Released on March 13, Netflix’s series Adolescence brings to light a debate about a community that people have forgotten about: the Incels. In the series, the protagonist Jamie — played by Owen Copper — a 13 year-old boy, is accused of being part of this community. Due to his contact with Incel ideals, Jamie may have killed Kate.
but who are the “incels” mentioned in the series?
The term “INCEL” was created in the 90s, being an abbreviation of “Involuntary Celibate”, which refers to people who describe themselves as incapable of having a love relationship or sexual life, placing the blame on women in relation to this failure.
The first incels manifest appeared on sites like Reddit and 4Chan, known for being sites that host toxic and violent communities. In them, incels — a community composed mostly of heterosexual men — claimed that all women are self-interested and opportunistic, concerned only with beauty and money. In addition, they were said to be promiscuous and manipulative.
Regarding the “manipulation” carried out by women, incels believe in female “hypergamy”, in which it is said that women are sexually selective, and, through their beauty and sexual privileges, they are able to acquire social benefits. In addition, they propagate anti-feminist and defend ideals linked to the extreme right and white supremacy.
These ideals have spread and gained strength worldwide due to easy access to the internet. Because of this, the idea of “machosphere” was created, which consists of a radicalized male universe on the internet, in which there are manifestos of misogyny and violence against women and other men who have happy relationships with them.
These acts are not only present in the series with Kate’s murder. These are several cases of mass murders of women by men who admit to being part of this community. One good example is the case of Jack Peterson, who killed ten people in Toronto in 2018. Jack is one of few incels open to talking to the press about the crime he committed, with one of these outlets being the BBC, which did a story on the subject.
the problem of internet access in childhood
In the second episode of the series, we discover that all the children at Jamie’s school were aware of the meanings of the symbols used by the Incel community. The detective Bascombe only finds out about this after his son Adam, a few years older than Jamie, tells him about the meaning of the exploding redpill emoji.
It’s clear that children have easy access to this community without their guardians knowing. The problem is that the entire situation and the sexist present are seen as a joke. In this same episode, we see children making fun of the situation, especially the boys, who reaffirm sexist and rude acts towards other classmates and even with female employees and teachers.
In the last episode, when we follow Jamie’s family thirteen months after the incident, we see the feeling of helplessness on the part of the boy’s parents who blame themselves for not noticing anything wrong with their son. For them, Jamie was a normal, intelligent boy who didn’t cause any problems, for them, he was just a boy who liked to sit on his computer. Eddie himself – Jamie’s father – tells his wife that it’s impossible to control what children see on the internet and that, nowadays, they’re all the same. And that’s dangerous.
the effect of the incel community on character formation
The parents’ negligence regarding what their children see on the internet directly interferes with their development in a harmful way. This also is for children who have access to the incel community.
Let’s use Jamie’s as an example. When we talk about the human brain, it only fully develops at the age of 25. Therefore, access to sexist and aggressive ideas by children results in the formation of a bad character if not corrected by an adult.
During the investigation, officers were given access to the boy’s school records. Despite his excellent grades and being a good student, Jamie was exhibiting recurrent violent behavior. This violence may have been the result of excessive exposure to hate speech seen in the incel community that influenced him.
This result is clear in the entire third episode though the way Jamie treats the psychologist. At all times, the boy behaves with an air of superiority, mocking the professional and even ordering her to take control of the session for himself. From the moment the psychologist manages to take control of the situation, the boy freaks out and starts screaming.
Two evident speeches that make the incel influence on Jamie: When he keeps reinforcing the fact that the psychologist uses tricks to get into his mind and when the boy’s appearance is discussed.
the internet was the problem, but it could be the solution
Even though the Incel community was born and is strong in the digital world, the way the media and the general public receive the series Adolescense says a lot about a desire to get around the situation.
Through the power of writing, journalists from all over the world published articles about the subject, increasing its visibility. As a result, debates on the internet repudiating the incel movement continue to grow, as does the need to put an end to it.
The launch of the series has allowed people to look at incels from a different perspective, with the aim of protecting children from coming into contact with the hate speech they spread. And this is important so that measures – many of which can be educational – can be taken to make the internet less toxic in the future.
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The article above was edited by Camilly Vieira.
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