Inside the Manosphere: Adolescence Reviewed

So, recently I was suggested to watch Adolescence on Netflix, and I just finished watching it!

Adolescence is a four-part British drama series streaming on Netflix, released in March 2025. The series was created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, and directed by Philip Barantini and is about the story of 13-year-old Jamie Miller, who is arrested for the murder of his classmate, Katie Leonard. The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of Jamie's family, the investigating officers, and a clinical psychologist. This show offers a palatable introduction to the horror of the manosphere!

What is the manosphere?

*Manosphere: an online network of blogs, forums, social media accounts, and websites that proactively advocate misogynistic, anti-feminist, and anti-gender egalitarian positions, and promote the resentment and hatred of women

** you may have heard of the term red-pill… Boys and men who are “red-pilled” believe they’ve uncovered the real reason behind their struggles: women, feminism, and a society that supposedly favors female empowerment at their expense (as if, lmao). It's a manipulative narrative that preys on insecurity, rejection, and a longing for control.

As portrayed in Adolescence, Jamie is exposed to harmful rhetoric in the media and outside influence from peers (and maybe even his own father) that reinforces resentment towards women. As a heterosexual young boy, he finds himself attracted to girls and is severely affected by female rejection. Jamie’s entire self-esteem, self-worth, and image are dependent on the validation of women and approval for sexual acts.

Jamie’s position towards women is based on the fallacy that only “80% of women are attracted to 20% of men”. This pseudo-statistic is weaponized to radicalize young men like Jamie and reinforce misogyny and a distorted view of gender relations. This implies that most men are inherently undesirable or invisible to women. Within manosphere communities, this narrative is used to justify bitterness, entitlement, and hatred toward women. It positions romantic rejection not as a natural or situational experience but as systemic oppression by women who are deemed hyper-selective and manipulative.

Where does the ideology of the manosphere come from?

Several influencers have male-centered content published on platforms like TikTok, Youtube, & Twitch. Think of influencers like the Nelk Boys (8.4 million subscribers), Andrew Tate, Joe Roegan (39.9 million followers), Charlie Kirk (18.6 million followers), Theo Von, and Nick Fuentes (3.4 million followers). As a former babysitter of young boys, I know how much these kids are glued to iPads and fascinated by many of these influencers who entice viewers with self-help, gaming, and pranks. These kids completely idolized their favorite influencers and would be very inclined to attach to any ideology they reflect. That’s where I think Adolescence falls short. The series placed too much blame on the family and individual responsibility and not enough on the global, algorithm-driven machine feeding boys a steady diet of misogyny wrapped in charisma and memes.

Let’s talk about Episode Three:

In Adolescence, Jamie is given a laptop and keyboard by his parents. He has an Instagram account, which he posts on and interacts with his classmates feed, as well as female models. Jamie has a crush on his classmate, Katie. He revealed during a conversation with the psychiatrist that he asked her out, when he knew she was feeling vulnerable. Katie had nude pictures that were leaked to the whole school, and everyone was talking about how “flat-chested” she was. Jamie sought this as a time when Katie would agree to a date because she was socially battered and insecure. When Katie rejected Jamie, this put him in a deeper spiral. Classmates, including Katie began mocking him on Instagram using coded emojis such as beans, red pills, and the “100%” symbol, which all are subtle references to incel culture and manosphere ideology.

Episode three of Adolescence offers perhaps the most revealing psychological insight into Jamie’s internalization of misogynistic ideology. The therapist gently probes his understanding of manhood and its relation to women by asking, “What do you think being a man feels like?”. This question was posed to expose the fragile, performative masculinity Jamie has adopted. His response to questions about his father, "No, that's weird", when asked if he’s loving. This showed how emotional repression has been framed as normal gendered behavior.

As the session unfolds, Jamie increasingly attempts to assert dominance over the female therapist, mimicking the patriarchal control he believes defines masculinity. He expresses shame, self-hatred, and misogynistic entitlement all at once, claiming he doesn’t deserve hot chocolate, yet also boasting about having touched girls’ bodies as if they were trophies. His objectification of Katie reveals how he’s absorbed and replicated a media-fed system of rating women’s worth through physical appearance. As the therapist challenges these beliefs and as Jamie grows agitated, he begins to yell and tower over her! This is a physical display of the emotional volatility that arises when his worldview is questioned. This scene represents the show’s critique of how young boys are radicalized by “truth groups,” social media, and the incel pipeline, which teaches them that male validation is rooted in sexual conquest and that women’s autonomy is a threat. One of the most shocking moments for me was when Jamie’s belief that not assaulting Katie makes him morally superior, “I could have touched her, but I didn’t... that makes me better”, reveals a deeply distorted view of consent and respect. The episode is a chilling, honest portrayal of how boys like Jamie are pulled into violent, self-loathing ideologies masked as empowerment.

Do you know who Elliot Rodger is?

This show immediately made me think of Elliot Rodger. Initially, I even wondered if Adolescence was based on his story. For those who don’t know, Elliot Rodger was a 22-year-old man who, in May 2014, carried out a mass killing in Isla Vista, California, near UC Santa Barbara. He murdered six people and injured fourteen others before taking his own life. What made this case particularly haunting was the detailed manifesto and YouTube videos Elliot left behind. These explained years of social isolation, misogynistic resentment, and his belief that he was entitled to sex and affection from women. Elliot killed 4 men and 2 women. Even though more male victims were killed, Elliot's primary motivation, as expressed in his 164-page manifesto and videos, was rooted in misogyny. He expressed deep hatred toward women for rejecting him and toward men who were able to attain the romantic and sexual relationships he felt entitled to. His attack was a gender-based hate crime and ideologically targeted women and the systems that he believed privileged others over him.

Elliot's ideology mirrors that of Jamie in Adolescence, especially the disturbing notion that women are objects whose primary purpose is to provide sexual validation to men.

The role of the father…

Adolescence places considerable emphasis on parental influence (particularly the role of the father) in shaping Jamie’s descent into toxic masculinity. As the series unfolds, we learn about the generational trauma within Jamie’s family: his grandfather was physically abusive, and Jamie’s father was raised to embody a rigid, hypermasculine ideal through sports, emotional suppression, and patriarchal dominance. These same expectations are then imposed on Jamie. The show paints the father as emotionally distant, occasionally aggressive toward Jamie’s mother, and complicit in reinforcing outdated gender roles. However, while the father’s behavior is certainly a contributing factor, the show’s almost singular focus on family dynamics as the root cause of Jamie’s ideology is problematic. This completely overlooks the far more insidious and pervasive systems such as online radicalization, peer validation, media representations of gender, sexual education, and algorithmic echo chambers that play a massive role in shaping young boys' beliefs. Blaming the father alone flattens the complexity of how boys like Jamie are sucked into the manosphere. Jamie’s relationship with his father is layered. He seeks his father's approval, calls him from prison, and even protects his reputation and image during therapy sessions. This shows a deep internalization of masculine ideals, but also a longing for male connection.

In another character relationship, we see this same concept of the dependency on individual responsibility. The detective and the detective’s son. Once the detective finally realizes the only real motive in this case is misogyny, he wants to reconnect with his son again. After an emotional and silent scene, the father asks to drive his son home and go out to get “chips”. It is clear that the father and son rarely spend time together. But again, this show harps on the idea that it is only up to the fathers to simply spend time with their sons. I think this is the bare minimum and this re-correction of harmful rhetoric needs more than simply father-son bonding time.

I respect the objectives the show sets out to achieve by informing a wide audience, but I believe it misses an opportunity to critique the broader societal structures that are most crucial to addressing the root causes of the manosphere.

With gratitude,

Olivia