Netflix’s Adolescence, created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, shocked viewers with its disturbing cautionary tale of what can happen when young boys are strongly influenced by toxic online communities. Through its exploration into the mind of a troubled teenage boy and its commentary on the dangers of incel culture, Adolescence tells an important story of the deadly consequences of unchecked misogyny. Warning, this article contains spoilers as well as discussion of murder and assault.Â
Adolescence is a fictional limited series by Netflix that follows 13 year old Jamie, who is on trial for murdering his female classmate, Katie. Jamie is unpopular, awkward, and views himself as ugly and undesirable. After failed attempts to connect with peers–especially girls–Jamie turns to online communities, to which he falls victim, finding himself immersed in the “manosphere” and incel culture.Â
The term incel is short for involuntary celibate. Incel culture developed in the early 2000s on forums like 4chan and Reddit as an outlet for lonely men who were angry about their lack of attention from women. These men have a strong hatred towards women and blame them for their own loneliness. They often crave female attention and sexual interaction, but react aggressively when they are denied. Incels view themselves as an oppressed group, failed by their genetics and by society.Â
In Adolescence, Jamie believes he is ugly and undesirable to his female peers. This evokes strong feelings of rage and is a major source of motivation for Jamie’s actions. He feels he is almost entitled to attention from women and it is a great injustice that he is being denied this attention. Jamie finds solidarity in online communities that see him as a victim and encourage him to turn his anger and rage towards women, rather than dealing with the underlying issues within himself.Â
Nude photos of Katie, Jamie’s classmate, were spread around the school. Jamie saw this as an opportunity to make a move, as Katie was humiliated after the incident, and he so strongly wanted attention from girls. He saw Katie as “weak” after what happened, and he thought that might incline her to go out with him when she otherwise wouldn’t. He never actually liked her, but rather thought her self-esteem had been lowered enough to say yes. Katie rejected Jamie to his face, but she didn’t just stop there. She later went on to comment emojis under one of Jamie’s instagram posts, accusing him of being an incel. The rejection and the taunting enraged Jamie to a point of no return. He brutally stabbed her to death, with the incident caught on CCTV footage.Â
Jamie maintains his innocence for much of the series because he believes Katie deserved what he did to her. He said “I’ve done nothing wrong” at least a dozen times and he really believed it. He fell so deeply into the incel mindset that it drove him to murder. He wholeheartedly blamed this girl for his own loneliness and insecurity. He even admitted that he could’ve sexually assaulted her if he wanted to–that most guys would’ve–but he didn’t and that makes him “better”. At only 13 years old, Jamie was programmed to devalue the lives and bodies of women so deeply he believed he was morally superior for not sexually violating the girl whom he murdered.Â
Adolescence is a fictional story portraying a very real and dangerous threat to our society. Incel culture is not just an internet joke for lonely guys—it’s a breeding ground for entitlement, hateful misogyny, and violence. Jamie did not become a killer overnight. He was shaped by a world that failed to teach him compassion, accountability, or how to process rejection without rage. He learned to take his anger out on women, and to blame them for his lack of self-esteem. If we continue to ignore how these toxic ideologies reach young boys, we’ll keep seeing stories like Jamie’s, both on screen and in real life.