SINGAPORE – 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 realising 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.Now a parenting coach, Mr Kalley attributes this knowledge gap to parents’ busy working lives and a lack of open communication with children, which can ultimately result in parents being unaware their child is falling prey to incel ideology. The Straits Times delves into the manosphere to shed more light on the world of incels and its language, as well as the warning signs that your child or partner is becoming radicalised online. First, what is the manosphere?The manosphere is a loose collection of online anti-feminist and misogynistic communities. While incels – short for “involuntarily celibate” – form one part of this, others include Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists and men’s rights activists.“Every member of the manosphere is broadly of the view that men are discriminated against, and that is in large part due to society’s ‘feminisation’ and the successes of feminism,” says Dr Joe Whittaker, a senior lecturer at Swansea University in Britain, who researches incels and counter-terrorism. Incels are a mostly online sub-culture of men who blame society, feminism and genetics for their inability to form romantic or sexual relationships. MGTOW, a related group, advocates for male separatism by avoiding marriage and committed relationships with women.All manosphere groups describe themselves as having been “red pilled”, a term borrowed from the science-fiction film The Matrix (1999). These groups use it to mean “awakening” to the “truth” that feminism has corrupted society and disadvantaged men.Some incels take it one step further by describing themselves as “black pilled”, based on the belief that some men are biologically destined to fail in relationships due to unchangeable traits, such as their height or jawlines, and should thus give up.“In some instances, that means political violence, and we’ve seen a small but significant number of terrorist attacks by incels,” he says, referring to mass shootings by attackers linked to incel sub-culture in California, the United States, in 2014 and Plymouth, England, in 2021. Incels have been classed as their own category of threat by Canada and Britain.“And in some instances, unfortunately, it also means suicide. Suicidal ideation is absolutely off the charts on incel forums,” says Dr Whittaker, who co-authored a 2024 study surveying over 500 incels for the British government’s Commission for Countering Extremism. One of the study’s findings was that one in five incels surveyed reported contemplating suicide every day for the past two weeks.How influential is the manosphere in Singapore?Dr Whittaker notes that while every era has seen its share of angry single men who feel like they have been left behind by society, today’s manosphere is a by-product of how the borderless internet has made it possible for communities of resentment to form at an unprecedented scale.The manosphere used to be a fringe movement lamenting unfair custody laws and false rape accusations, says Dr Mariel Barnes, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. Despite the uptick in manosphere sites and blogs in 2008, these proponents remained largely anonymous and outside the mainstream because of the fear that their misogynistic views would get them “cancelled”.“More recently, we’ve seen these views go mainstream and increasingly incorporated into the alt-right and, in the US, Trumpian populism,” says Dr Barnes.Besides Tate, some of the most visible faces in the manosphere include content creators like Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and American far-right activist Nick Fuentes, who have each amassed millions of followers from across the globe.Dr Barnes says: “Social media algorithms also play a role here as they often direct people, particularly men, to extremely misogynistic content very quickly – often within a few videos or clicks – as this is what keeps people consuming content.” Dr Whittaker adds: “They use a lot of self-referential language that you would really know only if you were in that space, so it can act as a kind of cultural capital for young people.” Many of these concepts and language have also seeped into the mainstream. For instance, “looksmaxxing” is a term which originated in incel forums and refers to improving one’s appearance to increase one’s success in dating. Now, it is used by many TikTok users unaware of the term’s origins.In Singapore, there is little indication of a self-identifying incel community that is active on a significant scale, notes Mr Benjamin Mok, an associate fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.“However, experts have long pointed out that most eschew the ‘incel’ label in exchange for labels such as ‘MGTOW’ or ‘red pilled’ – there is evidence that such communities exist at a small scale in the Singaporean online landscape,” he adds, pointing to the existence of a MGTOW Facebook page in Singapore with around 900 followers.Mr Elijah Ho is a 23-year-old Singapore Management University student who previously wrote an article about the manosphere’s influence in Singapore for British magazine The Skeptic. He notes that some manosphere narratives are influential in Singapore because of a perceived culture of apathy towards vulnerability and national service (NS), which are common talking points in Singapore’s online spaces.“While the armed forces have made strides to get more in tune with their conscripts, the culture inherently teaches us to quash feelings of vulnerability,” says Mr Ho. As such, he says many men express scorn and bitterness online over being conscripted and what they deem to be insufficient recognition of their service. NTU researcher Yasmine Wong notes that Reddit forum r/SingaporeRaw and the HardwareZone Forums play host to misogynistic narratives that mirror what is observed in the manosphere.Whether these groups are equivalent to the ones in the West merits further research, but Ms Wong, who studies social cohesion and inter-group relations, adds: “These groups still contribute towards the normalisation of misogynistic narratives – whether through desensitisation to such views as the ‘norm’ as such narratives go unmoderated, or the intertwining of internet humour with misogyny (as well as racism and homophobia), thus popularising such narratives.”These forums frequently host complaints about NS wasting away youth, as well as unfair “advantages” conferred on women by the Women’s Charter. She says that inoculating the public through education and exposure to common manosphere narratives and terminology is key, as much of the public remains unaware of the dangers. “Similar to Singapore’s treatment of radical preachers who preach intolerance, influencers like Andrew Tate should be made known to the public as divisive figures,” she adds.More importantly, there is a need to