Last month, Netflix released Adolescence, a British limited series which has been talked about ever since its premiere. It has been crowned as the streaming service’s fourth most popular English show of all time, creeping behind Stranger Things and Wednesday. Social media users and news outlets chug out reviews, describing the “heart-wrenching” series as a must-watch. The plot centers around a thirteen-year-old boy, Jamie Miller, accused of murdering a female student in his school. With each episode shot in one continuous take, they explore how his arrest affects his loved ones and community, as well as reaching for an answer on why Jamie did it. It’s eventually revealed that Jamie used to be bullied by the girl, and while indulging in misogynistic content and internal insecurities, he decided to take his rage out on her.
Some of the themes Adolescence explores can be confusing to an average watcher, especially if they aren’t on the Gen-Z and Alpha side of the internet. In summary, the show exposes a current crisis among teenage boys. It highlights how the online manosphere and incel culture has affected the mental state of young males, with Jamie’s situation mirroring the real-life radicalization of actual students. This content has become so prevalent in the United Kingdom (where the show was produced) that the UK government now treats misogyny as extremism.
So, what exactly is Adolescence bringing to light? Throughout the show, students mention “an exploding red pill,” “[Jamie’s] an incel” and “the 80-20 rule.” These terms fall under the growing manosphere. This movement includes websites, forums, and influencers that promote masculinity and misogyny. A general idea that these sources support is that society is unfair to men, and women are to blame. Some people in the manosphere identify themselves as “incels”, or involuntary celibates, who primarily are heterosexual men unsuccessful in finding a romantic partner. They believe their inability to date is due to women having too much power in relationships and social hierarchies. This ties to the “80-20 rule” mentioned in the show, which is a belief that 80 percent of women want to date only the top 20 percent of men. When many of these individuals begin to adopt these beliefs and develop a growing resentment toward women, they often describe their experience as “taking the red pill,” referencing the choice to confront reality in the 1999 film The Matrix.
In recent decades, there has been emergence of self-defined incels and influencers well known in the manosphere. Elliot Rodger, an English-American mass murderer responsible for the 2014 Isla Vista Killings, uploaded documents and videos online detailing his frustrations on women not accepting him, support for women not having rights, and plans to “punish them all.” Andrew Tate, a social media influencer, is well known for his talks on entrepreneurship and dating, with many of his beliefs rooted in misogyny. While incel communities praise Rodger for bringing their struggles to light, and Tate for messages on male emancipation, both idolizations funnel down to radicalizing young men. Adolescence warns that it’s these figures and the online culture they bear who influence young men into becoming violent.
Many viewers of Adolescence are given first, and very brief, glimpses into what online content is prevalent among teenagers. Though a few terms and names are mentioned, they are only on the tip of the manosphere iceberg. There’s an abundance of forums, commentators, and new articles on violent attacks that link to misogynistic ideology. The community not only targets women, but also people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. What is so scary, for many adults, is that children are only a few scrolls and clicks away from getting exposed to these beliefs. As the manosphere prides itself on slang and dog whistles online, older generations can’t catch on to these messages as quickly as the younger generation. In the last episode of Adolescence, Jamie’s parents lament on how they couldn’t stop their son from killing his classmate. They ask themselves if it was the way they raised him, or how they never caught on to what he was watching on his computer. Unfortunately, many parents don’t know what the starting point was for a mentally unwell child.
Stephen Graham, the creator of Adolescence, appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss the inspiration behind Adolescence, stating, “You know that beautiful saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child?’ Well, what if we’re all kind of accountable? The education system, parenting, and the community, the government,” stressing how his generation didn’t have access to social media while growing up. While the manosphere is the main aggressor for radicalization, the sphere outside of the online world has to prevent it among teenagers. The Netflix show has made its point as the United Kingdom increases its efforts to tackle misogyny since the show’s release. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has met the show’s creators at a roundtable and expressed admiration for the message it shares. Furthermore, it was made free for viewing in secondary schools across the UK.
As revolutionary as a story of a violent boy is to the world, there’s still a lot to uncover. As current teenagers are still developing, it’s easy for parents to overlook how their child’s upbringing will affect them in the long term. Online communities are becoming bigger and harder to translate across generations. While we don’t have a strong set of parents who can understand what is being shown on the internet, stories like Adolescence can educate us on these difficult, hard-to-digest topics.
Ermm.. they take the black pill not the red