Adolescence: The Show Everyone’s Talking About—What Does It Mean for Schools?

If you’ve caught wind of the Netflix drama Adolescence, you’ll know it’s making waves—so much so that it’s become the first streaming show to top the UK TV ratings. The drama shines a light on the ‘manosphere’, online influencers, and misogyny, sparking big conversations across the country.

For many of us working with young people, this isn’t a shock. Loudmouth have been delivering work around relationships for 30 years using theatre in education programmes and resources to support schools. Our Actor/Facilitators have been noticing a rise in misogynistic comments in schools repeated from social media and our programmes have adapted to find ways to safely address these. A lot of our recent work has been helping schools safely navigate those tricky conversations.

"As a female member of staff, I find teaching and facilitating those discussions difficult...thank you for encouraging pupils to develop understanding of sensitive issues and empathy through theatre." - Teacher, Highgate Wood School

Should Adolescence Be Shown in Schools?

Some have suggested screening the Netflix show in classrooms. It is definitely a powerful piece of drama but it might not be the best fit for every school. The themes and language can be intense for younger aged students and care is needed in how these issues are discussed afterwards.

However, there may be conversations that are happening in your classrooms (or staff rooms) this week. There may be questions or phrases or emojis that you may start to notice that you didn’t before that are used or highlighted in the show.

So, to help you stay in the loop, here’s a quick guide to some key terms that pop up in Adolescence:

• Incel – Short for ‘involuntarily celibate’. It’s based on the idea that women are unfairly rejecting men and can be used to justify anger and even violence towards women. In the show, the 13-year-old main character is taunted with this term.
• Red pill – Inspired by The Matrix, this term is used in the ‘manosphere’ to push the belief that men are the real victims, with ideas that marriage and monogamy only benefit women.
• Blue pill – The opposite of ‘red pill’, used as an insult for men who accept mainstream views on relationships.
• Dynamite emoji – A symbol for a radicalised incel (an ‘exploding red pill’).
• 100 emoji – Used in the manosphere to push the ‘80/20 rule’, which wrongly suggests that 80% of women are only attracted to 20%. Those who believe this may use this if they feel rejected, leading to harmful ideas about coercion and deception.
• Kidney bean emoji – Used in incel communities to self-identify or mock women.
• Frog emoji– Often linked to far-right groups and extremist memes.
• Eagle – Sometimes used to represent extreme nationalism or far-right groups.
• Black hole emoji – A term for depression or a dark mental state.
• Tornado emoji– Can symbolise chaos, distress, or strong emotions.
• Different coloured hearts- In the show, the 13 year old explains the meaning behind the different coloured hearts. "Red means love, purple - horny, yellow - 'I’m interested, are you interested', pink - 'I’m interested but not in sex', orange - 'You’re going to be fine'. It all has a meaning. Everything has a meaning."

The image below shows the emojis mentioned.

"After the session, lots of boys seem to be re-evaluating the opinions they have adopted from social media. The girls felt empowered to voice their opinions." - Teacher, St John Bosco College

How We Can Help

These conversations are happening, in classrooms (and staff rooms) across the country. If you need help in approaching these then we can help. We’ve got programmes that can support schools in tackling these issues safely and constructively:

Helping Hands – A gentle way to start early discussions on equality and gender roles in primary schools.

Calling It Out – A programme tackling toxic masculinity, the impact on girls and women, and the pressure on boys to conform to harmful online narratives.

Our workshops provide space for young men and women to discuss the issues. The drama and workshops do not blame young men for the issues and explore the wider influences. Our Actor / Facilitators use safe and trauma informed approaches to help students to discuss, question, and challenge the views they encounter online.

We also offer teacher training to help them understand these terms and issues and give teachers ideas on how to address them in their own RSHE curriculum.

To find out more contact us on 0121 446 4880 or email enquiry@loudmouth.co.uk