What Is A 'Stacy'? How Incels Use Slang To Describe Certain Women
Apologies in advance if this is actually your name.
Reddit Just before allegedly killing 10 and injuring 14 by running them down with a rental van on a sidewalk in Toronto on April 23, 2018, Alek Minassin shared the following cryptic statement on Facebook:
“Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
According to the introductory thread on one of the more widely known incel forums: "Incel means involuntary celibate, a person who wants to be in a loving relationship but is unable to find a partner despite his best effort. Incels want to be loved and give love back. Being 'incel'is a state of being, not an identity. It is not a movement, ideology, or behavior, and there is nothing political about it."
Over the past half decade or so of incel history, these men created a web of slang terms with both simple and complex meanings, so it's understandable that many are now asking, "What or who are Chads and Stacys?"
Read on to learn what incels mean when they refer to a woman as Stacy, the history of where the term comes from, and how it is most commonly used.
The Definition of a 'Stacy'
As defined in the manosphere glossary, "Stacy is the archetype of a high-value, hypergamous [woman] and the female counterpart of Chad."
How It All Started
On March 23, 2013, someone on subreddit r/Foreveralone posted a question regarding the origin of memes depicting Chad as "the default name for alpha" men, which was credited to users of the /r9k/ board, i.e. 4chan's version of r/Foreveralone.
Another reddior quickly added:
"There's also Stacy (Last name Lightning ... or something) which is probably based off the scumbag stacy meme. This all happened a long time ago, I remember seeing chad stuff at least back 2 years."
Know Your Meme describes 'Scumbag Stacy' memes as a series of photos "of a scantily clad young woman posing in a bedroom. The overlaid text typically consists of unethical, selfish and sadistic behaviors."
As the incel community grew and evolved, Stacy became the go-to term to use as the female counterpart to Chad.
Why Incels Use It
Incels believe in what they call the black pill ideology.
The manosphere glossary explains: "The idea surrounding it is that the PUA [pick up artist] game is a scam and that bad boys do not attract females; instead, the most important factor is looks and physical traits. Taking the 'black pill' is synonymous with coming to the realization that those who lack such traits will never be attractive to females, regardless of PUA techniques used, and should just give up."
This "realization" that the only possibly life awaiting them is one of loneliness and involuntarily celibacy is reinforced by incels' interpretation of the Pareto principle, more commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule.
"In simple terms, the top 80 percent of females get access to the top 20 percent of males.
This could be expanded in further detail by saying that the bottom 80 percent of males are left to fight for the bottom 20 percent of females. This works out for about 70 percent of the males, leaving just 10 percent of the males to struggle for the bottom 10 percent of females, who only want access to the top 20 percent of males."
Within this paradigm, Chads are those men who fall into the top 20 percent, Betas/Omegas/Normies fall within the next 70 percent, and incels are the unfortunate males left forever without mates.
Stacys represent the most desirable of women — on a scale of one to ten, the preferred measure of attractiveness for incels, a Stacy is a solid 9/10+ who can have almost any man she wants. Beckys represent all other females, as most incels believe that no matter how unattractive a woman may be, she still has a better fate than they do.
Whether they admit it or not, and the answer varies, the incel mindset is one that clearly sees women as property.
And Stacys are stuck in the that old trope in which they are considered both superior due to their alluring, untouchable nature, while simultaneously inferior due to their one-dimensionally basic gender status as females.
Notably, within one definition of the word incel that has since been deleted from Urban Dictionary, readers were presented with this scenario:
"Imagine being the only kid on the playground without a new toy everyone takes for granted. You are allowed to see and touch the toy, but can never play with it or have your own. When the toy breaks, they ask you to fix it then take it right back. That's what it feels like to be an incel."
But can incels imagine being the kid who everyone thinks is just a toy for them look at, touch, use and even break whenever they so choose, sometimes passing you on to others or leaving you alone in the dark or choosing to throw you in the trash when fixing you doesn't interest them?
Asking for a friend.
How Incels Use the Term 'Stacy'
The overarching sentiment among incels regarding both Stacys and women in general is a heady mix of yearning, resentment, lust, and loathing.
Stacy is just one of many purposely degrading terms for women based on their perceived level of promiscuity, specific aspects of their physical appearance, and their perceived level of attractiveness, again, measured on the aforementioned scale of one to ten. A few examples include Roasties, Femoids/Femaloids, and FHOs (female humanoid organism).
So when an incel uses the term "Stacy," he is speaking quite specifically about a woman who falls into the categories of most beautiful, most tempting, more sadistic of women, who are also most likely to be beckoned by the siren call of "hypergamy," which is "the perceived tendency of females to date, have sex with, and/or marry males of a higher socioeconomic status than them."
Examples of the Term Being Used
On how she experiences loneliness:
"Stacy: The state between boyfriends. She can’t believe this situation happened to her. I mean, she is such an interesting person right? All her orbiters are very mediocre BETAs and not self improving fast enough. She hates men. ALL OF THEM. Except chad of course. She misses Chad and her 10 bffs ... who are comforting her really don’t know what that’s like. Sometimes she feels so misunderstood and wants people to know this about her cause it means she’s special in a way."
On how she experiences depression:
"Stacy: Feeling attention starved and since her last 5 posts were her [selfies] she figured she might as well just express how she thinks she genuinely feels at this moment to show its not just her [body] that has depth, but her INTERESTING PERSONALITY."
On how she experiences social anxiety:
"Stacy: Has these days when she feels she looks like ... and needs a lot of support from her Instagram fans to help her cope. She puts on tons of make up and does her hair for hours. Luckily her boyfriend is her rock and support, and when he’s not there her best male friend takes over complimenting her. They help remind her she is strong and beautiful and so she can take charge of her anxiety issues like a fighter she is."
On how she experiences generalized anxiety:
"Stacy: Got catcalled again, some ugly [creep] said hi to her in public and she’s pretty sure she doesn’t know him and yesterday a guy on the street walked in the same direction as her for at least 3 blocks and he was ugly. Men really don’t understand how terrifying this is cause they are so much physically stronger than women which is very intimidating. Good that her boyfriend is 6’5″ so she can feel protected."
Deputy Editor Arianna Jeret, MA/MSW, has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Yahoo Style, MSN, Fox News, Bustle, Parents and more. Find her on Twitter and Instagram for more.