Red pill, black pill and the manosphere

Netflix's Adolescence, about a murder investigation of a 13-year-old suspect motivated by incel sub-culture, shines the spotlight on inceldom, yet many are unaware of what it champions

- Teo Kai Xiang

If you watched Netflix's hit series Adolescence (2025) and felt confounded, you are not alone.

The show peels back the curtain on a disturbing reality of how the heavily coded and misogynist language of the manosphere has entered the mainstream, without parents or educators realizing it.

The British crime drama revolves around a murder investigation in which a 13-year-old boy (played by Owen Cooper) with ties to incel sub-culture is accused of killing a female schoolmate. It is on the streaming platform's list of top five TV programmes in Singapore since it premiered on March 13.

In one memorable scene, a teen expresses frustration at his police inspector father's ignorance about incels and their red pill philosophy. His bewildered father responds: "How can you be involuntarily celibate at 13? Who isn't celibate at 13?"

The adults in Adolescence are not the only ones confused. Following the show's release, the search terms "incel" and "manosphere" have seen a spike in interest, according to Google Trends data.

Mr Amit Kalley, 37, a former deputy head teacher at a secondary school in London, was inspired by Adolescence to put together a periodic table of sinister emojis and the meanings they convey based on his online research. For example, an "OK" emoji, harmless in most contexts, is also used by the far right as a white supremacist symbol, while the pill emoji represents the incels' red pill philosophy.

"Lots of parents have never heard of incels or the manosphere before, and so this has shocked them. Lots of parents might know the name Andrew Tate, for example, but do they really know what he represents, what he says and why he's so influential? Probably not," he tells ST, referring to the British-American social media personality who peddles advice to young men on how best to manipulate women.