How to miss the entire point of Netflix's 'Adolescence'

It turns out, Margaret Atwood didn't actually say "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid that men will kill them." At least, not in those many words.

- Shrabanti Bagchi

It turns out, Margaret Atwood didn't actually say "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid that men will kill them." At least, not in those many words. But the quote has been attributed to her so often that it has become canon (for the accuracy-minded, it is a paraphrasing of a passage from an essay she wrote in 1982).

I don't know if the makers of Adolescence, the Netflix drama about a 13-year-old boy who is accused of killing a female classmate after being radicalized into a toxic performance of masculinity by adult men looking for clicks and views, had Atwood's observation in mind when they set out to make this series. It is, however, the one that I thought of constantly while watching it. Because that's what happens—a boy is made fun of; a girl is killed.

Some prickly male commentators have taken this to mean liberal society is villainizing testosterone, sports, body-building and male loners—presumably, all the things that make men, men. At least one column has been written that mocks feminism, gender studies, therapy, and even, puzzlingly, literary fiction, which has largely been the domain of male authors for most of its history. It appears to question the very existence of the 'manosphere'—a clumsy word, admittedly. It's a corner of the online world that deals with telling boys and men that they are losing power in an over-feminized society and must claim it back by asserting their natural manliness.