Embedded Files
by Haley Hart
April 30, 2025Scrolling mindlessly on Instagram can sometimes give you emotional whiplash. You can go from watching a video of adorable baby giraffes, to an ad of a Lululemon wearing woman promoting her “detox tea,” to a video of passionate, tear-jerking wedding vows, all within a span of three seconds. People scroll so furiously that they are unable to fully evaluate what exactly they are actually watching, subjecting many to subconscious messages, often harmful, that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen. And horrifically, this includes the ever-growing community of “incel” content.
Talk of “incel” or “red pill” content was, prior to recent times, only something that one could view online, rarely found to be a topic of discussion in mainstream media. That was until Netflix’s release of limited series, “Adolescence,” on March 13, which shined a very necessary light on this community and its effect on impressionable young males.
In 2025, the term “incel” is inescapable. “Incel” is a portmanteau of “involuntary celibate.” By modern definition, incel describes a male who is frustrated by their lack of experience with women. According to CNN in a 2023 report, 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.” However, “incel” can also be used to describe someone who holds misogynistic viewpoints or perpetuates extreme sexism.
Memes and internet community-based symbols and terms are one of the ways online incels mainly communicate and locate one another. One of the most important symbols in the incel community being the idea of a “red pill” or a “blue pill.” This symbol is taken from the 1999 movie “The Matrix,” where a young man, Neo must choose between taking a blue pill, which will keep him in a state of blatant, blissful ignorance, or the red pill, which will awaken him to an reality, despite what the uncomfortability it may bring.
“For incels, the reality presented to them by the red pill is that love and sexual satisfaction are commodities that women deny them, and that women, not men, control the sexual aspects of society,” Brian Steele, senior director for Preventing Targeted Violence at the McCain Institute, told CNN, adding, “Under this assumption, sex and relationships become almost like a game with specific challenges to overcome.”
Illustration of Incel by Daniel Zender (Photo Credit: The New Yorker)
On March 13, 2025, “Adolescence” premiered on Netflix and immediately shot to #1 worldwide on the streaming service. Conversion and buzz around the show seemed impossible to escape, in real life and in the online world. Seeing still shots of the series across the internet, it was difficult to decipher exactly what it was about, whether it was a crime, a coming of age, or something in between. No matter what, the topics the show covered seemed intense, as its plot heavily surrounded the topic of extremist incel viewpoints.
The show begins with a quaint, little house. It’s simple and it’s quiet, nostalgic almost, with a sweet little lawn and a brick exterior. However, the individuals gathered in the yard have anything but a sweet demeanor. They are police officers, moving carefully, guns in hand, ready to bust through the home’s front door. The scene sets the viewers up to expect to see someone dangerous behind the house’s walls once the police break through, someone who is a clear criminal but that is not what occurs. Instead, the police parade past a husband, a wife, and a teenage daughter, all in a panic, to reach a room at the top of the stairs, a little boy’s room. He is the one they are there to arrest, and it is unbelievable. His face is full of fear and anxiety, so much so, your heart breaks for this child. You feel for him in a way that is so interstitial. The boy radiates innocence that is only amplified by the bedroom he’s laying in, with his striped bed sheets and outer space wallpaper. His environment emphasizes this age, but it deeply contrasts the severity of the crime he is being arrested for: murder.
Eddie Miller (Stephan Graham) and Jaime Miller (Owen Cooper) in interrogation room (Photo Credit: The Wrap)
The boy, Jaime, is placed in handcuffs, put in a car and dragged to the station. His family is all in a panic, following their loved one, who is consistently voicing his innocence. After scenes showing Jaime undergoing medical treatment at the police station and meeting his lawyer, the show then pans to the young boy’s interrogation scene, with his father present in the room. It is then shown through CCTV footage at the end of the episode that “innocent” Jaime brutally stabbed his female classmate not even 24 hours before.
One struggles to comprehend Jaime’s motive, if any, behind such a horrid crime, until episode three, when he is shown meeting with a child psychologist. The episode reveals that the reason behind what Jaime did was due to the humiliation he felt being cyberbullied and rejected by the young girl, Katie. According to Jaime, intimate photos of Katie were leaked to the school, causing him to believe he would be successful in asking her out because she would be “weak.” Katie rejected him, saying that she wasn’t “that desperate” and commented on his various social medias inferring that he was an incel, using kidney bean emojis to symbolize “red pills.”
Through the contents of this episode, one is able to see how Jaime views women, and it is utterly terrifying. When the female child psychologist is speaking to him, he shows little respect, continuously trying to intimidate her, only calming down once a male guard puts him in his place. Jaime talks about how the fact he didn’t sexually assault Katie at any point makes him “better” than his other male peers, viewing his hesitant nature to do so as an incredible act of kindness, and not basic human decency. When the psychologist leaves, he demands her say how she feels about him, whether or not he was likable, despite his horrifying demeanor towards her. Through this, the audience is able to see how Jamie views women as objects of desire or inherently less than, while simultaneously seeking their approval, whether it be romantic or pseudo-parental.
In episode 4 of the series, Jaime’s family attempts to go on with their regular lives, despite the fact that their kin is being held in custody. The parents discuss the fact that Jaime was always in his room, on his computer, looking at God knows what. In time, they’ve grown to blame themselves, unsure whether or not the potential incel content their son might have consumed played a role in what he went on to commit, questioning if they could have done anything to stop him.
Over the course of the past few weeks, conversation surrounding the series has opened a floodgate full of online opinions and overall discussion surrounding the actual impact of incel propaganda polluting the internet.
The show has started a dialogue regarding an online topic that is typically laughed off. The wild views of sexist online forums can seem like a non-issue to some, as it is a phenomenon usually only kept in the confines of the internet. However, this unique and extremely necessary series proves that an impressionable mind consuming such content can interpret almost anything to fit a narrative, and can gain despicable views due to such. Despicable views that can cultivate breeding ground for cruel, and often violent acts. In this way, the show serves as a sort of warning against the foul viewpoint young minds can gain from access to social media.
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