‘Most boys would’ve touched her, but I didn’t. I was tempted, I was so tempted, but I didn’t, and that makes me better.‘
The above is a quote from the hit Netflix mini-series and most talked about show of the year, Adolescence.
Written and produced by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, the first episode of the four-part series was watched by a staggering 6.45 million people in its first week alone, therefore making it the first streaming show to top the UK’s weekly TV ratings.
Its success, however, is somewhat of a bitter blow. Is the reason we are all so gripped because we relate? And if so, what does that tell us about the state of our society?…
Adolescence tells the story of a 13-year-old boy, ‘Jamie’ (Owen Cooper), who is arrested on suspicion of murdering a girl from his school.
Concerned not with who did it (Adolescence is not a typical ‘whodunnit’ drama, we know from the get-go who is responsible), but with why he did it, the show looks into the eye of male rage. What’s more, it forces viewers to grapple with the morality of feeling sorry for Jamie’s lack of morality.
The viewers are made to feel sorrier for Jamie, the perpetrator, than they are for Katie, the victim.
Exploring Jamie’s psyche, something that society has corrupted, we cannot help feeling sorry for him. We cannot help feeling sorry that, in his 13 short years on earth, society has so vehemently plagued his mind.
Jamie might not have died, but the essence of Jamie, his morals, did.
Because of the shows, unfortunately, all too relevant themes, Adolescence has sparked a national conversation, including with Britain’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, no less…
In an interview with Sky News, Sir Keir said that he was worried about the “crisis in masculinity” raised in the programme.
Adolescence explores the impact of social media and the effect that misogynistic online influencers such as the likes of Andrew Tate can have on young men.
Have you ever wondered why cases of domestic abuse are staggeringly male against female (1 in 4 women vs 1 in 7 men)? It is precisely because of the type of toxic masculinity portrayed in Adolescence…
People feel oppressed when equality is closer. If you were once the king of the hill and now everyone’s almost on your level, you feel threatened.
The ‘manosphere’ is corrupting young minds through the array of websites and online forums that exist to promote misogyny and oppose feminism. Here, incel culture thrives.
The Anti-Defamation League, which works to address hate and extremism, defines incels as ‘heterosexual men who blame women and society for their lack of romantic success’.
It is the blame placed on women that explains why, throughout Adolescence, Jamie repeats, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong.’ Jamie doesn’t deny doing anything, just that he didn’t do anything ‘wrong.’
Acts of incel-related violence tend to be seen by the community as a form of liberating action that constitutes an act of revenge.
As it was feminism that promoted and encouraged women to have a right to sexual agency, there has been much discussion in incel forums dedicated to the reversal of gender equity, too. Many of the proposed solutions involve some form of coercion, rape, or a complete return to enforced monogamy under strict patriarchal rule.
The idea of a ‘men’s rights movement’ sees men wanting to reverse the progress seen in the twenty-first century and revert to a society headed by the oppression of women at the hands of men. Most incels want to return to such an era where women marry young, and all men are entitled to sex with women. Why? Because it is their right, they believe, to have sex and reproduce, and women are the ‘vessels’ for said needs.
The issue (amongst many) of incel communities is their ability to suck people in. Through peer pressure, they seek to cause as much damage and destruction as possible.
If you don’t take drastic action against women, you are deemed to be a ‘blue pill’ (ignorant of what is happening). The desirable status is the red pill.
Among incels, the red pill represents the realisation that feminism has caused a massive shift in power, and that feminism (understood by incels as women having the right to sleep with anyone they wish), gives women far too much power, and has led to “hypergamy,” incel speak for women pairing up with men who are more attractive. It is for this reason, incels believe, that the ‘80/20’ rule exists (80% of women desire 20% of men). The 80/20 rule tells men that they will never be desirable and, consequently, will never find sexual fulfillment and happiness.
It is perhaps unsurprising then, given the rhetoric that impressionable young boys are fed, that violence against girls and women is ever-increasing.