address the insecurities faced by teenage boys and young men that these narratives target. Many such ideologies are premised on threats to traditional notions of masculinity. “Failure to attain this ideal and societal pressures to conform to gender roles (men as breadwinners, not permitting boys to express their emotions) have resulted in resentment projected at the progress of women and other minorities,” she says.What are the warning signs?What is worth noting is that manosphere content tends to be rooted in a hierarchical world view based on immutable traits, with narratives of self-victimisation and persecution.One thing to look out for is when someone misuses scientific theories to advance pseudo-scientific and misogynist theories of female behaviour. A 2023 study of manosphere content from 1993 to 2022 by researchers from the University of Kent and University of Lille found that evolutionary psychology research is widely used across the manosphere to give its narratives the appearance of scientific legitimacy.Members of the manosphere tend to present speculative theories as established facts and selectively apply these to female behaviour, while rarely discussing male behaviours, presenting an overly deterministic view where biology dictates all female behaviour.“The most striking difference between academic writing and the manosphere remains the presence of moral judgments in the manosphere,” write the researchers. “While scientists try to explain and understand, manosphere activists often bemoan, condemn and vituperate. Sexist interpretations abound, framed by emotions and ideology.”A telltale sign is when dehumanising language towards women is used.A 2021 study by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain found that members of the manosphere often name themselves and other men they admire. But they often refuse to properly name women, instead referring to them by things like “XX” or reducing them to their body parts.Dr Barnes notes that incels have a variety of derogatory terms for women, including landwhale, GigaStacy and femoid. A lot of this language is often satirical, allowing members of the manosphere to downplay its seriousness and misogyny, and accusing anyone who has a problem with it of not having a sense of humour.Another warning sign is when someone consistently portrays men as the oppressed group in discussions on gender and gender equality.Manosphere members often co-opt the language of oppressed groups to assert that men are being oppressed by feminism. They also focus primarily on areas in society in which men are disadvantaged so they can position themselves as fighting against discrimination.Dr Debbie Ging, a professor at Dublin City University in Ireland, writes in her 2021 study of the manosphere that these groups reframe masculinity as both powerful and dominant, while simultaneously claiming victimhood in the form of “involuntary celibacy” and “beta” masculinity.Dr Whittaker notes that while disadvantages and grievances faced by men do exist, using them to delegitimise proponents of gender equality is a cause for concern. Manosphere thrives on social isolationAnother red flag is social isolation and poor mental health, says Dr Brandon Sparks, an assistant professor at St Francis Xavier University in Canada who studies incels.Popular manosphere personalities like Tate exploit the feelings of young men who lack a sense of purpose and fulfilment.“The incels I have spoken with wouldn’t really fall under the radicalised umbrella, but being bullied or excluded in adolescence was a common factor in their lives,” Dr Sparks says. “This limits opportunities to develop social skills and could contribute to the lack of trust many demonstrate in real or imagined relationships.”Families are advised to pay attention when loved ones are spending more time online than normal and isolating themselves. Dr Barnes suggests asking what they are watching online, and paying attention to any unusual or aggressive language that expresses negative sentiments about women or marginalised groups.“It is easy to be watching normal videos on YouTube about how to fix a household item and then get ‘sucked down the rabbit hole’,” says Dr Barnes. “Suddenly, all of the content you’re consuming is promoting the hatred of women and gender equality.”What loved ones can doIf you are concerned about a loved one being drawn into these communities, Dr Whittaker has specific advice on what not to do: “Singling people out and publicly shaming them is a poor idea. You can’t shame people out of extremist views, and what you will end up doing is just playing into the narratives that they’re seeing online.”One of his findings is that neurodiversity – for example, autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – within these communities is “absolutely off the charts”, he adds, referring to his 2024 study of more than 500 incels. “If there is any attempt at understanding how to intervene with someone, it’s very much advised that the person giving an intervention should have an understanding of neurodiversity,” he says. Around a third of incel respondents in his study passed the cut-off for a medical referral in the autism spectrum questionnaire. About 80 per cent of such people typically go on to receive an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Rejection sensitivity – a heightened emotional reaction to perceived or actual rejection – is linked to autism spectrum disorders and ADHD. “The one thing we know for sure about any kind of intervention is that the person giving it has got to be seen as credible in the eyes of the person receiving it,” he says.His recommendation: Have a man in a position of authority – such as a teacher or father – approach the issue from a place of empathy, rather than confrontation.Reflecting on the drama Adolescence, NTU’s Mr Mok says it is an accurate portrayal of the psychological aspect of radicalisation, especially for youth.He notes that while the parents depicted in the show are not abusive, they also did not actively steer the character away from radicalisation. “This is again accurate in many situations. Radicalisation towards extreme misogyny does not always occur in a dramatic context. Often, you might have well-meaning but ultimately untrained parents, who simply do not know how to deal with radicalisation,” he says. “That is why educating parents is crucial.”Dr Sparks adds that what the show gets right is that feelings of “not being good enough” and being the subject of bullying are common themes in both inceldom and adolescence.“It shows how vulnerable these individuals can be (incels or not) to harmful ideologies that seek to make sense of what can be a cruel world,” he says. “I think that’s the meaning behind the show title. It reflects one person’s rather extreme experience of the perils and cruelties of adolescence.” Join ST’s Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.