In dialogue with non-humans or how women are silenced in incels’ discourse

Abstract

Abstract Dialogue plays a most important role in interpersonal relations creating and strengthening social cohesion. Conversely, the lack of dialogue – and more tellingly a deliberate resistance to it – leads to social friction and animosity. In this paper I focus on a strategy used to intentionally disable a possibility of a meaningful dialogue and to deny any voice to the “other”. Dehumanising the “other” by linguistically representing them as animals or machines exempts the perpetrator from any obligation towards the “other”, including the obligation to respect their rights. I adopt Haslam’s model of dehumanisation (2006) which shows how, by means of metaphorical language, women are dehumanised and denied the possibility to participate in a meaningful dialogue in the so called manosphere.