In August 2021, Jake Davison (pictured above), aged 22 from Plymouth, carried out the deadliest mass shooting since 2010.
Davison, who frequently posted on incel forums, shot and killed five people, before shooting himself. His victims included a three-year-old girl and his own mother whom, it was later revealed, frequently clashed with Davison over his violent opinions of women.
In July 2021, just one month before he struck, Davison filmed himself talking about his “lack of success at dating apps, disillusionment of life, and self-hatred”. This was just one post amongst many in the months leading up to the attack.
Davison expressed views that he had missed out on relationships because, in his words, he was ‘a virgin … fat, ugly.’
Someone else whose attitude toward women ended in heartbreak was Kyle Clifford (pictured below with his ex-girlfriend who he would go on to murder)…
In July 2024, Clifford, 26, admitted murdering Carol, 61, with a butcher’s knife and using a crossbow to fatally shoot Louise, 25, and 28-year-old Hannah.
The attacks came two weeks after Louise ended an 18-month relationship with Clifford after being urged to do so by her family (including her mother and sister who were also murdered during the attack).
In his trial, the court heard how Clifford had searched for self-described misogynist Andrew Tate’s podcast less than 24 hours before carrying out his attack.
Andrew Tate is a British American former reality TV star with millions of social media followers (over 10 million on X alone).
Styled as a self-help guru, offering his mostly male fans a recipe for making money, pulling girls, and ‘escaping the matrix’, Tate uses his platform to deliver his disturbing views on rape, relationships, and power. Many in his audience are teenagers who are just beginning to understand their own sexuality.
Tate, who says he is “absolutely a misogynist,” teaches his acolytes that women are inferior and morally deficient beings who are good only for sex and status building, and who deserve to be physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. And that he has done…
Accused of the sex trafficking and rape of seven women from Romania, the U.S., and Britain, Tate was arrested in December 2022.
Prosecutors allege that Tate raped at least one of the women repeatedly, controlled them by threatening them with violence and financial ruin, and posted pornographic videos to the women’s social media accounts.
Speaking via their legal representatives, the British victims said: ‘Hearing that Kyle Clifford watched videos of Andrew Tate in the lead up to his murders of his ex-girlfriend, her mother, and sister, is deeply upsetting to us, but sadly not surprising. Clifford’s case should be a warning to world leaders and all those who belittle the seriousness of allowing incitement of violence against women online to fester.’
The ‘manosphere’, a theme covered in Adolescence of which Andrew Tate (pictured above) is the figurehead, attracts men and boys who are angry, depressed, and feeling victimised by women and society.
Rather than teaching lonely boys how to be emotionally resilient, the so-called ‘manosphere’ teaches them to lean into their anger and supplement it with lists of perceived grievances against girls and women.
Unfortunately, however, Tate’s many followers are not exclusively teenage boys…
In February 2025, Tate landed back in the US after being held detained for over two years in Romania on rape, sex trafficking, and money laundering charges. The Romanian courts, however, abruptly reversed their previous refusal to allow Tate to leave the country after several high-level Trump administration officials took an interest in his case — including Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, who called Tate’s arrest in Romania “absolute insanity”.
When asked if Trump had played a role in Tate and his brother’s release; ‘Do the math’, the Tates’ lawyer Joseph McBride said. These guys are on the plane.”
It’s terrifying that one of the most powerful men in the world can support someone like Andrew Tate…
Alas, it speaks volumes when one of the lawyers Tate hired to fight his human trafficking case, Paul Ingrassia, was appointed the White House liaison for the Department of Justice.
‘Justice…’ It would be laughable if the situation wasn’t so dire.
When a quarter of Britons say they would consider voting for Reform UK in a future election, a party run by Nigel Farage, the man who just last year publicly praised Andrew Tate for being an ‘important voice for emasculated boys’, and in America, Trump, a man who was found liable for sexual abuse is in power, it’s a scary time for women indeed…
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