Staying Hungry for Foidslop: On Purposefully Enjoying the Media Incels Mock

Words: Bryce Jones

The incels have done it again! Well, not it, much to their dismay. While they categorically can’t get laid, we have to hand it to them: They sure can come up with (or at least adopt) a crafty term. They’ve brought us “mog,” “normie,” and “Chadlite,” to name a few—meaning when a man dominates another man with his good looks or general superiority, an average “boring” person and a “moderately attractive man,” respectively—the list goes on. (If you want a laugh you can read the incel glossary in its entirety on IncelsWiki, which I braved for the purpose of researching this essay because I am a Journalist.) The newest addition to their colourful, disturbing lexicon is set to be a defining word of 2026.

The first time I came across “foidslop,” it immediately cemented itself in my brain. My eyes zeroed in, the rest of the sentence blurred, and I couldn’t help but scan it over and over. “Brilliant,” I concluded.

A quick etymology lesson, brought to you by the darkest corners of the manosphere: “Foid” is shortened from “femoid,” which combines “female” and “android,” implying that women are less than human. For a four-letter word, it really packs a punch! But, in fairness, so do quite a few other four-letter words. 

Onto the suffix: You’ve probably come across “slop” by this point, as Merriam-Webster named it the 2025 word of the year. The dictionary defines it as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” To put it simply, saying a whole lot of nothing. So foidslop, by definition, refers to content made by and for women, which inherently lacks substance because women inherently lack substance. It’s also been used in the context of food to describe makeshift meals thrown together, like “girl dinner,” but that’s not what I’m referencing here.
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Your initial instinct upon absorbing this information may be to take offense. Women have birthed some of the most profound masterpieces in history, from Frankenstein to Heated Rivalry. On the latter, I’d argue that foidslop applies to content predominantly enjoyed by queer folks as well — the girls and gays, if you will. It’s true that the term is meant to degrade. But when looked at through a lens of reclamation, it’s empowering.

Let me explain how I arrived here: I learned of this charming label while doing some light Substack reading. One of my favorite writers, who goes by final girl digital, had just published a post titled “Explaining Walter Benjamin’s Theory of Aura Using Girly Shit,” with the introduction reading: “Foid slop! Come get ur foid slop!” As I devoured her delicious words, exploring this high-brow topic by analyzing Gossip Girl characters, ’90s supermodels and Addison Rae (2020 vs. 2026), I kept returning to the opening sentences. “If this is foidslop,” I thought, “it’s all I want to consume.” 

“A hallmark of foidslop is that it’s misunderstood by those who don’t care to understand it. Unless you’re willing to untangle yourself from the learned belief that the male perspective is the one true perspective - “decentering men” as it were - the point will never be found because this media leans so hard into the feminine experience.”

It inspired me to seek out foidslop in pop culture and in the medi; namely films that were overlooked and discarded as flops (typically by male critics) because they focused on women’s stories, cast aside as shallow chick flicks, but were adopted as cult classics by women and queer people. Some have gone on to reach icon-status: Clueless, Jennifer’s Body, But I’m a Cheerleader. My favorites include Drop Dead Gorgeous, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and Showgirls, which I watched recently and was disappointed but not surprised to find out it received 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

One critic is literally an inch away from using our star word. He writes, “Clothing is not an option in Showgirls and after about 20 minutes of this slop, you'll be begging for someone to please put something on, take some acting lessons, and try to say one thing intelligent.” 

Over on Letterboxd, the audience is able to think harder. “The brilliance in this film though is more thematic then anything - this is way deeper then the sleazy exploitation film it has the reputation of being - it’s a fucking ruthless satire of the entertainment industry, just unrelentingly reading everything about it to filth in such a campy and over the top way that it flies over the heads of so many people.”

A hallmark of foidslop is that it’s misunderstood by those who don’t care to understand it. Unless you’re willing to untangle yourself from the learned belief that the male perspective is the one true perspective - “decentering men” as it were - the point will never be found because this media leans so hard into the feminine experience. That’s what makes me so affectionate toward the word: Foidslop represents the way women and their work have always been underestimated and patronised, especially by those who see themselves as superior intellectuals. The irony of it all is beautiful.

The incel community has weaponised dehumanising online language to fuel misogyny since its inception, and according to linguist Deborah Cameron, it’s getting more dire. The blackpill ideology, which argues that incels’ issues require systematic change often through the means of violence, isn’t just appearing on 4chan boards but has made its way to TikTok and mainstream channels, fostering the hatred of women. To fight back, Cameron looks toward “inventing new terms and reclaiming slurs.” UN Women published a glossary of “coded language” in December 2025, encouraging women and girls to familiarise themselves with key terms to “spot subversive and harmful content in your feed.” Now that we’re educated, we’re ready for combat. 

Hopefully this essay itself lives up to foidslop standards, as my main motivation for writing it was to contribute to the FS take-back efforts. If you’re inspired upon reading this to do the same, you can participate by watching TV and film like the aforementioned; supporting blogs, meme pages and feminist zines; and creating your own content with women in mind, whether you’re reframing something traditionally claimed by men or filming a video explaining why girls’ girls condemn ICE. Bonus points if you do any or all of the above while wearing your favorite lip combo and listening to Katseye via wired headphones.

Maybe if there was another word for this concept, I’d prefer using that one, but despite my best Googling efforts, I found no equivalent. All that came up were dry phrases like “women-centric” and “female-driven.” Is it unfortunate that incels were the ones to coin such a catchy, powerful term? Yes. But is there something extremely satisfying about stealing it from them? Resoundingly yes.