An ‘incel expert’ has spoken out after fingers have been pointed at Netflix’s Adolescence with concerns it could ‘inspire’ an incel attack or rampage. Netflix’s hit series, which aired in March and quickly became the third most-watched English-language series of all time on the streaming platform, focuses on incel culture and how it’s infiltrated young people. The four-part limited series centers on the aftermath of the death of a teenager named Katie (Emilia Holliday), which sees 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) being accused of an unthinkable act no one saw coming.
The series zones in on the accused boy’s father, Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham), his wife Manda (Christine Tremarco) and their daughter Lisa (Amélie Pease) as they grapple with their responsibility for Jamie’s action in different ways. The psychological drama, created and based in England, was shot in one continuous take and has been applauded and praised around the world. However, concerns have been growing since the series was released that it could inspire ‘copycat’ acts of violence, similar to those in 2014 by Elliot Rodger. Rodger 22, killed six students from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and injured 14 others before turning the gun on himself. In a note left for his parents he explained his motive, his hatred of women and his miserable life as an incel.
William Costello, an incel expert and doctoral researcher at the University of Austin, told The Sun that the portrayals of incels onscreen might make great television, but can actually harm the community of young men more.
He explained to the outlet: “One peculiar finding is that there’s not as much incel violence, as you would expect – ideologically motivated violence like Elliot Rodger – compared to other extremist groups. “In evolutionary psychology, for decades, a very clear trend [has occurred] that whenever you have more single young men in a society, they cause an awful lot of harm, usually going about in gangs.
“They’re doing anything they can to elevate their status, to get a mate, whereas now you’re seeing rising rates of single-hood, but no corresponding rise in violence,” he continued. Whilst pornography, and the rise of it being easily accessed by teenagers and young people, has been previously highlighted as a concern, it might not always be the problem. In fact Costello believes it could be useful in stopping young men turning to violence. He explained: “One hypothesis is that they could be sedated by the online world, such as pornography, which would give them a fake cue that they’re achieving evolutionary success, the human mind can be tricked fairly easily.” He added that pornography “could take the edge off”, but also shared that it could be “distracting”. TV shows like Adolescence are also contributing to the problem according to Costello, who shared his views: “What’s very worrying for me is the explosion of attention that the incel topic gets with Adolescence. It ticks all our boxes for cognitive attention.”
He also added his final thoughts: “I think society as a whole, we can understand better the nature of incel psychology, makeup of the group, level of stress and their mental health. In the media, we’re just seeing incels as this rabid misogyny, toxic masculinity, one-dimensional analysis.” He added that the incel storyline is ‘a button pusher’ for people, and predicted that there would be more incel storylines coming out in TV dramas and films over the next few years. However he also warned about those in power taking documentaries and TV shows as their evidence for making decisions around incel culture, warning that to make it policy would be “knee jerk”.
Netflix’s recent release Adolescence is stirring up more than just emotions. It’s triggered a firestorm of concern among psychologists, law enforcement, and internet safety experts. Why? Because some believe it may be unintentionally glorifying a dangerous subculture — the incel (involuntary celibate) community.
