Inside grim incel forums where men rage about Adolescence and vow to make women 'pay'

Groundbreaking series has opened up one of the most pressing conversations of modern times - the influence of the 'manosphere' and culture on impressionable young minds. The four-part drama follows the story of 13-year-old who is arrested for the brutal murder of his classmate Katie Leonard.

Shocking CCTV footage shown in the first episode leaves no doubt that Jamie viscously knifed Katie in a car park. The real question lies in how a seemingly ordinary teenager could have been driven to such a heinous act and what, if anything, could have been done to stop him.

Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham co-wrote the script in a bid to tackle misogynistic influences head-on in an era where parents and teachers alike are increasingly concerned about the malevolent online forces shaping the attitudes of teenage boys.

As was intended, Adolescence has sparked calls for change, with Prime Minister Sir backing a call in the to have the show screened in schools across the UK. Many parents, including Sir Keir, have used the series as a powerful teaching tool, tuning in with their teenage children.

Over in the manosphere forums, however, the discussions look quite different, with furious incels raging against a drama they feel has misrepresented them.

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As those who've watched Adolescence may recall, in one disturbing scene, Jamie attempts to defend the murder of Katie by arguing that he at least didn't sexually assault her, as others might have done.

One quick look at manosphere-focused forums suggests the sort of harrowing language the teenager may have been subjected to while his parents believed him safe in his room.

In one grim forum thread, members discuss wanting women to "pay for what they've done with punishments worse than death". One person commented: "Nah, just kill them. It's faster", to which another argued: "That wouldn't be painful enough."

A third wrote: "I want to commit atrocities with my brocels, but unfortunately that's just a fantasy of mine and it's never happening. Sucks that we cannot unite somehow. All in video game and not in real life."

The character of Katie also faced victim blaming by another twisted character in the show, who shows support for Jamie in a chilling encounter with dad Eddie Miller (Stephen Graham) in a hardware store. As difficult as it may be for many to understand, the demonisation of women is rife on such forums, where many users discuss the opposite gender in dehumanising terms, imagining an existence where they are robbed of free will.

Envisioning a sick future of how they wish the to look, a fourth forum user wrote: "When we are done, women will be erased from public space. They will be locked away in dungeons with no sunlight ready to be used and abused as we see fit.

"We will reduce women's worth to nothing through full automation of female sexual and reproductive labour with perfectly realistic sex dolls that have realistic skin texture, warmth, muscle and fat, as well as artificial wombs which outperform the natural womb of mothers. Women will regret ever challenging us men, for we are superior and more human than them."

There are various forum threads furiously dissecting the plot of Adolescence, which some in this community have dismissed as "anti-incel propaganda". Railing against the idea of incel culture being held to blame for Jamie's actions, one person commented: "How about holding women accountable for their wrongdoings? Acknowledging the fact that they are vastly privileged and that society is anti-male?"

Another raged: "The soys can make as many shows about us as humanly possible, but in the end, NOTHING can stop what is coming for them! Divine retribution is inevitable, brought about by unyielding necessity which bends the fabrics of reality in our favour. WE WILL WIN IN THE END!"

There are also numerous references to the victim, Katie, being a bully on account of her rejection of Jamie and her jibes at him for being an incel, with some even suggesting that she deserved her brutal fate. This is despite the fact that Jamie specifically asked Katie out after she herself was bullied, believing her to be vulnerable and, therefore, an easy target.

Disturbingly, while many of the users have taken issue with the themes of the show, others have been pleased to see the issue being given such a significant platform. As one user put it: "Good, that means inceldom is spreading. They can't ignore it anymore. Most younger men aren't going for the women princess s***."

This jubilant brag will likely strike fear into the hearts of parents and teachers up and down the country, with online hate spilling out into the playground. According to recent research from Vodafone, more than half of boys aged 11 to 14 (56 per cent) are now familiar with influencers associated with the 'manosphere' - a network of online communities responsible for creating and promoting content which is often misogynistic in nature.

Researchers also heard how 70 per cent of teachers have noted an alarming rise in sexist language in the classroom. Much like Jamie's devastated parents in Adolescence, adults have been left asking themselves what sort of power they have to keep such sinister influences out of their homes.

Speaking with the , psychologist, mother, and author of the new book Feminine Intelligence, Elina Teboul, said: "I believe we're missing the point if we treat these forums as just pockets of pathology. They're manifestations of a broader crisis - young men today face a perfect storm: economic uncertainty, social isolation, and a cultural void where healthy masculinity once stood.

"While there's zero justification for violence or misogyny, we're intellectual cowards if we don't acknowledge that radicalization thrives in the vacuum of meaning. We need to look at the why behind the rage, not just condemn the what."

She continued: "These forums offer what society doesn't: explanation, community, and direction—however warped. The tragedy of Adolescence isn't fiction; it's documentary. We've outsourced masculinity to algorithms and extremists while the adults left the room.

"These spaces aren't the disease; they're symptoms of a society that's forgotten how to raise men. Until we create pathways to purpose, belonging, and respect for young men—without demonizing them for their gender—this crisis will only deepen."

The Mirror also heard from online safety expert and KOMI Group co-founder Ryan T Williams, who recently kickstarted a petition to change the way the topic of social media and digital skills is taught in schools. Although Ryan has noted that some schools are "more switched on", he believes there is a "significant lack of consistency across the UK and beyond" on account of teachers not receiving the necessary training and resources.

Ryan went on to remark that the government’s "continued talk about online safety", the current RSHE policy focusing on online safety, was first created in 2019 and hasn't been revised since 2023. In the years since things have moved quickly.

The Oldham entrepreneur has also criticised the Government's discussion about a smartphone and social media ban that he believes "will only fuel the groomer’s incel narrative and drive kids to access these spaces in an underground way". According to Ryan, this would be "far more dangerous and ultimately only delays the issues they’re going to face when they turn 16 and are allowed to access these spaces".

Ryan said: "The key thing that came through from Adolescence is the fact that nobody knew what to do. They all tried their best for the boy and the other teenagers in the show; they all thought they had helped him become a good man, and they did everything right.

"But there was no education for the parents, the teachers, the children and even the police, and as a result, a boy during his lost boy years was groomed by the toxic Manosphere because he wasn’t fully equipped with the digital skills or 'in real-life' experiences he needed to give him that sense of belonging which would have protected him from their angry and toxic narrative. The only people to blame in that situation were the Government for talking too much for many years and doing nothing to prevent this."

He added: "He was hanging out on the streets with nowhere to go. The Government took away low and no-cost spaces for teenagers to go years back, leaving them to roam the streets, sit in their rooms or have their parents pay for expensive clubs when most are already at financial breaking point. The Government give teachers out-of-date policies to deliver during a small portion of their lowest-priority lessons rather than empowering children with the skills they need as part of the wider curriculum.

"Parents are expected to just know what to do when a large percentage simply don’t know the right skills, and others are part of the problem because they aren’t behaving properly online, setting a poor example for kids without fully understanding the implications or hypocrisy that the kids are picking up on. In the meantime, we have vulnerable teenagers and younger children figuring out their place in the world with no proper support, education or sense of place, leaving them wide open to this toxic group who feed off their vulnerabilities to justify why society rejected them, and the loop continues."

Do you have a story to share? Email me at julia.banim@reachplc.com

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