Adolescence: The meaning of Incel in Netflix's latest crime drama show, explored 

Netflix's latest crime drama series, Adolescence, created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, is creating all the buzz on the internet for the pressing issue it highlights.

In an interview with GQ UK, Graham discussed how he was moved by the many teenage crimes happening in the UK, where young women were stabbed to death by young men daily.

Graham was inspired to make a show about the issue that would guide parents and young men and investigate where this violent mindset originated.

One of the reasons that Adolescence explores, which drives Jamie to murder his classmate Katie, is the incel culture. Incel means involuntary celibate and refers to that section (mostly men) who desires a romantic and s*xual partner but cannot get one.

Jamie is called an incel by his peers and Katie and gets targeted within this culture, which demonizes women for men's inability to get a partner.

More on the incel culture in Adolescence in our story

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What is the incel culture portrayed in Netflix's Adolescence?

While viewers also went on the whole investigative journey with Jamie, one can't help but think that he was a good manipulator who almost made everyone believe that he did not stab and kill Katie.

Even before he decided to admit guilt in the Adolescence finale, he had episodes of rage, especially with his psychologist Briony, where he would lose his calm and lash out at her. One of the reasons identified for his brutal action was Katie's rejection and her calling out and bullying him on Instagram.

The show partly blames the incel culture for harboring such violent notions and hatred towards the other gender that drive young men like Jamie to commit crimes. While these young men desire a romantic and s*xual partner, they have to remain involuntarily celibate because they are unable to get a partner.

A section of social media (especially influencers like Andrew Tate, who is also mentioned in Adolescence) radicalizes these young men and makes them extremists towards women. They blame their inability to get a female partner on the women, thinking that they have become very selective on who they date and should be punished.

Author Laura Bates describes the incel community and how they are teaching young men to hate the opposite gender:

“It is a community devoted to violent hatred of women. A community that actively recruits members who might have very real problems and vulnerabilities, and tells them that women are the cause of all their woes.''

While their inability to date could stem from a lot of problems, real problems relating to mental health, they focus on this hatred towards men because this is what they have learned from social media.

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Adolescence establishes that Jamie's violence stemmed from incel culture

In Adolescence, Jamie admits to Briony that he had feelings for Katie. When one of her classmates circulated her topless photos in front of the other boys, Jamie felt that she was vulnerable and would agree to accompany him to the fair.

But she denies it and even says that she is not so desperate, which fuels Jamie's anger. He goes over the edge when she writes incel on his Instagram and combines her remarks with the rejection he faced, and this is his driving force for Katie's murder.

He feels bullied and humiliated by Katie because she had the power to give Jamie a partner, which she did not, and in turn, Jamie killed him. One Reddit user, u/FootlongDonut, notes:

''We saw how he reacted to the psychologist when he felt rejected...and we also saw him describe why he went after her in the first place...with his incel tainted logic...knowing full well she was feeling ostracized because she had intimate pictures of her shown around the school.''

This tainted logic, as the user called it, is what is driving young men to kill and justify their acts towards women, which Adolescence highlighted.

Also Read: Adolescence: What does the word 'Nonce' mean?

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