Incels against Spanish women: costly, irrational hatred

Incel hatred of Spanish women: a phenomenon the data dismantle

When a segment of young men vents their frustration at Spanish women, it's nothing new. What is new is that the argument is dressed up as economic analysis: outlandish expectations, 'because I'm worth it' entitlement, supposedly unfair privileges. The problem is that the thesis falls apart on its own, and even those who defend it end up contradicting themselves.

Resentment disguised as social diagnosis

The central complaint of the incel discourse is that the average man has become invisible: "if you're a five, you don't exist for 99% of women." From there come the lists of impossible conditions —social media, career success, not knowing how to fry an egg—. It is a catalogue of grievances that some cap with a boutade: let's blame Alfredo Landa's films, which diminished the Spanish man in his own imagination.

Against that reading, some argue the problem is not women but the inability to accept defeat. The 1-to-10 scale applied to people is, in itself, a cheap way of avoiding the fact that human relationships cannot be settled with scores.

The VioGen Law, the perfect scapegoat

On the political flank comes the VioGen Law (Spain's framework law on gender violence). The process that led to the comprehensive 2004 law began in 1998, and part of the incel narrative reads it as the official incivil of the Spanish man. The conversation then abandons sociology and settles into the culture war, where data are a nuisance. Never mind that the law targets partner violence: victimhood turns it into a global offensive against masculinity.

The economic cost of frustration

The economic fallout exists, even if it is ignored. Unwanted loneliness, late independence, couples that never form: all of it weighs on the birth rate, which in Spain is already among the lowest on the continent. Meanwhile, the solution proposed by part of the discourse —idealising foreign women while despising one's own— does not fix the demographic imbalance: it entrenches it.

The most revealing thing about incel hatred is its persistence. If Spanish women were really so contemptible, so much energy would not be devoted to proving it. The rancour betrays a dependence that no catalogue of demands can hide.