on binary racial views (especially concerning the Black and White races). This topic also appears in Jelodar and Frank (2021)’s research, where they found that a portion of incel discussions focuses on racial hate issues related to skin color and ethnic background. They frequently use key terms such as “Blacks”, “Whites”, “ethnic”, “women”, “Asian” and “curry”.

In terms of the beliefs and identity aspects of the incel community, significant differences are observed between the Anglo-American and Spanish-speaking contexts. English-speaking incels make constant references to the blackpill as the core of their ideology (Kelly et al., 2024; Lindsay, 2022; Rousis et al., 2024; Solea and Sugiura, 2023), while Spanish-speaking incels make limited mention of the redpill (which happens to be more frequent in the English-speaking manosphere in general). However, the Spanish-speaking incels analysed explain or use the concept of the “redpill” in a more descriptive way, whilst the term “blackpill” is practically absent in their discourse (Topics 6 and 13). In addition, in both contexts the term Matrix” (in reference to the movie) occasionally appears, used as a metaphor to describe their perception of reality (Aiolfi et al., 2024; Kelly et al., 2024; Lindsay, 2022, Speckhard et al., 2021). In Topic 13, reference is made to the leader of the Spanish-speaking incel community, along with aspects related to incel identity, such as their perceived grievances, vulnerabilities, feelings, and the rejection that, according to them, they experience from girls and society in general. This approach largely coincides with Anglo-American discourse (Daly and Reed, 2022; Speckhard et al., 2021).

Commonalities also emerge in other central themes. For instance, incels often perceive their celibacy as a consequence of not conforming to heteronormativity standards of physical attractiveness and masculinity (Daly and Reed, 2022). They also believe that women are attracted to men who possess a certain level of physical attractiveness, aesthetics, power and status, with an emphasis on the establishment of beauty hierarchies (Daly and Reed, 2022; García-Mingo and Díaz-Fernández, 2023b). Although terms such as “Stacy” or “Becky” are not used, they resort to concepts such as “Chad” and “beta” (Baele et al., 2021; Blake and Brooks, 2023; Woodward et al., 2022). In this context, the concept of “the average man” appears in Topic 12, associated with figures such as the “soy boys”, the “simp” or the “beta”, the last two terms being more common in Anglo-American discourse (Fowler et al., 2023; Furl, 2022; Ging, 2019; Thorburn, 2023). This “average man” is presented as a provider who permits women considerable leeway in order to maintain sex-affective relationships with them.

Regarding sex-affective relationships, evidence suggests that English-speaking incels often express a sense of entitlement to sex, attention from Beckys and sexual relationships with women more generally. This belief stems from the notion that Beckys are willing to date men who are not Chads, as they are considered less attractive than Stacys (Dupré et al., 2024; Renström, 2023; Thorburn et al., 2023; Woodward et al., 2022). Notably, such perspectives are absent from the Spanish-speaking discourse. In this context, there is no evidence of the explicit use of concepts such as the “80/20 rule” (Menzie, 2020; Sparks et al., 2023) or “lookism” (Lounela and Murphy, 2023; Woodward et al., 2022). However, these ideas do appear implicitly, through explanations and references to their meaning. While much of the vocabulary is shared across both contexts, certain terms are used differently, with some expressions specific to the Spanish-speaking context and others unique to the anglophone discourse.

Regarding dehumanizing language towards women (Prażmo, 2020), some of the elements they use coincide, such as: dangerous or dirty animals, food, body parts, objects and humanoids (used to a lesser extent). Interestingly, in the Spanish-speaking context, we do not see the use of the same metaphors or racist lexicon as in the Anglo-American context (Bogetić, 2023).

Shi et al. (2024)’s research showed that incels talked about aspects related to love and emotions, highlighting the challenges involved in forming romantic relationships and coping with unrequited feelings; as well as sex and partnerships, that is, the difficulties perceived by incels in finding sexual or romantic partners. This is similar to our data, but in our corpus we found more advice or ideas about how a good relationship with a good woman should be and, consequently, about women’s infidelity. Another research whose results are aligned with ours is Jelodar and Frank (2021). They obtained the topics “relationships and romance issues” and “relationship and human sexuality”. In relation to the first one, it is said that romance and relationship issues are among the prominent topics in incel discussions. However, many incels express a strong desire for romantic relationships, and most of them experience difficulties maintaining healthy partnerships, as evidenced also in our data. Regarding the second, one of the main issues for incels (their inability to find a sexual partner or a girlfriend) is often regarded as a secondary concern compared to the core problems they have to face. This is partly aligned with our results, as the data shows they have this problem but they blame women and the sexual market for that. We can say they perceive it as their primary issue.

