In the medical examination room of the police station, Jamie Miller is placed on a sterile couch. At any moment, the nurse should take his blood. He looks scared, starts to stutter, says that he does not like needles. The boy is only 13 years old. The father defends his son and explains that Jamie is afraid of needles. What Jamie's father does not know, however, is that his child is not afraid of knives. The day before, Jamie killed his classmate Katie Leonard, inflicting seven stab wounds on her.
The scene is from the first episode of the British miniseries broadcast on Netflix "Adolescence" ("Boyhood"), which broke records with 66 million views in its first ten days and was even discussed in the British Parliament.
The audience learns from the very beginning that Jamie is guilty. Investigators show him a security camera video showing him stabbing Katie with a knife. The series does not ask the question of whether he did it, but why.
Any boy can be Jamie
The answer can be found in the battles that the teenager has with himself. Along with the constant social pressure to be a man, the lack of self-esteem, the fear of not being attractive, and the desire for female attention, Jamie is radicalized.
Any boy today can be Jamie - this is exactly what the series wants to show. After school, he does nothing questionable; goes to his room, closes the door, and sits in front of his computer until late at night, where he falls into the whirlpool of incel culture (from English: incel - involuntary celibate - virgin not of his own free will).
Incel describes a misogynistic online community of young heterosexual men who blame women for their abstinence. The incel community is part of the "male sphere" or "manosphere" - a loose network of anti-feminist Internet forums, books, content creators, and blogs for male self-improvement. They teach boys and men how to become strong, successful, and physically fit in order to be desired by women. But they also share fantasies of violence, humiliation, and advice on how to manipulate women. The most prominent representative of this subculture is the self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate.
Intimidation or real danger?
"A lot of what is said about incel culture in the mainstream discourse is frightening", says Shane Satterlee, who studies male violence at Griffith University. The subculture is not primarily misogynistic, but self-loathing and suicidal. According to Satterlee, misogyny is only a superficial interpretation of this phenomenon.
Behind it lies isolation, a lack of male role models, a lack of fathers - and asexuality, Satterlee explains. In addition, society has consistently taken away more and more "masculine spaces" than men, which is why they are now claiming a place on the Internet for themselves.
But sexually frustrated young men are a danger above all to themselves, says the expert. According to a British government study, they are usually suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts and need help, not stigmatization. The number of suicides among men worldwide is increasing, with the US alone having increased by 37% since 2000.
Lisa Sugiura, professor of cybercrime and gender at the University of Portsmouth, does not agree that these trends are not threatening. "According to WHO data, one in three women will be sexually assaulted at least once in her life. "This doesn't happen in a vacuum," Sugiura says.
Men as victims
In incel forums, you can find men discussing why they think rape is "ethical". You don't have to look far to find this type of content, says Lisa Sugiura. "It's not like you have to go to the dark web to find these kinds of comments. You can find them everywhere, not just in forums, but on TikTok and Instagram.".
The idea that men have a right to sex and women deny them it is a widespread belief in the so-called "manosphere." The question is whether these men should now be pitied because they are sexually frustrated and yearn for female validation. Is misogyny normal if it is "only" a superficial symptom of masculinity in crisis?
According to a study by King's College London, one in four men aged 16 to 29 believe it is harder to be a man than a woman. "The manosphere is all about the rhetoric of victimhood, that men are the ones who are abused by women in our society and that they have to fight to survive," Sugiura explains. The problem with the role of victim is that it is used to justify hatred of women. And so the heroine of "Adolescence" Katie must die because she doesn't give Jamie the validation he wants.
Misogyny is an institutional problem
But incel culture and the manosphere are just one piece of a larger misogynistic puzzle, Sugiura explains. The real problems are deeper. In addition to the frustration of young men and their mental health issues, there is also a deep mistrust between the sexes. A recent survey by the British think tank "Centre for Social Justice" found that almost two-thirds of women aged 16 to 24 are afraid of men.
A ban on social media for young people, as called for by "Adolescence" screenwriter Jack Thorne (and which has already been passed into law in Australia), would not be a sustainable solution, Sugiura believes. A comprehensive institutional and cultural change is needed. According to the creators of "Adolescence", the series is above all a wake-up call. Thorne tells the BBC: "We need to talk about these things and I hope the film will help to do that."