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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Billie Walker

Women’s culture goes dark: why aren’t there more ‘femcel’ movies?

Ilinca Manalache in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Her character films herself against the backdrop of a lavatory mirror, as a second woman looks on
Misogynistic rants … Ilinca Manalache in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Photograph: Publicity image

Most people would agree that mainstream media has now comprehensively (if not entirely successfully) covered “incel” culture. The small screen has delivered the likes of Adolescence and Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere; the movies have offered multiple meditations on male radicalisation such as The Beast, Manodrome, Don’t Worry Darling, Joker and even Barbie’s Kens.

The irony of women being overlooked feels almost too obvious to flag, yet we are definitely suffering a dearth of onscreen “femcels”. This lack of representation is all the more glaring amid the rise of tradwife culture and the wellness to “alt-right” pipeline – largely made up of female influencers dubbed the womanosphere – and the fact that around 50% of white US women voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

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