In relation to politics, this topic is very idiosyncratic, since the Spanish-speaking incels under analysis tend to focus their criticism on Spanish politicians such as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Party (PSOE), as well as on other left-wing parties including Sumar and Podemos (Topics 6, 7, 10, and 23). At the ideological level, both Spanish-speaking and Anglo incels align with right-wing or far-right ideas (Barcellona, 2022; Gentry, 2022; Woodward et al., 2022). This reflects a broader tendency observed on social media, where more conservative positions, closely connected to misogynist and racist ideologies, are seen to characterize this group.

Since our focus is on the core narratives of incel discourse, here we do not examine other recurrent topics in user content, such as football and humorous or metaphorical expressions, as these represent distinct aspects of incel communication. Additionally, we observed that users share content about football and streamers as a strategy to attract wider public attention.

Jelodar and Frank (2021) also found the category of “curse words”. Although we do not have specifically that one in our data, we can see that it is used across most of them but with different intensity. As these authors say, based on the topics, there appeared to be a relationship between gender and the use of profanity within the incel community. Swear words are directed at others in a direct manner with the intent to insult or offend girls and women. In our corpus, most of the insults are directed at women.

Some previous research about topic modeling on incels has noted other different topics that did not appear in our data explicitly or in a very obvious way. For example, Ali and Zannettou (2024) found that in Reddit and incel forums they talked about self-loathing, perception of negative physical appearance, physical appearance in general, hobbies and parental-loathing, depression related with romantic relationships and education, addiction problems, suicidal ideation and gaming, among others.

Shi et al. (2024) reported somewhat different results. Their category of “symbols and metaphors” encompassed central aspects of incel ideology, including terms such as “Chads”, “Stacys” and “normies”, as well as references to “pilling” and shared incel experiences. This partially overlaps with our category of incel community and elements of misogyny (e.g., discussions of women and hypergamy, or men as “average normies”), although the connection is not direct. Another category highlighted incels’ strong emphasis on physical characteristics (e.g., facial features, height, body weight, and genitalia) as determinants of social and romantic success. While our corpus shows incels blaming women for their partner choices, Shi et al. observed more detailed self-focused discussions of physical traits. A further difference lies in their “challenges in daily life” category, which included accounts of mental health difficulties (e.g., depression, anxiety and isolation), social exclusion and efforts at self-improvement. These narratives often combined frustration and monotony, with moments of encouragement and positivity.

Finally, Jelodar and Frank (2021)’s research highlights financial issues (such as money, employment and payments) that are absent from our corpus. These topics appear frequently in incel discussions that adopt a negative tone regarding job loss or payment problems; the latter can become a source of concern when they share their experiences on online forums.

In contrast to what has been documented in some Anglo-American incel forums, particularly on platforms such as r/incels, our analysis of the Spanish-speaking corpus did not reveal explicit endorsements of rape culture. This information is contrary to García-Mingo et al. (2022)’s research on Spanish-speaking manosphere, where incels showed a victim status which legitimizes sexual violence, as they consider it reasonable for men who are denied access to sex to somehow take it by force. This is also supported by Lacalle et al. (2023), showing that incels trivialize sexual violence by claiming that women actually desire it, even going so far as to attribute their own sexual fantasies to them.

In the Anglo-American context, previous research has also some contradictory or different results. Some studies identified discourse that frames rape as a form of power and control, often accompanied by justifications rooted in the belief that women “deserve it” or even “enjoy it” whether by men in general (Chua and Wilson, 2023) or by dominant men like the archetypal “Chad”. Such narratives reflect underlying attitudes that blame women for provoking or deserving sexual violence, particularly when it involves physically attractive or socially dominant men. While expressing contempt and envy toward these men (and toward their dominant sexuality), incels also tend to celebrate and glorify their acts of physical or sexual violence against women, as they perceive such acts as an indirect form of revenge toward women (Solea and Sugiura, 2023; Tranchese and Sugiura, 2021). Other research, such as Solopova et al. (2025), showed that incels expressed anger and disgust when discussing rape. Some expressed frustration that it was not a feasible course of action, whereas others openly and sincerely denounced the phenomenon in its entirety.

