Involuntary celibacy

Involuntary celibacy is the state of a person who has not established an intimate relationship or engaged in sexual intercourse for reasons other than voluntary celibacy or sexual abstinence. The term is used especially for adults who, despite general expectations, have had little to no sexual or romantic experience.

People who are unable to engage in sexual activities due to medical limitations are termed medcel (medically celibate). Married couples who do not engage in sexual activities are termed marcel (marriage celibate). People who choose to stay celibate are termed vocel (voluntarily celibate). These terms are not formally defined but are in common usage in the incel community.

Definition
An involuntarily celibate person is someone who fails to initiate or sustain a sexual or romantic relationship, despite his/her desire to experience such a relationship. Afflicted people may suffer from loneliness, frustration, and may be mistaken for homosexuals who are hiding their sexuality (although homosexuals may also be affected by involuntary celibacy).

There is debate concerning the duration of the celibacy needed to qualify for the label of involuntary celibacy. Some people class themselves as involuntary celibate because they are not in a relationship at the moment, though they have been in the recent past and are likely to be again. Critics to this view suggest that the proper label for this is simply being "single", which, unlike "involuntarily celibate", is in common usage and does not carry potential social stigma. Donnelly and Burgess used a floor figure of six months of involuntary celibacy in their study design. Others apply the term only to those who have never been involved in a sexual and/or romantic relationship, or to those who never had a date, or even kissed somebody.

Research
A study was initiated in 1998 by researchers from Georgia State University when a member of an online discussion group for involuntary celibates inquired about current research on the subject. The study, Involuntary celibacy: A life course analysis, was published in 2001 in the Journal of Sex Research, produced by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. A news article reporting on the study indicated that involuntary celibacy can lead to anger and depression. Involuntary celibacy: A life course analysis has also been included in an anthology of scholarly literature.

In a March 6, 2004 letter by Brian G. Gilmartin, who performed extensive studies on involuntarily celibate males (whom he termed "love-shy"), he noted that "as many as 40 percent of the cases of severely love-shy men would qualify for a diagnosis of 'Asperger's Syndrome'", a proportion supported in his 1987 book.

Criticism
Virtually no research has been published on involuntary celibacy, and no statistics are available, although it is finding its way onto university syllabi. It does not appear to be a concept taken seriously by those who do not experience it. However, conditions associated with involuntary celibacy may include severe depression, self-harm, mental illness, substance abuse and even suicide. 

Contributing factors
Lack of sex-appeal,disability, socio-economic factors, such as homelessness and poverty, may also play a role by discouraging courtship. Certain other factors such as having a criminal record, having HIV/AIDS, and some religions may also play such similar roles in courtship discouragement. Discrimination may also be a big factor in causing involuntary celibacy because of disapproval of the person's partner from family and friends, especially if the person is attracted to people of a different race, ethnicity, religion, and/or nationality.

Involuntary celibacy may also be perpetuated by cognitive biases and/or negative explanatory styles such as learned helplessness or Fundamental Attribution Error. Learned helplessness occurs when, after experiencing repeated rejection, an individual is conditioned to assume all other potential prospects will also reject them. Every "signal" of interest may be dismissed, even when the object of one's attraction is genuinely interested. "Actual helplessness" occurs when there are no signals of interest to be misinterpreted. The Fundamental Attribution Error can cause individuals to see people as being mean or shallow towards them when they have experienced a rejection of some form, instead of explaining the behaviour through situational or environmental factors. For example, someone may jump to the conclusion that they are undesirable simply because they went to a supermarket and a cashier brushed them off when they tried to crack a joke. There could be many situational or environmental reasons to the cashier's reaction that has nothing to do with whether or not one is attractive. Perhaps the cashier was in a bad mood, or was having a bad day, or perhaps had some other unseen problems in his/her life. It is important to note that both of these cognitive errors can happen among the general population and are not necessarily signs of mental illness, although this type of thought is much more common among sufferers.