Understanding Netflix’s Adolescence: Red Pill, Incel, And More Terms and Emojis From Manosphere Explained

Adolescence on Netflix:  The latest mini-series Adolescence on Netflix has remained on one for over a week. The series has not just gained the attention of the world but also brought the world's attention to the less chartered world of Manosphere where toxic masculinity thrives with language like Incel and emojis and like the red pill emailing young men to feel validated from influences they are too young to comprehend in the boxes of right or wrong. 

A poignant scene from the series remains where DI Luke Bascombe takes a series of emojis on his Instagram account as a harmless and even flirtatious attempt of the girl on Jamie played by Owen Cooper. It is only after his daughter decodes the jargon to him does he understands what all has been wrong with the situation.

Not just emojis, the film also brings into focus terms like Incel and Manosphere initiating momentum in understanding the online community of men labeling them as “Incel” or “sigmas” and where it is coming from. 

Keep reading to understand the Manosphere Terms used in the Netflix show Adolescence. 

Manosphere

Like the atmosphere? You can say. The manosphere is an online atmosphere or network of platforms and influencers teaching hype-masculinity, misogyny, and anti-feminism to men. From Reddit to Instagram the seemingly harmless language of Manosphere has made it apparent on many social media sites. 

Incel

Incel expanding to involuntary celibate. A term used to describe men who do not find themselves on the list of women's romantic partners and tend to blame women for their “involuntary celibacy” since women are too picky leaving them devoid of mutual romantic bonds.

100 emoji = 80/20 Rule 

Why are women picky in the rule books of the Manosphere you ask? There is math for that too. In the Manosphere, the concept of 8the 0/20 Rule is to be believed that 80 percent of women are attractive to only 20 percent of the men leaving the rest of them lacking choices, and hence some turning “Incel”.

Red Pill

Borrowed from the Matrix, Red Pill is a popular imagery used in the manosphere. The red pill refers to seeing the “truth” about women in the manosphere. The truth is that women are hypergamous and conventional society works in their favor with its expectations.  

Kidney Bean 

The kidney bean emoji is used to identify an incel. The imagery has been popularised to reinforce harmful stereotypes against women. 

Adolescence has started a conversation about how the “online communities" of extremism are seeping into life in real ways affecting the adolescents around us with a distorted view of the concepts and world around them.