However, based on our data, abuse is not justified even in cases when, according to them, women bear some responsibility, such as instances involving alcohol consumption. Most of the comments of the Spanish-speaking incels analyzed express an anti-rape stance. Furthermore, in the Spanish-speaking context, there is no reference to the exploitation of Asian sex workers, a recurring theme in English-speaking incel forums, where sex tourism to Asian countries is promoted under the belief that women from that region would be more desirable (Woodward et al., 2022). Likewise, in English-speaking forums, a small group of incels advocate for child sexual exploitation and call for lowering the age of consent; they argue that modern society has raised this limit, making it more difficult for men to access women during what they consider to be their most sexually attractive period (Woodward et al., 2022).

Similarly, in Ali and Zannettou (2024), incels talked about prostitution as a means to indulge in sexual pleasure for them, a phenomenon that in their culture is known as “escortcelling”. Nevertheless, we did not find this idea in our corpus, since they would neither be able to have sex with a prostitute. It is important to note, however, that the absence of this rhetoric in the Spanish-language data examined does not necessarily mean its inexistence across all Spanish-speaking incel communities or platforms. Rather, our findings suggest that, within this specific dataset, such discourse does not appear as prominently or explicitly. This observation highlights possible differences in discursive norms, platform moderation, or cultural frames, and underscores the need for further comparative research that takes into account regional variation and platform-specific dynamics.

However, although in general, incel discourse is inherently violent, in the Spanish-speaking case, there is not a very extreme expression of violence similar to the Anglo-American case. This may be due to the banning or restriction of accounts that has been given to other users for violating the rules of the X community. Therefore, this does not imply that such violence does not exist or does not occur, just like the process of radicalization, which happens mainly online. Lacalle et al. (2023) analysed the manosphere in a Spanish-speaking forum, obtaining that incels display a violent response to rejection by women, paradoxically accusing them of being both frigid and promiscuous. An aggressive tone and vulgarity characterize much of the posts related to the incel subculture, which may even tend to justify the use of physical violence against women as a form of punishment, as well as sexual violence, as mentioned above. Interestingly, although scientific evidence shows that most incels are not violent (Moskalenko, González, Kates and Morton, 2022a; Moskalenko, Kates, González and Bloom, 2022b; Speckhard et al., 2021), in the Anglo-American context there are allusions to “saints”, referring to those incels who committed terrorist attacks in various areas of the USA, Canada and the UK (Baele et al., 2021; Isla-Joulain, 2020; Woodward et al., 2022), as well as to strategies for organizing violent acts (Petreca et al., 2024). This constitutes a major difference with respect to Spanish-speaking discourse, in which no direct reference to this type of harmful behaviors has been found. Moreover, nor is there any direct and public allusion to suicide, as is the case in English-speaking online incel forums (Daly and Laskovtsov, 2022; Woodward et al., 2022).

Limitations and future lines of research

We acknowledge that our research has certain limitations. The results presented in this study should be interpreted within the specific context of the data and analysis conducted. They are not intended to be absolute; therefore, it is recommended that they be complemented and corroborated by future studies to refine, expand or validate our findings. Firstly, our analysis examined only two X users. While this choice was justified because both are the primary disseminators of incel discourse in the Spanish-speaking context, in the future it would be valuable to examine a broader sample of users to better assess the permeability of the message. Another limitation concerns the impossibility of determining users’ geographical origin with certainty. Although some indications may occasionally be inferred from the content, this cannot be verified or assured. For this reason, the analysis cannot define what the national context may be. Furthermore, the type of language and content they use on X is constrained; when community rules are violated, this can lead to negative consequences such as account restrictions or suspension. Another limitation arises from the size of the texts, which makes the application of LDA particularly complex. In addition, the overlap of themes often hinders their separation into clearly differentiated topics. This was observed, for instance, in Topic 3, which combines two distinct thematic strands, whereas Topic 6 lacks sufficient clarity. The challenge is further compounded by the discursive style characteristic of incel communities, which frequently relies on irony, sarcasm and the pervasive use of emoticons, all of which complicate automated interpretation. More generally, LDA entails inherent constraints due to its quantitative orientation and may fail to capture subtle, context-dependent or nuanced aspects of meaning. For future research, it is recommended to complement computational approaches with qualitative discourse analysis in order to manually identify these finer-grained elements and to reduce the risk of subtopic conflation within single topics. Expanding the scope of data sources would also be beneficial, for example by incorporating surveys or interviews with incel users, as well as material from other platforms or private chats where the rules governing interaction impose fewer constraints on the articulation and circulation of discourse.

