Two consecutive acts of horror brought "Incel" - a hitherto obscure term - into mainstream consciousness. On April 23 this year, Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old man, drove a rented van and ploughed into a crowd of people in a street in downtown Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16 others. Describing himself as an "Incel" on his Facebook account, he posted that the "Incel Rebellion" has started.

Incel stands for "involuntary celibate" and those who identify themselves as such are affiliates of a fringe Internet subculture; they are heterosexual male misogynists who hate women for thwarting them from having the sex that they see as their natural right, and blame their sexual failings on the shallowness of womankind (and feminism).