"The days are long but the decades are short": subjective aging, life trajectories, and incel identity formation among self-identified older incels.

Misogynistic radicalization and incel identity formation are often discussed as problems of young men. However, the hub of online misogynistic discourse, the manosphere, has always been aimed at men of all age groups. Research tends to omit older users in the analysis, even though they are active members of extremist communities. This article examines how self-identified older incels narrate their life trajectories and explain the processes through which they came to adopt, maintain, intensify, or question an incel identity. We ask: (1) How do older incels narrate life trajectories to explain how they became and remain incels over time?, and (2) What role do subjective experiences of aging (a process of becoming older) play in incel identity formation? The analysis is based on 19,453 publicly accessible posts from incels.is written by 43 users whose usernames made age, aging, or generational position salient. Through inductive thematic analysis, we show that older incels narrate inceldom not as a sudden ideological shift, but as the cumulative outcome of early exclusion, missed romantic and sexual milestones, social withdrawal, failed self-improvement, and perceived trajectory lock-in. Aging becomes a key meaning-making resource: specific ages are constructed as deadlines, bodily changes as evidence of sexual disqualification, and accumulated time as proof that inceldom has become permanent. However, aging does not produce a single emotional or ideological trajectory. While some forum users express resentment and violent fantasies, others describe exhaustion, numbness, resignation, or ambivalent attempts to advise younger incels. The article contributes to incel and radicalization research by showing how harmful online identities may be sustained and emotionally reorganized across the life course.