Jilly Kay appears on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour

Jilly Kay – a CRCC member and Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at Loughborough University – appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss her research on ‘femcels’ – women who identify as involuntary celibate. The discussion with presenter Emma Barnett can be heard at 48 minutes into the programme. She also recently provided consultation for a new Channel 4 documentary on ‘femcels’ – women who identify as involuntary celibate. The documentary, entitled Radicalised? Are Femcels the New Incels? is presented by journalist Ellie Flynn and asks whether femcels can be considered part of a new incel movement, and if so, whether this community may have similarly disturbing implications. The trailer for the documentary can be viewed here.

Jilly has published research on femcels, and has previously provided media commentary on the phenomenon for the Atlantic and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She has a forthcoming article in the European Journal of Cultural Studies entitled ‘From femcels to ‘femcelcore’: women’s involuntary celibacy and the rise of heteronihilism’, co-authored with Jacob Johanssen (St Mary’s University). Her interest in femcels forms part of her ongoing research into the ‘femosphere’, a loose ecology of female influencers and communities which, she argues, mirrors and reproduces the fatalistic and reactionary logics of the manosphere.

Jilly Kay is a Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media at Loughborough University. She is a co-investigator on the project ‘Re-CARE TV: Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care’ (2023-26), within which she leads the work package on reality television participation. She is co-lead of the Media, Memory and History research theme at Loughborough University, co-convenor of the Media and Gender research group, and co-editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies.