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He's not just your average guy.
By Arianna Jeret — Written on Mar 18, 2021
After Alek Minassin allegedly drove a rental van onto a busy Toronto sidewalk on April 23, 2018, killing 10 and injuring 14, many first learned about the disturbing online community of an estimated 100,000-plus men who identify as incels — involuntary celibates.
But incels is far from the only new word to know if you want a full understanding of the strange statement he posted on Facebook just prior to the attack: “Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
In particular, many are asking questions like, "What are Chads and Stacys? What do incels mean by those terms and how to do they use them?"
Below are key details and definitions explaining what incels mean when they refer to "Chad" or "Chads," where the term comes from and how it is most commonly used.
The Definition of a 'Chad'
According to Incel Wiki, "A chad is someone who can elicit near universal positive female sexual attention at will. A chad tends to be between an '8' to a '10' on the decile scale, has an extremely high income and/or an extreme amount of social status. A sexually active chad has sex with a wide variety of women, and has exclusive access to Stacy. Becky wants chad but sometimes feels societal pressure not to or has low self esteem. Chad is not necessarily a male model, but all male models are chads."
The manosphere glossary, which "documents the more common terms of art, neologisms, and memes used by men's rights activists, pick-up artists, Men Going Their Own Way [MGTOW], and other denizens of the manosphere," explains further:
"The man, the myth, the legend. Chad is the archetypal alpha bad boy; he and his girlfriend Stacy are perennial objects of the manosphere's envy and resentment. Some denizens of the manosphere, particularly in Reddit's red pill community, display a nigh-homoerotic obsession with the guy. No really, read their fanfictions. His Black counterpart is 'Tyrone,' because of course that's his name."
How It All Started
Chad originally surfaced as a derogatory term "referring to a young successful white man, typically single, heterosexual and in his 20s or 30s" in Chicago during the 1990s.
The slang usage took off after satirical website the Lincoln Park Chad Society was created in 2006.
In the fictional upscale town of Lincoln Park, Chad is depicted as that guy who has "a good car, a 'tight' condo and a trophy wife," as is his natural right having been "born with good looks" and a daddy who "gave [him] a trust fund."
A slightly less specific model of Chad began taking shape in 2013, right around the time the subreddit r/Incels began. On March 23 of that year, one redditor on r/Foreveralone referred to the /r9k/ board on 4chan as the origin of the memes depicting Chad as the "default name for alpha" guys.
In order to understand even a portion of the highly complex world view held by members of the incel community, you must begin by learning about both the black pill and the 80/20 rule.
Men who consider themselves to be "blackpilled" stand in opposition to those who identify with either of the more commonly known "blue pill" (Liberal) or "red pill" (alt-right and Conservative) ideologies.
According to those who "have taken" the black pill, their ideology holds that "the game is rigged from the start, that being attractive is far more important than personality or techniques. It can be extended to the idea that there is little to no benefit in playing at all if you were dealt a bad hand in terms of appearence [sic]."
This leads us directly to the 80/20 rule, aka, the Pareto principle.
Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, and explained in a down deleted Reddit post, the 80/20 rule "states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. An example of this is peas in pea pods. Twenty percent of pea pods contain 80 percent of peas.
"[Incels believe this] principle and rule can be easily applied to the sexual market and efficiently explains their situation. In simple terms, the top 80 percent of females get access to the top 20 percent of males. This could be expanded in further detail by saying that the bottom 80 percent of males are left to fight for the bottom 20 percent of females.
"This works out for about 70 percent of the males, leaving just 10 percent of the males to struggle for the bottom 10 percent of females, who only want access to the top 20 percent of males. Now, I know that I deviated from the 80/20 part here, but it does need to split off into different figures in order to better explain things.
Photo: Pontid97, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
"This is a vicious cycle that keeps on repeating. It's the reason why we're here. Telling us to lower our standards is not viable advice, because the women who are in our league (lol) are vying for the top 20 percent of males.
"It's a simple mathematical model that explains why we are Incel. Everything else such as Lookism and Height fit into this model perfectly. This model explains EVERYTHING there is to know about Inceldom."
Long story somewhat shorter, Chad is the name incels use amongst themselves when referring to the men they resent most, those in the top 20 percent.
Meanwhile, men who don't make the top 20 cut yet remain above incel status are labeled gigachads, Chadlites, normies, cucks and/or beta males.
How Incels Use the Term "Chad"
Incels use the term Chad anytime they share a story of frustration, anger, resentment, or the like about those males they believe fit in the elite category of "genetically superior" men.
Examples of how Chad is used in conversaions between incels online:
"Alcoholic DJ Avicii from Sweden just got pwned at 28. He looked like a stereotypical Chad who bullies incels and has drunken threesomes with 10/10s every weekend."
"Italy is the factory for manufacturing Chads. If you have Italian, Irish / Scottish, German genes mixed together, you will never be incel. Its just Chad genes, i wish i was made biologically by Italian Chad."
"Having a Chad for a roommate will redpill you faster than anything."
Deputy Editor Arianna Jeret, MA/MSW, has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Yahoo Style, MSN, Fox News, Bustle, Parents and more. Find her on Twitter and Instagram for more.