That would certainly be interesting if that’s actually the case! I visited the subreddit a long time ago out of curiosity and all the posts I saw were straight men complaining about not being able to get a girlfriend, so I dunno, but maybe. There’s certainly no reason the term can’t be used for someone regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
The first website to use the term “incel” was founded sometime between 1993 and 1997.[25][7][26] The website was created by a university student living in Toronto and known only by her first name, Alana, to discuss her sexual inactivity with others.[25] Titled “Alana’s Involuntary Celibacy Project”, the website was used by people of all genders to share their thoughts and experiences.[7] During 1997, she started a mailing list on the topic that used the abbreviation INVCEL, later shortened to “incel”, for “anybody of any gender who was lonely, had never had sex or who hadn’t had a relationship in a long time”.[27] During her college years and after, Alana realized she was bisexual and became more comfortable with her identity.[26] She stopped participating in her online project around 2000 and gave the site to a stranger.[28][29] In 2018, Alana said of her project: “It definitely wasn’t a bunch of guys blaming women for their problems. That’s a pretty sad version of this phenomenon that’s happening today. Things have changed in the last 20 years”. wiki
That would certainly be interesting if that’s actually the case! I visited the subreddit a long time ago out of curiosity and all the posts I saw were straight men complaining about not being able to get a girlfriend, so I dunno, but maybe. There’s certainly no reason the term can’t be used for someone regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
I double checked and it was… for sure it’s been 100% co-opted by the “maniverse”, but I think it used to be a reasonably constructive community