Conclusions

This research examines posts by Spanish-speaking incel users through topic modeling, identifying 24 main themes. Our findings expand the scope of incel research by incorporating the Spanish-speaking context, which, to our knowledge, has received comparatively less attention in the literature, and, until now, has mainly been investigated in a limited way within the broader manosphere alongside other related movements. The analysis reveals both universal elements of incel discourse (e.g., humorous and metaphorical expressions), consistent with findings from the Anglo-American context, and context-specific themes (such as football) that recur frequently but are not part of incel ideology per se. These results deepen our understanding of the phenomenon by showing that, although certain core ideas are shared across contexts, local cultural and linguistic factors shape how the discourse is articulated, underscoring that it is not a uniform phenomenon. The implications of these findings are twofold. From a research perspective, they underscore the importance of developing comparative and culturally sensitive studies of incel communities. From a practical and policy perspective, they highlight the need for culturally informed strategies to reduce the spread and normalization of incel narratives in digital spaces. This includes promoting media literacy campaigns and gender education programs that not only address the roots of misogyny and the emotional vulnerabilities exploited by these communities, but also actively challenge traditional patriarchal ideas of masculinity and encourage more equitable gender roles (Conde and Exner-Cortens, 2022), which may be particularly effective with this group.

In the context of platform governance, it is crucial for social media companies to strengthen content moderation, particularly with regard to coded hate speech and gender-based harassment. The Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) establishes clear obligations for platforms to address these issues, requiring them to implement proactive measures to assess and mitigate risks, as well as to set up effective mechanisms for reporting and removing illegal content (European Commission, 2022). Complementing this, the revised Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech online encourages collaboration between platforms and specialized entities to improve detection and enforcement.

At national level, Spain has established a working group with major tech companies such as Meta, X and TikTok to enhance the detection and removal of online hate speech, coordinated by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration (2025). Comparable initiatives exist elsewhere. For example, under the revised Code of Conduct and the DSA, platforms including Meta, Google, TikTok, X, Instagram, and YouTube have committed to greater transparency, closer cooperation with specialized bodies and more timely removal of illegal content. Similarly, in Germany, the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG, 2017) obliges platforms to delete illegal content, including hate speech, within strict deadlines and to provide effective complaint mechanisms. In Latin America, some countries have also introduced measures in this field. In Brazil, for instance, a 2025 Supreme Court ruling held platforms such as Meta, Google, and X legally responsible for user-generated hate speech, obliging them to remove such content even without prior judicial orders (AP News, 2025). Venezuela’s 2017 Anti-Hate Law for Peaceful Coexistence and Tolerance likewise requires platforms to delete hate-related content within six hours of publication, under penalty of fines or blocking (Tech Policy Press, 2022).

Early intervention strategies could focus on identifying emotionally vulnerable users and their risk factors (such as psychological symptoms) for becoming incels (Maryn et al., 2024). In addition, fostering social skills and support networks, particularly among young men (Lavenne-Collot et al., 2022; Wolfowicz et al., 2021), and providing access to mental health services or early prevention programs that offer alternative narratives and a sense of belonging outside radicalized spaces (especially for those experiencing rejection or isolation), may significantly reduce adherence to radical discourse (Jugl et al., 2021).

Finally, it is also important to highlight the need for intervention in men who have already internalized incel ideology, through various therapeutic approaches that may be useful, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, among others (Van Brunt et al., 2021).

Understanding the ideological justification of this subculture, characterized by a prejudiced, discriminatory and violent discourse, can be key to designing more effective prevention policies. In particular, this knowledge can provide valuable evidence to manage the evolution of the phenomenon, trying to mitigate its negative impact on social coexistence and prevent the alienation of vulnerable people, susceptible to being influenced by hate speech directed against women.