Sex, Rage, and Video: The Making of an Incel Hero

In the dark corners of the Internet, a growing number of angry men fantasize about violence against women. Johnny Young went viral for turning his twisted vision into reality.

- By Jen Golbeck

In screenshots from his videos, Young appears with flowing blond hair and a muscular build-more like a laid-back surfer than a violent, dangerous incel. Looks, in this case, are deceiving.

"Can I hang out with you?"

The words echo across the Triangle Square parking garage in Costa Mesa, California, directed at a woman in a chic white pantsuit, early forties, cheeks red and makeup a little smudged. The man who said them follows her as she strides away. She tucks her short blond hair behind her ear and casts anxious glances over her shoulder, pivoting left, then right. Sounds of street traffic drift in; the smell of flowers and nearby restaurants carries on the breeze. The garage is clean, white, and brightly lit as glowing windows from the surrounding buildings sparkle in the darkness of night. The man, however, is disheveled—he’s been living out of a van-with shoulder-length blond hair swept back from a receding hairline.

“Can I hook up with you?” he says.

“Fuck off,” she mutters, picking up her pace. She clocks that he’s recording her from his sunglasses, which have a builtin camera.

“What kind of vagina do you have?” he persists. “Is it an innie or an outie? Does it have beef curtains?”

She threatens to call the police, but as he pursues, his taunts grow more obscene. She speeds up and seems to get away before the video abruptly cuts. The viewer is left to guess what happened next. Maybe she was able to avoid being physically assaulted. Or maybe she suffered the same fate as a group of women near the same parking garage, during the same month, April 2022, recorded by the same man: Johnny Young.