May the Force be With You

Parents have a duty of care to equip girls with the emotional and intellectual resources needed to confront misogyny

- Rashmi Varma

"THERE are reasons Keir Starmer [Prime Minister of the United Kingdom] loves the show," writes D.J. Renton in his blogpost on the recently released Netflix drama Adolescence that has become a topic of global conversation. The series dramatises the story of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old white working-class boy, who is accused of murdering a girl. As the investigation unfolds, we learn about the online manosphere comprising social media spaces where toxic masculinity and violent misogyny provide a salve for sexual rejection. Jamie, it turns out, was caught up in this world even as his beleaguered working-class parents thought he was safe in his room at home.

Renton's sarcastic comment refers to the meeting that the British PM held at Downing Street that was attended by the writer of the show Jack Thorne, its producer Jo Johnson, as well as charities such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Movember, and Children's Society. The goal was to discuss the toxic content of online sites that children are increasingly exposed to and to figure out measures to safeguard them. At the meeting, Starmer also presented himself as a parent, sharing how hard but important it was for him to watch the show with his teenage children, even as wearing his prime ministerial hat, he acknowledged that there was no easy "policy lever that can be pulled” to redress the harm being caused.